Week 2: Surveys and Logistics

Welcome back, you eager entertainers!

I hope you guys have been well since the last time we saw each other last week! This past week has been much more academically focused, and while I’ve still been going through post-trip blues, I’ve also begun studying for my other time commitment during this month: My 5-week Emt training course. I’m super excited for it, but as business comes first, let’s talk about my work over this past week for the senior project!

The bulk of this week was focused on creating the survey that students will answer. In total, it has 30 true or false/multiple-choice questions and 15 questions meant to assess students’ attitudes towards mental health. To create the 30 knowledge-based questions, I relied heavily on previous data discussing commonly missed points, as well as questions that were either directly or indirectly answered in the presentation. After all, as the presentation is what we are testing, I made sure that all questions had their roots in the slideshow. 

The 15 attitude assessment questions were much more difficult to make. First, I had to decide on questions that covered a broad range of mental health topics while also addressing stigma from multiple angles. I eventually realized that, while it would be impossible to fully assess a student’s attitude towards mental health in 15 questions, I could narrow the categories to those I felt were most important to students in middle school. These include whether students would feel comfortable working with other students with mental health issues, whether they consider other students with mental health issues dangerous, the types of treatment students would feel comfortable receiving, and whether students would feel comfortable being open about their mental health issues. By having a few friends complete the survey, I also realized that the time it takes to complete it is around 5-10 minutes, making it very feasible to complete the survey in one AE period. 

The latter quarter of this week was also focused on logistics. As of right now, random selection has been completed, and parental consent forms have been sent to all participants who were randomly selected to be a part of my study. We’re still waiting for responses, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we will be able to distribute the survey next Friday. One roadblock we did hit, however, was that due to scheduling issues, our school counselor will be unable to help present the slideshow to students on Friday, March 20th, the initial date I had planned. Thus, to work around this issue, we decided to have the presentation on Friday, March 27th, instead, with these next few weeks being dedicated to both working on my paper and analyzing pre-assembly survey data.

Overall, this project has been a ton of fun so far, and I’m really excited to get some data back. A lot hinges on how this week pans out, so let’s keep our fingers crossed, and I’ll see you next time, fabulous figures. See you on the flip side!