Maybe it’s because I’ve collected more data than usual over the past year, or maybe it’s because I’ve met with more teachers and school administrators than usual lately–or maybe I’ve just been unusually chatty about my work. For whatever reason, I’ve found myself having a lot of conversations about developmental research in general and my own research in particular—and I’m noticing some trends in the questions and comments I get. So I would hereby like to initiate a new series of short posts on Mayeux Research—the FAQ’s and Common Misconceptions Series! Without further ado….

FAQ #1: When you ask kids to answer questions about negative behaviors (like aggression), aren’t you giving them ideas about bad things they can do—things they never thought of before?

A: No, and here’s why. There’s a multi-level process involved in creating a study like this, and part of the work at each level involves making sure that the study isn’t going to give anybody any ideas. First, using our expert knowledge of child development, we make our questions age-appropriate. We typically don’t ask young children questions about sexual behaviors, for example. Second, all university-sponsored research studies are reviewed by a committee of faculty and other experts on campus (the Institutional Review Board) to screen for potential concerns. Third, we consult with experts in the field (parents, principals) to make sure that our research methods are a good fit for the kids we’re studying. For example, my students and I recently asked 5th- and 7th-graders to tell us about their acts of relational aggression. We gave them a list of behaviors, and they answered questions about the ones they had recently engaged in. The principal of the middle school felt comfortable with all of the behaviors in our survey, but the elementary school principal did not—at her request, we removed two or three items from the list. Her concern? That most of her 5th-graders had not heard of those particular methods of aggressing before, and that some children might be inspired to give them a try. We trusted her judgment, and she in turn felt more comfortable partnering with our lab for the study.

Many researchers conduct focus groups with children or adolescents before they design a study—to make sure that their surveys capture the typical experiences of their participants, and to prevent the inclusion of material that’s inappropriate.

Beyond all that, I’ve learned that I don’t have a whole lot to teach teenagers about bad behaviors.