Survey Administration
This was a descriptive study using a one-time, cross-sectional survey. Participants were obtained through permission of the school (Appendix C) and an Informed Consent and Study Refusal form (Appendix D). Two weeks prior to the study date, the researcher dropped off Informed Consent and Study Refusal forms to the school. Each third grade teacher distributed the form to his or her students to share with their parents and guardians. Students who did not return the Informed Consent and Study Refusal form were included in the study. The data were collected on a single day in May 2008.
The paper and pencil questionnaire was administered in the school gymnasium one afternoon following the third graders‟ regularly scheduled lunch period. Students were aligned in the gymnasium according to the study code. For confidentiality reasons, each third grade student was be assigned a code consisting of a number and a letter. The letter represented the third grade class and the number represented the individual student. Thus, the researcher had no “name” recognition on the questionnaires, only a code to match with the gender and BMI information provided by the school.
The questionnaire was administered to 90 of the 92 third grade students. Two students opted not to participate in the study. The researcher read the questionnaire instructions (Appendix E) to the students and answered all of their questions. Then, the researcher asked the participants to turn to page one of their inventories. The students completing the inventories read each question silently to themselves as the researcher read the statement out load. The student then circled “yes” or “no” to reflect how he or she felt about each statement. The participants had as much time as they needed to complete all of the items on the survey. When all of the participants had finished, the researcher collected all of the inventories. The questionnaire administration took approximately 15 minutes.
After the third graders completed the inventories, the researcher received a chart from the school nurse containing each participant‟s code, BMI, and Gender as the school collects this information every year. The researcher had no “name” recognition on the inventories, only a code to match with the information from the school nurse. The only person who had access to the key containing the participants‟ code and name was the school nurse, and this key was shredded after the third graders completed the study questionnaire. However, at no time did the school nurse have access to the results of the participants‟ questionnaires.