The substance of youth - the place of drugs in young people's lives today

By Perri 6, Ben Jupp, Helen Perry and Kristen Lasky, November 1997

Appendix 2: Synergy research methods

Synergy Consulting analyses people's values and aspirations using a number of standard statistical tools in four stages.

The first stage is choosing which questions to ask. Previous research using focus groups and in-depth interviews has identified those questions which are good indicators of deeply held values, aspirations and attitudes. Synergy also uses questions which have been successfully used in previous quantitative surveys of values, and draws on academic social psychology research in formulating questions.

The second stage involves grouping questions into value indices. Value indices are the sum of the answers to a number of questions. Questions are grouped and correlated by issue and response. An example of correlated answers is that people who strongly agree with the statement "the public needs a consumer watchdog to protect its interests" tend also to agree strongly with the statement "few products tend to live up to the image of the advertisers". These two questions form part of the Consumer scepticism value index.

In total, approximately 200 questions are grouped into 49 value indices. The analysis uses the responses to 5,000 questionnaires which Synergy undertakes annually from a representative sample of 15- to 75-year-olds across Britain.

The third stage is the analysis of the answers given by different population groups, such as young people who have tried illicit drugs and young people in general. This process measures whether or not the responses are statistically significant. The basis of significance calculations is the number of people within a population who score in the top tertial (30 per cent) of a vlaue index. The results therfore indicate relative attachment to values. The methodology and sample sizes are not designed to show absolute levels of attachment to different values. Confidence levels used to indicate significant differences were either 95 per cent or 99.5 per cent depending on the sample size.

The national sample size is 5,000 people, of which 854 are 15- to 24-year-olds. The samples are all representative of the demographic and socio-economic balance found within Britain. Residents from parliamentary constituencies across Britain were interviewed in mid-1996.