Methodology on Young people and Financial Matters : By FSA

This research project took a multi-stage approach combining various methodologies to explore different facets of young people’s understanding of financial matters.

1. Quantitative research The main elements of this research were qualitative but to provide some more quantitative measures we asked a sample of young people about their attitudes and experiences of finances.   A number of questions were asked on a BMRB face-to-face omnibus survey in January and February 2003 and a total of 338 interviews amongst a representative sample of young people in GB aged 15-19 were achieved.  Findings from this quantitative study are used throughout this report.

2.  Overview of qualitative methodology 
In order to fully understand the influences, attitudes and behaviours of young people towards money and finance a programme of qualitative research encompassing  ethnographic sessions (see following section), family and individual depth interviews and group discussions was designed. Each of these methodologies helped to reveal different aspects of young people’s relationship with personal finance.  

Objective Methodology 1  To find out what influences their financial behaviour, understanding and knowledge, the extent of that influence and why it influences them ! Ethnographic sessions
!  Family & individual depths

2  To determine whether it is felt schools are providing their pupils with adequate education regarding finance and managing money and any improvements that could be made !  Family & individual depths
! Group discussions
3  To find out what hopes and fears they have regarding their financial future, how they think these can be achieved or addressed and what shapes future expectations 
 ! Ethnographic sessions
!  Family & individual
depths
! Group discussions

A total of 74 young people and 26 mothers and/or fathers were included in the research,
through:
•  10 ethnographic sessions
•  26 family and individual depth interviews (10 of these interviews were conducted with participants from the ethnographic sessions)
•  6 group discussions

A sequential approach was taken to allow different aspects of the research to inform each other. The ethnographic sessions were conducted first, followed by the family and individual depth interviews and finally the group discussions.
The research was undertaken during March and April 2003 across a geographical spread of locations throughout Great Britain.

3. Ethnographic sessions
Ten ethnographic style sessions were conducted with the young people and, for those aged 15-18, their parents – see Appendix 1 for details.  Ethnographic research has its origins in anthropology, but has been introduced to mainstream research relatively recently to introduce cultural context and insights to research that traditional qualitative and quantitative research methods have only a limited scope to provide. It was selected as an ideal tool for understanding the context within which personal finance fitted into the lives of 15-19 year olds. One of the key features of ethnographic research is the shift in the power balance between ‘researcher’ and ‘respondent’ - the research is taken to the respondent rather than the respondent being taken to the research so that the respondent’s world is the true focus of the methodology.  This may involve the researcher going beyond a traditional interview by spending more time with the respondent and accompanying them to typical activities and to the places they would go. It may also involve the respondent undertaking self-completion tasks in their own time, away from the researcher, to express elements of themselves and their ‘world’. Ultimately, the researcher is able to gain a greater exposure to and understanding of the respondent’s world.  Ethnographic style research is an ideal approach to take in instances 

•  where we know little about a target market, 
•  where we want to know a person better – for example what is important to them, what makes them tick, how do they live, what ‘language’/vocabulary they use,
•  and when we don’t know exactly what questions need to be asked – for example what are the priorities, what are the key words to use or avoid.  Another benefit of ethnographic research is that it helps us understand and access attitudes, values or behaviour that people cannot necessarily tell us about, e.g. habitual behaviour or thoughts, cultural assumptions or impulses. People find it hard to articulate answers to specific questions about matters they have not actually considered in depth 10
or at length.  Also, we all take a good deal of our own behaviour for granted and would not consider it worthy of comment.  The overall objective of this research was to understand influences and points of influence on the attitudes to and behaviour around money and finance of young people.  However, it is more than likely that money and finance make up but a small part of young people’s ‘worlds’ – there are likely to be an awful lot of other things going on, many of a greater priority, and greater interest, than money and financial matters.  To properly address the objectives we really  need to know what role money and finance play in these young peoples’ worlds.  For this reason we felt it was important to include ethnographic sessions as part of the overall methodology. 
The ethnographic sessions designed for this research project involved two visits to the respondent’s home and self-completion of a task diary over the course of a week. The purpose of the initial visit was to deliver and explain the task diary and associated equipment (Polaroid camera and camcorder), get to know the young person and, importantly, to develop a rapport.   During the course of the following week the participants undertook a series of open-ended tasks that needed to be completed in different manners, the idea being to tap into means of expression with which each individual was most comfortable and to generate richer insights overall. Some tasks involved answering written questions in a ‘diary’. Some involved talking to a camcorder (in a Big Brother ‘diary room’ style) about specific questions put to them in the task. The third type of task involved taking Polaroid photographs as directed
After a week the researcher returned to the respondent’s home for a second visit to go through the completed tasks to understand these from respondent’s perspective, drawing and building on the rapport previously developed to elicit deeper insights. The last phase of the ethnographic sessions involved a depth interview with the participants; these either took the form of family depths (i.e. individual interviews with the young person and with a parent) where the young person was 15-18 years old, or individual depth interviews where the young person was over 18 years old.Family and Individual Depth Interviews In addition to the depth interviews at the end of the ethnographic sessions a further series of depth interviews was  also conducted with young people and parents in order 11 to understand the detailed and personal processes surrounding financial education,
influences, attitudes and behaviours. As with the final stage of the ethnographic sessions, for the

15-18 year olds these depth interviews took the form of family depths. This involved an interview with the young person and a separate interview with a parent, selected as the main person who helped/ discussed/ advised the young person on financial matters. We knew from previous research that parents are a major source of information and influence over young people’s financial behaviour and thus have relevance to the objectives. The views of the young person and their parent were compared and contrasted and the influences further explored at the analysis stage.
For the 18-19 year olds individual depth interviews were conducted. This age group is in a different lifestage than those under 18 years and tend to be more independent and less influenced by their parents. Most 18-19 year olds have taken a step away from their parents as they have left school and are either embarking on a university career or starting work. As a result, they have started to take charge of their lives to a much greater extent. For this reason, parental interviews were not conducted with this section of the sample.  

4. Group Discussions
The final stage of interviewing comprised six group discussions, each lasting one and a half-hours, conducted with 15-19 year olds Prior to attending the group discussion the young people were asked to complete a pre-group task which consisted of noting in a diary approximately how much money they had spent that day, how they felt about that and what their main monthly expenses were. They were also given a disposable camera and asked to take photographs of items they spent their money on or were saving for.  Within the group discussions the output from these tasks was shared and creative exercises were undertaken to generate further insights into how young people ‘see’ money and financial matters and how these fit into their lives/worlds. The group environment, being dynamic and interactive, enabled the discussion and development of ideas and experiences.