Records of the Study of the Aspirations of Youth in a Developing Society (The Trinidad Study)

Like much of the Caribbean, the island of Trinidad endured tremendous economic, social, and political transformations during the period in which this study was conducted. The years leading up to independence from the British Crown in 1962 saw rapid changes in the areas of race relations, family structure, social value systems, and the economic base of the islands as the plantation-based system was supplanted by rapid modernization. In the Trinidad Study, researchers were most interested in documenting youth perceptions of these changes.

The study was designed to capture these changes through a multi-disciplinary approach that included anthropological, sociological and psychological methodologies, and began as a one-time survey of over 800 upper-level secondary students of all social classes and races from over 30 schools across the island. Assisted by the Ministry of Culture and the Central Statistical Office of Trinidad and Tobago, RISM researchers were given access to schools for a two-part survey of randomly selected students. In the first portion of the survey, students were asked to write an autobiographical essay discussing their plans and desires for the future to the year 2000. In the second portion they were asked to complete a questionnaire in which they addressed inquiries into their ethnic identification, class, age, and sex. Self-identifying answers to these questions were cross-referenced by surveyors against government records in order to verify responses. In addition, the student questionnaire included free association, fill-in-the-blank statements intended to gauge youth opinion on a variety of social issues such as the place of women in public life, the likelihood of greater racial harmony within Trinidad, the future economic conditions of the island, education, and social mobility.

Given post-1957 political developments toward independence, RISM researchers decided to undertake a follow-up survey. The 1961 survey was substantially smaller in scope, including approximately 200 male students from two Catholic schools. Self-reported data such as ethnic identity were not verified by researchers. The survey was conducted by school administrators rather than RISM researchers. The results of both surveys appeared in two books and one article published between 1962 and 1969. These final reports are not part of the collection.

Sources:

Rubin, Vera. "Culture, Politics, and Race Relations." Social and Economic Studies 11:4 (1962).Rubin, Vera, and Marisa Zavalloni. We Wish to Be Looked Upon: A Study of the Aspirations of Youth in a Developing Society. New York: Teachers College Press, 1969.Zavalloni, Marisa. Adolescents' Values in a Changing Society: A Study of Trinidad Youth. The Hague and Paris: Mouton & Co., 1968.