Youth Study on Transitions and Evolving Pathways in Singapore (Youth STEPS)

Synopsis:

This research study is the first national long-term research conducted on youth in Singapore. It is a collaboration between the National Youth Council (NYC) and the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Social Lab at the National University of Singapore.

The study aims to build a holistic understanding of youth in Singapore, including their educational/career pathways and trajectories, life outcomes and the factors that contribute to these desired outcomes. It involves a nationally-representative panel who will be recruited and tracked over six years, from 2017 to 2022. 4,041 young people aged between 17 and 19, and 20 and 24 (in 2017), will be asked about their sense of rootedness, family relationships, societal engagement and economic mobility. The findings aim to help policymakers formulate more relevant youth policies and programmes for Singapore.

Media Reports:

• The Straits Times. 2017. New survey aims to shed light on millennials. 2 September

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How was I chosen for this Study?
2. What do I have to do for this Study?
3. How long will the interview take?
4. Is participation in this Study voluntary?
5. Where will the interview be conducted?
   
6. Will I be paid for participating in this Study?
7. Confidentiality of Information and Protection of Privacy
8. Will my information be passed to other parties?
9. Who is conducting this Study?

1. How was I chosen for this Study?

You have been selected because you had taken part in Youth STEPS Wave 1 and had agreed to be re-contacted for Wave 2. In Wave 1, your address was randomly picked from the database of all residential addresses within Singapore. This sample selection service for household surveys is a resource provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs for research purposes. You are one of 4,041 Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents aged between 17 and 24 years old (in 2017) who were interviewed for the first phase.

You will be excluded from the study if you are mentally impaired or a non-resident of Singapore

2. What do I have to do for this Study?

If you take part in this study, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire on the demographic details of you and your family, educational and work aspirations, civic engagement, and social attitudes. The questionnaire will be conducted in English. 

For Wave 2, the questionnaire will be conducted online and will take around 30 minutes to complete. The questionnaire may be conducted face-to-face under certain conditions on a case-by-case basis, such as physical disability and lack of access to the internet. As you have agreed to be part of this long-term study, we will contact you again about one year later (2019) for the Wave 3 survey, which may be conducted online, face-to-face, or by phone.

3. How long will the interview take?

The duration of the interview will vary from one respondent to the next, depending on the respondent. Typically, an interview will take around 30 minutes to complete.

4. Is participation in this Study voluntary? 

Your participation is entirely voluntary. While there are no direct benefits from participating in this study, your participation will help the researchers better understand the issues faced by young Singaporeans. At the conclusion of the project, we will send you a newsletter describing the major findings and alerting you to any research publications we have generated from the project.

5. Where will the interview be conducted?

For Wave 2, the questionnaire will be conducted online and will take around 30 minutes to complete. The questionnaire may be conducted face-to-face under certain conditions on a case-by-case basis, such as physical disability and lack of access to the internet. During the face-to-face interviewer, you may request for the interviewer to conduct the survey at the location of your choice, e.g. at your home, office, or even a public place.

6. Will I be paid for participating in this Study?

Upon successful completion of the Wave 2 interview, you will be given a S$20 voucher to reimburse you for your time. You will be informed of the reimbursement for the subsequent waves prior to your participation. You will not be reimbursed on a pro-rated basis if you do not complete the survey or withdraw from the research before completing the survey.

In addition to the S$20 reimbursement, if you complete and submit your survey by 25 July 2018, you will also be eligible for a Lucky Draw. Early Bird respondents who complete the survey by 27 June 2018 will triple their chances of winning.

7. Confidentiality of Information and Protection of Privacy

Some of the questions asked may require personal information about you. If you find any question distressing, you may choose not to answer. If you do not wish to continue the survey at any point, for any reason, you may ask to stop for a break or withdraw from the study altogether. Your collected data will be destroyed and discarded if you decide to withdraw from the study.

8. Will my information be passed to other parties?

Information collected for this study will be kept confidential and stored under locked conditions. Your data and responses, to the extent of applicable laws and regulations, will not be made publicly available.

Your personal information, such as name, contact number and address, will be separated from your answers to the questionnaire and coded (i.e., identified with a numerical ID). Your responses to the questionnaire will be linked only to this numerical ID. The data collected from you and other respondents will be aggregated in the computer system for analysis.

Only the Principal Investigator (Dr Leong Chan-Hoong), two Data Administrators, and Study Sponsor (National Youth Council) will have full access to the data with personal identifiers. Other research analysts will only have access to coded data without personal identifiers. The overall research findings (without personal information) will be shared with other government agencies for policy-making purposes. By giving your consent through the online survey link, you agree to the above arrangement and access to your records.

If you agree to participate, the online survey (or interviewer for face-face survey) will ask you for your name and contact number. This is for the purpose of allowing us to clarify any information with you, if necessary. This would also help us to contact you again for future waves of the survey, and any communications and public engagement exercises related to the study. Please be assured that your contact details will be kept strictly confidential.

For respondents who attempt the survey using face-to-face, the interviewer will also ask for your permission to audio-record the entire interview. We will only use this recording for data verification and quality control. You may still proceed with participating in the survey even if you do not agree to the interview being recorded.

Your personal data will be retained for up to 7 years, after which it will be destroyed. All other research data that are used in publication/presentation will be kept for a minimum period of 10 years in accordance to NUS’ Research Data Management Policy.

9. Who is conducting this Study?

The Study is conducted by Social Lab at the Institute of Policy Studies, at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. The Principal Investigator of the Study is Dr Leong Chan-Hoong, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. The Study is commissioned by the National Youth Council.

Enquiries:

For more details, please access the Participant Information Sheet here, or contact IPS Social Lab at tel: 6601-3223, or email:decb64_aXBzLnNvY2xhYi5ueWNAbnVzLmVkdS5zZw==_decb64