Contemporary Challenges in School Recruitment for Criminological Survey Research: Lessons From the International Self-Report Delinquency Study in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States

• Author: Mike Hough,Lauren Herlitz,Renske S. van der Gaag
• Date: 01 November 2019
• Published date: 01 November 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/1043986219870940
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986219870940

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2019, Vol. 35(4) 386 –409

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/1043986219870940

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Article

Contemporary Challenges

in School Recruitment

for Criminological Survey

Research: Lessons From the

International Self-Report

Delinquency Study in England,

Germany, the Netherlands,

and the United States

Renske S. van der Gaag1,2, Lauren Herlitz3,4,

and Mike Hough5

Abstract

Several multiwave cross-national surveys have experienced drops in school

participation for youth health and risk behavior (HRB) surveys in Western European

countries. This article considers explanations for the challenge in recruiting schools

for surveys in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States and the

most important lessons learned during school recruitment for the third wave of

the International Self-Report Delinquency Study in these four countries. Comparing

school response rates for international academic surveys with those focused on HRB,

schools have been increasingly less likely to participate in HRB surveys over the

past two decades. However, considerable variation within and across surveys and

countries suggests there are numerous influences on school recruitment, and there

may be facilitators on which researchers could capitalize. We conclude that when

1Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands

3London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK

4University of East London, UK

5Birkbeck, University of London, UK

Corresponding Author:

Renske S. van der Gaag, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Faculty of Social

Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands.

Email: r.s.vander.gaag@vu.nl

870940CCJXXX10.1177/1043986219870940Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justicevan der Gaag et al.

research-article2019

van der Gaag et al. 387

planning future school-based HRB surveys, researchers should consider multiple

strategies to engage schools from the outset, tailored to regional and national settings.

Keywords

school recruitment, cross-national research, youth health, youth risk behavior, school

response rates

Introduction

Adolescence is a period of extensive physical and social change characterized by

increased risk behaviors and peer pressure, and diminishing parental influence;

choices made during adolescence can affect young people’s health and well-being in

later life (Kleinert, 2007; Viner et al., 2012). Schools are an attractive and cost-effec-

tive setting for conducting research on youth delinquent behavior and other youth risk

behaviors (Claudio & Stingone, 2008; Marshall, 2010). Compulsory schooling up to

age 16 in most countries ensures the presence of young people of nearly all socioeco-

nomic and cultural backgrounds, including groups that are often underrepresented in

research (Bjarnason, 1995; Smit, de Zwart, Spruit, Monshouwer, & van Ameijden,

2002). With high individual response rates common in school surveys (Smit et al.,

2002), this method can achieve representative samples that allow generalization to

the larger school-age population. Moreover, particularly for sensitive research topics,

such as delinquent behavior, sexuality, or drug use, adolescents associate school sur-

veys with more privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality than surveys administered at

home (Gfroerer, 1985; Michaud, Delbos-Piot, & Narring, 1998; Smit et al., 2002).

They also appear to be more effective in eliciting accurate prevalence rates when

seeking self-reported engagement in activities such as illicit drug use (cf. Fendrich &

Johnson, 2001).

School surveys are frequently used in large multiwave cross-national studies on

youth health and risk behavior (HRB), such as the International Self-Report

Delinquency Study (ISRD; Junger-Tas et al., 2012), the Health Behavior in School-

Aged Children study (HBSC; Currie, Nic Gabhainn, & Godeau, 2009), and the

European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD; Hibell et al.,

2012). Starting in the 1980s and 1990s, these studies used school surveys to chart

trends in adolescent behavior and development within and across countries over time,

test the universality of developmental and behavioral theories, and explore the effects

of different policy approaches and social interventions for preventing health problems

and delinquent behaviors (Junger-Tas et al., 2012; Roberts et al., 2009). High-quality

cross-national comparisons require standardized research designs and methods and

high individual and school response rates to ensure reliable and representative data. A

sample unrepresentative of the school-age population could result in biased preva-

lence rates (Micklewright et al., 2012).

As coordinators of the third wave of the ISRD (ISRD-3) in England and the

Netherlands, an international school-based survey on youth delinquent offending