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Research
  1. Queen Mary University of London
  2. Research
  3. Research Strategy
  4. Research Culture at Queen Mary
  5. The CIRCLE Fund
  6. Count Me In: Creative participatory approaches to collecting quantitative data on young people’s health

Count Me In: Creative participatory approaches to collecting quantitative data on young people’s health

Project team

Dr Heather McMullen – Senior Lecturer, Social Science and Medicine (WIPH)
Dr Tessa Roberts – Lecturer, Psychiatry and Mental Health (WIPH)
Prof Jennifer Lau – Youth Resilience (WIPH)
Dr Maria Turri – Senior Lecturer, Psychiatry (WIPH)
Elinor Whittle – PhD in Dramatic arts and Education (Nottingham Trent)
Poppy Green, Nahim Ahmed, Betsy Roberts - Spotlight Creative Youth Service

Project description

How can quantitative research involving young people become more participatory, creative and engaging? Traditional survey methods can feel extractive, boring or irrelevant, particularly for young people who are underrepresented in research and who have had negative experiences with education systems. This project will explore innovative approaches to quantitative data collection using participatory and creative methods that prioritise participation, accessibility and relevance. Working with youth centres and creative youth workers, we will co-develop and pilot new approaches to survey design that can be used at scale. The project spans public health, mental health, epidemiology, social science, the arts, youth work, and evaluation.

How did the team come together?

A conversation in the hallway! Heather and Elinor had been working with local youth organisations and hearing back that conventional research approaches were not fit for purpose due to a lack of creativity and inaccessibility. Heather had a conversation in passing with Tessa, who had also been exploring participatory approaches to collecting quantitative data in schools and had been invited to resubmit a grant proposal about developing new methods for this but had hit some challenges in taking this forward. Heather was also aware of Maria’s work on this topic (focussing on technology) and Jennifer who had done similar studies in youth resilience, and the CIRCLE fund provided a chance to bring this group together to tackle the challenge.

How did you decide on this question/topic?

The topic evolved over the course of conversations within the team, who have been asking different but related questions - Heather and Elinor had been focussing on creativity, while Tessa’s focus was participation. The team considered how these two elements interact to produce engaging methods, leading to larger questions about what it means to do qualitative and quantitative research, and what can be achieved with these methods. As colleagues with different expertise (such as engineers) get involved, the question may evolve further.

What activities will you undertake as part of this project?

A series of four transdisciplinary co-design methodology meetings. Participants will include QMUL staff, drama/ arts researchers, the Centre for Creative Collaboration, the Centre for Public Engagement, People’s Palace Projects, and community partners including Spotlight Creative Youth Service (including young people representatives), Kazzum Arts, London Arts and Health and Tower Hamlets Council. Participants will discuss the challenges in doing this kind of work and potential solutions.

Following these meeting, the group will develop a range of approaches to applying creative, participatory methods to generate quantitative data, ultimately selecting two potential methods to be piloted in schools to assess their feasibility and acceptability.

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