How to Write a Divorce Research Survey
Divorce tends to be an emotionally charged topic, for those who have been through divorce, as well as their friends and family. Because of this, conducting a divorce research survey can be a challenging task. The art of conducting an effective divorce research survey starts with writing, because it is impossible to do good research with a bad survey. A good research survey must be sensitive to the emotional issues faced by divorcees and at the same time adhere to the standards of social research.
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Instructions
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State your research objectives clearly in writing. State each objective separately. Write each objective clearly; for example: "The main purpose of this survey is to determine the financial cost of divorce on ...."
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Write a sequence of topics based on the research objectives. Have one topic for each objective. For example, if your objectives are "to determine the cost of divorce" and "to determine the relationship between divorce and antidepressant use," then write the topics "financial cost" and "emotional cost."
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Write a series of multiple choice questions for each section. Use multiple choice format for the questions to which there are clear answers. For example, a question like "How much money did you pay your divorce lawyer?" should be multiple choice, because the answer will be a precise number.
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Write a series of "rating" questions for each section. A "rating" question is one where the respondent is asked to state his subjective experience of something on a scale. Scales include 1 to 5, 1 to 10, and good to poor. The scale format should be used for any question where there is a subjective experience; for example, answers to "How did you feel when your partner said he wanted a divorce?" could be on a scale of "5 - very bad" to "1 - very good."
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Write grouping and ranking questions for sections where they are appropriate. Write ranking questions ("rank these things from best to worst") for questions where you want to know the relative popularity of several things (e.g., divorce law firms). Write grouping questions ("which of the following things do you like and which do you not like") for questions where you want to know the respondent's subjective feelings on several similar items.
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Review all questions to make sure that they are sensitive to the emotional issues faced by divorcees. Eliminate questions that are overly intrusive (e.g., questions about the respondent's sex life). Rewrite crudely worded questions, using more diplomatic and sensitive language. One of the issues with interviewing divorcees is that the subject matter is a highly personal one, and it is not good to lose respondents due to careless questions.
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Write the demographic questions --- ask the respondents their age, sexual orientation, place of origin, ethnicity, religion, and gender. These kinds of questions are needed to analyze survey results.
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Write a statistical breakdown for analyzing survey results. Write a percentage breakdown (i.e., "tabulate --- % of respondents answered this way"), if you do not want to analyze responses against democraphics. Write up a cross tab breakdown (i.e., " tabulate the percentage of female New Yorkers answered this way"), if you want to analyze results against demographics.
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