Do adolescents understand what we are asking?

Abstract

The transition from school to work or study is considered a stressful time. Especially with regard to the dyadic coping with this stress of adolescents and parents, there are hardly any findings. On one hand, this has to do with the fact that stress and coping, as scientific constructs, are difficult to operationalize. On the other hand, questionnaires for adults cannot be directly transferred to adolescents. Their linguistic abilities and their lived experiences sometimes differ considerably from those of adults. Especially adolescents with poor reading and writing skills, who are often threatened by dropping out, but also many adults are overstrained with the use of complex language as used in questionnaires. Research results derived from this can be problematic if answers are not truly trustworthy due to misunderstanding or attention fatigue. This is particularly serious when intervention instruments are constructed from the results. Particularly, young people with poor reading skills or cognitive difficulties need interventions more frequently and appropriate to their needs in the context of their vocational orientation. In this paper it is assumed that linguistically appropriate instruments can be helpful in surveys. This paper therefore describes an experiment in which a validated coping inventory (SACS Strategic Approach to Coping-Style, Hobfoll 1998) was semantically adapted to the career choice phase. About 300 respondents of career-choice age were asked about their experience and coping styles during this time. Half of the group were randomly presented with a questionnaire containing items in a simplified language. The scales obtained in this way show acceptable test quality criteria for both variants, so that, after further validation, they can be used for adapted surveys.