Résumé: Les enfants comme répondants dans les enquêtes -Développement cognitiv et qualité des réponses. Quoique les enfants ne sont plus une population négligé des statistiques officièlles et des enquêtes, des études méethodologiques sur des enquêtes d'enfants sont rares. Les chercheirs doivent se baser sur les connaisances ad hoc venant des domaines aussi divers que la psychiatrie enfantine et les test d'éducation, ou extrapoler à partir de la connaisance méthodologique associée aux enquêtes auprès d'adultes. Dans cet article, les auteurs passant en revu la littérature scientifique disponible sur les enfants comme répondants, et présentent les résultats préliminaires d'une analyse secondaire de l'influence du développement cognitif sur la qualité des réponses. Enfin, il y a des recommandations concernants les enquêtes des enfants. Enfants, Développement cognitif, Qualité des données, Questionnaires, Entretiens.Abstract. Although children are no longer a neglected minority in official statistics and surveys, methodological knowledge on how to survey children is still scarce. Researchers have to rely mainly on ad-hoc knowledge from such diverse fields as child psychiatry and educational testing, or extrapolate from methodological knowledge on how to survey adults. In this article we review the available literature on children as respondents, and present the first results of a secondary analysis on the influence of cognitive development on response quality. We finish with recommendations for surveying children. Child, Cognitive growth, Data quality, Questionnaires, Interview.

Abstract. Social researchers increasingly survey children and young adolescents. They are convinced that information about perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors of children should be collected from the children themselves. Methodological expertise on surveying children is still scarce, and researchers rely on ad-hoc knowledge from fields such as child psychiatry and educational testing, or on methodological knowledge on surveying adults. Regarding adults, empirical evidence shows that respondent characteristics (cognitive abilities) as well as question characteristics (question difficulty) affect response quality.This study reports on a methodological survey experiment on the effect of negatively formulated questions, the number of response options and offering a neutral midpoint as response option question characteristics on the reliability of the responses, using children and young adolescents as respondents.The study shows no effects of negatively formulated questions on the reliability measures, although children respond consistently differently on negatively formulated questions than on positively formulated questions. Taking all results on the effects of number of response options and offering a neutral midpoints on the different reliability measures into consideration; it would appear that offering about four response options is optimal with children as respondents.

No abstract

Instead of using their parents or caretakers as informants, children are increasingly the principal informants about their own experiences, perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors (Scott, ). As a consequence, it is becoming an important question how well one can ask survey questions of young children and adolescents. Concerning adults, there is a substantial body of empirical evidence that shows effects of both respondent characteristics (especially cognitive abilities) and question characteristics (especially question difficulty) on response quality (e.

The aim of this article is to compare the well-being of Dutch children living in different forms of single-parent families and different forms of two-parent families. We found that living in a mother-headed family caused by divorce has a negative influence on children's Well-being. However, the effects we found were very small compared to the much larger effects of some other control variables, like parental education. Living in single-parent families or step-families caused by death have less negative effects on children than living in single-parent families or step-families caused by divorce. Our results give some support to the weak social position of the mother as an explanation for the negative effect of single parenthood, while the negative effects of living in a mother-headed family caused by death are larger than those of living in a father-headed family caused by death. Living in a single-parent family does not harm the well-being of boys more or less than that of girls living in the same family form. The negative effects of living in a single-mother family are not strengthened by the low educational level of the mother, nor are they neutralized by the high educational level of the mother. The effects we found in this continental European study are substantially smaller than those found in studies in the U.S.A.