Dear Middle and Upper School Families,
As Manlius Pebble Hill School strives to understand better the well-being of its students, we are writing to ask your assistance in this effort by granting permission for your child to participate in a survey to help provide MPH with valuable information. The goal of the study is to gather more information about the preoccupations and concerns of children growing up in our community and, accordingly, to learn how best to continue promoting positive development among our students.
Middle and Upper School students will complete separate surveys. The survey questions cover areas such as personal values, empathy and kindness, depression and anxiety, relationships with family and friends, and (for 8th – 12th grade students) substance use. We, Matt and Fred, have closely reviewed the surveys, met with the team from Authentic Connections who designed the surveys, and revised them where necessary.
Each survey is an extension of Dr. Suniya Luthar’s efforts to study and promote positive youth development. Dr. Luthar is currently the Executive Director of Authentic Connections and a professor at Arizona State University. She has previously been a senior professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and also a research scientist at Yale University. Please find more about her research publications, honors, and awards at SuniyaLuthar.org.
The questionnaires that Dr. Luthar has used in her research were developed from several standard measures that ask youth questions about their feelings and behaviors. Honest responses from students are essential in this endeavor. There are therefore important criteria in place to engender honest responses and protect our students’ privacy. As in Dr. Luthar’s past research, all of the information submitted will remain completely anonymous. Your child’s name will not appear anywhere on his or her responses, and questionnaires are all stored according to random ID numbers, specially allotted for this survey. When analyzed, survey data will be presented to MPH administrators only in terms of trends, not individual characteristics.
Students will take the survey online during advisory on the morning of Wednesday, April 21, 2021. To ensure maximum usefulness of the data, we need the maximum participation of students in Grades 6-12. However, your child does not have to participate. If you do not want your child to participate, please fill out the form linked here and return it by email to your child’s Division Head by Tuesday, April 20. Also, please know that if your child begins a survey but decides during the survey that they wish to withdraw from the project, they may do so at any time.
Thank you very much for your support in this endeavor, and for all you do to keep the MPH community healthy and formative.
Sincerely,
Fred and Matt
Fred Montas, Jr.
Head of Upper School
Matt Spear
Head of Middle School
