Here are some of the best questions for a Middle School Student survey about parent communication, plus tips on how to create them. If you want to build a parent communication survey for middle schoolers, you can generate one in seconds with Specific. Try it here for a quick start.
Best open-ended questions for middle school student survey about parent communication
Open-ended questions let us go beyond checkboxes and surface honest thoughts, stories, and feelings. When we need authentic feedback—especially about relationships and communication—these types of questions give richer context, insight, and surprises that we often miss with multiple-choice. We use them when depth is more valuable than stats.
Here are 10 tried-and-true open-ended questions for middle school students about parent communication:
How do you usually communicate with your parents about what’s happening at school?
What makes it easy or difficult for you to talk with your parents about your day?
Can you describe a time when talking with your parents helped you with something school-related?
Are there topics about school you find uncomfortable or hard to discuss with your parents? Why?
How do your parents usually react when you share challenges with them?
What would help you feel more comfortable bringing up problems or worries with your parents?
What are things your parents do that make it easier for you to talk to them?
How do you prefer your parents check in about your homework or grades?
What could your parents do differently to support your learning or interests?
Is there anything else you wish your parents understood about communicating with you?
Research shows that the quality of parent-child communication—not just the frequency—has a direct impact on a student’s academic success and self-confidence. In fact, high-quality communication is linked to stronger self-concept and better achievement, while simply talking often doesn’t guarantee the same benefit [1].
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for middle school student survey about parent communication
Multiple-choice (single-select) questions shine when we want to quantify responses or help students start the conversation. Sometimes it’s less intimidating to pick an option than to write an answer from scratch. These questions create easy on-ramps for collecting structured data, and they're great for highlighting trends to guide deeper follow-ups.
Question: How often do you talk with your parents about what’s going on at school?
Every day
A few times a week
Once a week
Rarely
Never
Question: When you talk to your parents about school, how do you usually feel?
Comfortable and understood
Nervous or uncomfortable
Indifferent
Supported but sometimes misunderstood
Other
Question: What is your preferred way for your parents to communicate with you about homework?
Face-to-face talk
Text messages
Notes or emails
I don’t want reminders
Other
When to follow up with "why?" If a student chooses "Nervous or uncomfortable" when describing how they feel talking to their parents, a follow-up like "Can you tell us why? What would help you feel less nervous?" lets us understand the underlying reasons—maybe past experiences, misunderstandings, or specific topics that cause stress.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Sometimes students' preferred way to communicate or their feelings don't fit neatly into our preset options. Including "Other" lets them share something new—and connecting a follow-up question here uncovers insights we would have missed (for example: "If you chose 'Other,' please describe further.").
Remember, studies link improved parent–child communication to increased student engagement and even a 25% higher chance of high school graduation.[2][3] Collecting structured and unstructured data helps schools and families focus on what works best.
NPS-style survey question for parent communication
Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for products—it’s a powerful lens for understanding relationships. For a middle school student survey on parent communication, you can ask:
How likely are you to ask your parents for help or advice about something important on a scale from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely)?
This format quantifies trust and approachability, benchmarking the parent-student relationship. NPS questions make sense here because they quickly highlight students who feel totally supported (9–10), those who feel neutral (7–8), and students who might feel isolated (0–6)—with tailored follow-ups revealing why. Try building this type of survey with a prompt in Specific’s NPS survey builder: NPS survey example for middle schoolers.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are where conversational surveys really come alive. Instead of surface-level or ambiguous replies, smart follow-ups get the full context, gently probing until we understand the student’s true experience. We designed Specific’s AI follow-ups to work like an experienced interviewer—asking for examples, reasons, or clarification, right when needed.
Middle school student: "I don't really talk to my parents about school."
AI follow-up: "Can you share a reason you don’t feel like talking about school with your parents? Is there something they could do to make these talks easier?"
See how much richer that context becomes?
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2–3 targeted follow-ups are plenty for each question. It's best to enable an option to skip to the next question once the needed info is collected. Specific lets you customize follow-up depth so surveys remain concise but insightful.
This makes it a conversational survey. The natural back-and-forth helps students open up—resulting in surveys that feel like genuine conversations, not long forms.
AI survey response analysis is easier than ever—even for free-text and "Other" responses. With Specific, all replies, open text, and follow-ups can be summarized and interpreted using AI. See more on how to analyze responses from middle school student surveys with AI—it’s much faster and more accurate than manual coding.
Automated, smart follow-ups are new—try generating your own survey with Specific to experience how much this boosts clarity and saves you time (no extra emailing required).
Prompting ChatGPT to create great survey questions
If you prefer to use ChatGPT (or another AI) to brainstorm survey questions for middle schoolers about parent communication, it’s all about how you ask. Try starting with this:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Middle School Student survey about Parent Communication.
If you add more context about your role, your student's needs, or what outcomes you're hoping for, the AI will generate much better and more specific questions. Try:
I’m a school counselor creating a survey for 6th–8th graders to understand how parent communication affects their learning and well-being. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to uncover both positive and negative experiences, as well as ideas for improvement.
To organize your list, follow up with:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Let’s say you see categories like "Emotional Support," "Topics Discussed," or "Barriers to Talking." Pick what matters most and go deeper:
Generate 10 questions focused on Barriers to Talking Between Parents and Students.
With prompt engineering, your question sets quickly become both targeted and creative.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is a mini-interview: respondents answer one question at a time, the AI responds naturally with follow-ups, and the experience feels like chat—not a static form. It builds trust, attracts more detailed responses, and reduces survey fatigue—especially for middle school students who crave authenticity.
Here’s how AI survey generation differs from the old-school way:
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
|---|---|
Static forms—hard to personalize, easy to skip questions | Conversational, dynamic—AI adapts, probes, and clarifies in real time |
Survey creation is slow and tedious | Instant survey generation from a simple prompt (see this AI survey generator example) |
Manual follow-up required for unclear answers | AI handles probing, saving hours for teachers and researchers |
Manual data analysis for open text | AI summarizes and groups text answers automatically, making trends clear |
Why use AI for middle school student surveys? AI survey tools like Specific let you design, launch, and analyze conversational surveys that students actually want to complete. You get richer feedback, deeper context, and save heaps of time.
Need a quick guide? Our article on how to create a survey for middle school students is a solid walkthrough if you want hands-on tips.
If you want the best-in-class conversational survey user experience, Specific is built for both creators and respondents—engagement is up, confusion is down, and insights flow much more easily.
See this parent communication survey example now
Start a better feedback loop for middle schoolers and their families—see how a conversational AI survey can unlock honest insights about parent communication, all in just a few clicks with Specific.