Comparing online and in-person surveys: assessing a measure of resilience with Syrian refugee youth

COVID-19 containment, security, and logistics issues made humanitarian research with Syrian refugees difficult to conduct in-person. This study assessed whether the online implementation of a brief, culturally grounded resilience measure would yield reliable responses for use with children and adolescents in the Middle East region.

An online survey screening for socio-economic status, insecurity, prosocial behaviour, and resilience (using the Child Youth Resilience Measure, CYRM) was implemented with 119 Syrian refugees (14–18 years old; 74 male, 45 female) living in Jordan. Responses were compared with in-person data, available for a separate cohort of 324 Syrian refugees, previously sampled in Jordan with the same survey instruments. The online CYRM produced reliable and valid responses, as shown by analyses of internal reliability, convergent and divergent validity, and 7-day test-retest consistency.

The paper considers logistic, ethical, and methodological challenges of online surveys, and suggests ways to plan and execute online research with hard-to-reach, crisis-affected communities.