Nordic adolescents responding to demanding survey scales in boring contexts: Examining straightlining

Abstract

Introduction: Straightlining, or identical responses across all items within a multiitem scale, is often taken as an indication that responses to all items in a questionnaire are of poor quality. The purpose of this study was to examine straightlining on two scales: The Sense of Unity Scale (SUS) and the short version of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS). Methods: Data stem from the 2017-2018 data collections in four Nordic countries of the Health Behaviour in School-children study (HBSC) (15-year-old students only; 50.9% girls; n = 5928). Data were weighted to adjust for oversampling of Swedishspeaking Finnish students and to equalize sample size across countries. The main analyses were done with general linear modeling with adjustments for cluster effects (school classes). Results: The proportion with straightlining on SUS was 22.8%, varying from 5.8% among Swedish girls to 46.4% among Finnish boys. The proportion with straightlining on SWEMWBS was 18.4%, varying from 5.2% among Norwegian girls to 46.0% among Finnish boys. Straightlining on one of the scales correlated with straightlining on the other one. Straightlining tended to inflate Cronbach's α values and reduce number of factors in factor analyses. Associations between the two scales and external variables tended to be lower among straightlining students. Associations between external variables (other than SUS/SWEMWBS) are on average slightly weaker among straightliners. Straightlining students obtained more favorable scores on several resource-related variables. Conclusion: Although some problems have been identified, straightlining does not serve well as a general indicator of poor data quality.

The development and cross-national validation of the short health literacy for school-aged children (HLSAC-5) instrument

“…Furthermore, the need to shorten the health literacy instrument has emerged from observations in everyday research. Limitations in the concentration and perseverance of children and adolescents, together with the need to answer a questionnaire that measures several different areas at the same time, can cause fatigue and lack of interest in young respondents, thus reducing the reliability of the survey 19 .…”

Comportamentos de risco para a saúde e associação com o autocontrole entre alunos do 9º ano do ensino fundamental no município de São Paulo

“…As pesquisas que exploram a saúde e o bem-estar do adolescente frequentemente envolvem a inclusão de muitas escalas. Quanto mais longo o instrumento, mais difícil de responder e problemas como straightlining (dar as mesmas respostas em todos os itens de uma escala) tendem a surgir (Aarø et al 2022). Essa é uma questão particularmente sensível considerando a variável AC e é razoável supor que um indivíduo com menor AC responderá com menos precisão.…”

“…straightlining (the act of an individual giving the same responses across all items of a scale) tend to arise (Aarø et al, 2022). That is a particularly sensitive issue considering the trait SC, and it is reasonable to assume that an individual with lower SC will respond less accurately.…”