YITS | Longitudinal Survey | PEI Survey

Youth in Transition Survey

The Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) is a Canadian longitudinal survey designed to examine the patterns of, and influences on, major transitions in young people's lives, particularly with respect to education, training and work. YITS provides the exact information we want for our research on access to Post-secondary education (PSE) and persistence in PSE. YITS has two target populations: a cohort of individuals who were 15 years old on December 31, 1999 (Cohort A) and a cohort of students who were 18 to 20 years old on December 31, 1999 (Cohort B).

Cohort A was selected as the most appropriate for the adolescent cohort. At age 15, many youth are in high school, developing their educational aspirations. For this cohort, YITS concentrates on in-depth information of the experience of youth within the secondary schooling system. Moreover, cycle 1 for the cohort aged 15 includes questionnaires for both parents and school administrators of participating youth, providing detailed information of the effects of family background on the formation of education aspirations and the effects of schools on education outcomes. The 15 year-old cohort also participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an internationally recognized test to evaluate the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science.

Cohort B was selected to permit gathering of information on early post-secondary experiences with limited chance of recall bias. Most youth enter their final year of secondary school at age 17 and by age 18 are making a transition to either post-secondary education or the labour-market. For the cohort aged 18-20, YITS focuses more on youth's experience in Post-Secondary Education than in Secondary Education, which therefore provides information of our immediate concern, such as accessibility of post-secondary education and post-secondary retention, etc.

The YITS has gone through 4 cycles. The first interview was conducted in April 2000 when information was collected for the year 1999 and more retrospectively for earlier years. A second interview was conducted in 2002 and captured activities during 2000 and 2001, the third interview was held in 2004 and picked up activities during 2002 and 2003, and the last interview in 2006 collected information on students' activities during 2004 and 2005.