Best questions for ex-cult member survey about personal boundaries

Here are some of the best questions for an ex-cult member survey about personal boundaries, along with practical tips for creating them. You can use Specific to effortlessly generate your own survey in seconds and start gathering meaningful insights.

Best open-ended questions for ex-cult member survey about personal boundaries

Open-ended questions let people reflect and share their genuine feelings, which is vital when exploring deep topics like personal boundaries. They’re perfect for surfacing emotional impacts, nuanced stories, and context that would never emerge from just ticking boxes. Thoughtful, open questions can help us understand unique journeys—especially since about 60% of former cult members struggle with reintegration after leaving their groups [1]. Here are ten strong open-ended questions we recommend:

1. How would you describe your current approach to setting personal boundaries since leaving the group?

2. Can you share a specific situation where you found it challenging to enforce your boundaries after leaving?

3. What role did personal boundaries play in your life while inside the group, and how has that changed?

4. Which relationships have been most affected by your views on boundaries since you left?

5. How do feelings of trust or mistrust impact the boundaries you set with others?

6. In what ways have feelings of guilt or shame influenced your ability to assert boundaries?

7. What strategies or tools have you found helpful while rebuilding your sense of boundaries?

8. Are there areas of your life where you still struggle to maintain clear boundaries? Please explain.

9. How do you respond when someone challenges or crosses your personal boundaries now?

10. What support, if any, would be helpful to improve your confidence with boundary-setting?

These questions encourage honest reflection and can highlight the psychological abuse that about 50% of ex-members report experiencing [1], which often includes blurred or violated boundaries.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for ex-cult member survey about personal boundaries

Single-select multiple-choice questions are incredibly useful when you need to quantify responses for comparisons, spot trends, or break the ice. Sometimes it’s also less intimidating for people to pick from set choices rather than write their own stories. This helps you spot patterns fast—and then you can use follow-up questions to dig deeper.

Question: Overall, how confident do you feel about setting personal boundaries with others now?

• Very confident

• Somewhat confident

• Not very confident

• Not at all confident

Question: Which relationship do you find most challenging for maintaining boundaries?

• Family members

• Friends

• Work colleagues

• Other

Question: Since leaving the group, do you feel your ability to protect your boundaries has:

• Improved a lot

• Improved somewhat

• Stayed the same

• Become more difficult

When to followup with "why?" It’s valuable to ask “why?” whenever a respondent selects a choice that could mean different things depending on their context. For instance, if someone says their ability to protect boundaries has “become more difficult,” you’d want to follow up: “Why do you feel your ability to protect your boundaries has become more difficult since leaving the group?” This unlocks the story behind the number, especially since trust issues and emotional struggles are common themes for survivors [2].

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Sometimes respondents’ answers don’t fit your predefined options. “Other” lets them share something you might not have considered. Following up on “Other” can surface perspectives or relationships you may not have anticipated, giving richer, actionable insights.

NPS-style questions for measuring personal boundaries recovery

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is usually used to measure willingness to recommend a service, but it can be adapted for deeply personal topics. For an ex-cult member survey about personal boundaries, an NPS question could measure confidence or satisfaction with progress. This simple, universally understood scale gives you actionable data and is great for tracking recovery or improvement over time. You can build a custom NPS survey for ex-cult members about personal boundaries in one step.

The power of follow-up questions

Automated AI follow-up questions are where conversational surveys really shine. Instead of fixed, bland forms, these surveys dynamically explore what someone just shared—digging deeper for clarity, emotion, and context. This flexible, real-time probing is essential in sensitive contexts, where many survivors are coping with long-term mental health issues including depression, anxiety, and PTSD [3].

• Ex-cult member: “I have trouble trusting people.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share a recent situation where trust was an issue? How did it affect your boundaries?”

How many followups to ask? Usually, 2-3 follow-ups per answer is the sweet spot—enough to go deep, not overwhelm. With Specific, you can set follow-up depth and enable “exit on complete” so it stops once the insights are clear.

This makes it a conversational survey—like a natural chat, not a cold interrogation. People open up more because it feels human.

AI-powered analysis makes it easy to analyze long-form responses. Even with lots of nuanced text, AI sorts feedback instantly so you spot trends without manual effort.

Automated follow-up questions are a new concept. Try generating a survey yourself—you’ll see how practical and revealing this conversational approach can be.

How to prompt GPT to write great questions for this survey

If you want to brainstorm with ChatGPT or another AI, clear prompts will get you fantastic survey questions. Start broad:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for ex-cult member survey about personal boundaries.

But give context about your goals, your audience, and what you want to learn, and results get much stronger. For instance:

I'm creating a survey for ex-cult members on personal boundaries. Many have struggled with trust issues, guilt, and fitting in after leaving their communities. I want to learn more about their challenges and how best to support them. Generate 10 open-ended questions that explore their experiences rebuilding boundaries.

Next, sort questions into categories to make survey-building even easier:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then, drill into whichever themes are most relevant with prompts like:

Generate 10 questions for the category “Trust and Relationships”.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys are interactive, chat-like questionnaires driven by AI—unlike traditional surveys, which are rigid forms. This dynamic approach naturally encourages richer, more honest sharing, especially when dealing with vulnerable topics like those faced by ex-cult members. You ask; your respondent replies; the AI listens and adapts, just as a thoughtful human would.

Why use AI for ex-cult member surveys? For many, boundary setting is linked closely to trauma and sensitive emotional history. Conversational AI surveys, powered by platforms like Specific, provide a gentle and adaptive space—reducing pressure while encouraging authentic reflection. You get deeper, more meaningful responses versus traditional forms. To see how it works, check out our practical guide to creating a survey for ex-cult members about personal boundaries.

AI survey examples created with Specific offer best-in-class conversational UX, helping you gather honest feedback and making both respondent and creator journeys smooth and engaging.

See this personal boundaries survey example now

Take control of your research—create your own personal boundaries survey for ex-cult members in minutes. Get authentic feedback, deeper context, and discover new insights with an AI-driven conversational survey that feels like a natural exchange.