“How I Feel About My School” (HIFAMS) questionnaire
What is HIFAMS?
The HIFAMS questionnaire has been designed to measure the happiness and subjective well-being of children in school. The questionnaire is composed of seven questions which asks children how they feel about school life. The questionnaire is a copyrighted document that may not be modified in any way. However we are happy to provide it free of charge to schools, researchers and practitioners, on the condition that the schools or children who are completing it are not incurring any charge through its completion and that the wording of the questionnaire is not altered in any way.
How to score HIFAMS
The HIFAMS questionnaire consists of 7 questions which are scored using a three-point likert “face” scale.
This face scale consists of three emoticons:
Happy (Yellow smiley face) Sentiment: Positive Value: 2
OK (Green face with straight mouth) Sentiment: Neutral value: 1
Sad (Blue sad face) Sentiment: Negative Value: 0
The questionnaire will be scored by adding up all the values from each question.
In a sample of 254 children aged four to eight years old from Devon, HIFAMS scores ranged from 0-14, with a median of 11 and an interquartile range of 10-13. There was little difference in scoring between boys and girls or between the scoring of children from the three schools who worked with us. We are currently gathering a larger sample from 80 schools to develop a reference population and the results of these will be made available in due course.
You can download the HIFAMS excel scoring sheet which will score the HIFAMS questionnaire for you. As we are building a large reference population we would be very grateful if you could send us your anonymised data and a little information about your context such as the type of school or clinic that you work in.
Delivering HIFAMS
The HIFAMS questionnaire has been designed for use with children aged between 4 and 11 years old. For use in different Key Stage classes, please see completion of the HIFAMS measure below.
When delivering the HIFAMS we have developed a script to use in the explanation and delivery of the questionnaire, available below.
Provisional Script to explain HIFAMS
Please note: We do not intend this script to be read verbatim. There is room to change the exact wording if necessary. The structure should remain the same though, and the finalised examples of happy/neutral/sad responses should not be changed between classes.
"Today, we’d like you to help us with a special project. We’re going to ask you some questions about school and how school makes you feel. The answers you give us will be used to help other children like you.
“There are no right or wrong answers; we just want to know how you feel. It is very important you answer the questions on your own, your friends might have completely different ideas to you, but we really want to hear what you yourself have to say.
“To answer the questions you need to circle the face you think shows how you feel. If you feel happy, circle the happy face; if you’re unhappy, circle the sad face; if you’re neither happy nor unhappy, circle the OK face. Let’s do some practices now:
“How does going to a party make you feel?
“How does falling over in the playground make you feel?
[Use other examples as needed]
“Everyone understand? If your answers make us worried about you, we might have to talk to someone who can help us to help you.”
Show copy of the questionnaire.
Completion of the HIFAMS measure
Run through introduction to HIFAMS script (above) and do examples
Key Stage 1
In a Key Stage 1 class HIFAMS should be completed with children on a one to one basis. Ensure you run through plenty of examples with the children first to ensure they fully understand the usage of the faces.
Key Stage 2
In a Key Stage 2 class HIFAMS can be completed as a class activity; however this should be left to your discretion dependant on the comprehension and ability of the children.
Once you have run through the introduction, give each child a questionnaire to complete and make yourself available to assist any children who appear to be struggling with the questionnaire.
Once all of the questionnaires are completed, please check that the children have completed the questionnaire correctly, circling only one face per question.
HIFAMS versions
Below are the versions of HIFAMS that are currently available:
- English (UK) HIFAMS
- Italian HIFAMS
- Persian HIFAMS
- Spanish HIFAMS
- Swedish HIFAMS
- Swedish HIFAMS preschool
- Chinese HIFAMS (for children aged 6-13 years), including script and emoticons
Contact us
For any queries, please email us.
