The Ministry of Youth Development wished to obtain insight into the issues of interest and concern – affectively salience, to young people in the 12-24 year age range. An important requirement was that the issues were to originate from youth themselves rather than represent responses to issues pre selected for them to grade. Given that the enquiry was framed within a population survey the issues were to be elicited at a top-of-mind level, rather after consideration and reflection.
The Ministry judged that four vantage points would be useful in eliciting the issues. These were:
- What young people felt was most important to them in their lives, right now.
- Whether anything caused them to worry or be anxious.
- What they felt was the big issue for young people in New Zealand at present.
- The one thing they would do if they were Prime Minister, to make living in New Zealand better than it is now.
It is in the nature of issue research that such questions will intersect and complement each other, as well as each adding to the overall perspective. This was seen as an acceptable and constructive characteristic in the light of the essentially qualitative analysis that is produced