Suchergebnisse

There is very little qualitative research on parental support around transition to university in the UK. The objective of this study was to explore how parents who have not been to university support their children in making decisions about, and transitions to, university. Thirty in-depth interviews were conducted with parents and students (aged 16-18 years) from three schools, who would be the first in their family to go to university (FIFU). Parents and young people reported discussing whether they would go to university, what to study and where to go over a long period of time, as part of everyday activities. The emotional impact of children leaving home to go to university influenced how parents felt about their child's decisions to go, along with being unable to envisage what being at university would be like for their children. Parents often found online information confusing and not relevant to their child. They reported receiving little information from schools. Parents lacked basic information and sought answers from friends and colleagues with any experience of higher education. Parents most wanted personalised information, signposting to online resources and a timetable of what they needed to do to support their children's applications to university. The results are framed in terms of the cultural capital available to these parents and young people.

BackgroundThis study reports the experiences of developing and pre‐testing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) for self‐report by people with intellectual disabilities.MethodsThe study has combined survey development and pre‐testing methods with approaches to create accessible information for people with intellectual disabilities. A working group assisted researchers in identifying appropriate question formats, pictures and wording. Focus groups and cognitive interviews were conducted to test various iterations of the instrument.ResultsSubstantial changes were made to the questionnaire, which included changes to illustrations, the wording of question stems and response options.ConclusionsThe process demonstrated the benefits of involving people with intellectual disabilities in the design and testing of data collection instruments. Adequately adapted questionnaires can be useful tools to collect information from people with intellectual disabilities in survey research; however, its limitations must be recognized.