We have been reviewing the pilot data this month, which as been really interesting.
We have been able to come to a conclusion about the list experiment technique we will use in the main survey. This section of the questionnaire collects participants’ opinions about FGM/C for their daughters and daughters-in-law, directly and indirectly. We trialed a new method in the pilot study, which didn’t work as anticipated, therefore we will stick to the method used in previous studies. The pilot study was performed in an area close to the main highway where most people would have been exposed to anti-FGM/C campaigns, yet even in this area when asked directly a proportion of respondents said they would like their daughter/daughter-in-law to have FGC, and the figures indicate that their hidden support was higher. This is in line with previous studies (Gibson et al, 2018) , but is higher than anticipated in this area.
The results of the social network section of the questionnaire were very encouraging. We tested 8 different name generator questions in the pilot, and it was clear that the participants had understood the questions and answered them fully and freely. The network structures for advice, chatting, money lending and respect showed some different patterns. A range of people were named in response to each of the different questions (indicating that people were considering the specifics of each question and not just naming the same people repeatedly) and a sufficient number of people were named in response to each question which shows that the questions had been understood and administered correctly.
The rest of the pilot data also provided encouraging results about some new questions we had trialed, and based on all of the pilot data results we have been able to refine the questionnaire for the main fieldwork. This has involved cutting down the questionnaire length in order to achieve our sample size target within time and budget constraints.
Although the data entry process for the pilot turned out to be quite arduous, the process of setting up the data entry template and so on will have paved the way for a smoother data entry process for the main survey.