The following is an item in a questionnaire.
Only one of my parents has spent at least 12 years between the ages of 0 and 18 in one or more of the countries in the list below, and he/she has always used English with me at home.
I wondered if some respondents might read the sentence as '(no other members of my family but) only one of my parents has ....'
I would like to include both:
- I meet the criteria. And only one of my parents meet them. and
- I don't meet the criteria. And only one of my parents meet them.
Therefore, I was thinking of putting it, to call the respondents' attention only on their parents here, as:
Between my parents, only one of them has ...
In fact, I designed the questionnaire as the following to see respondents' nativity of the English language:
Which of the following describes your background? (Please click all that apply)
- I have spent at least 12 years between the ages of 0 and 18 in one or more of the countries in the Country List below.
- Only one of my parents has spent at least 12 years between the ages of 0 and 18 in one or more of the countries in the Country List below, and he/she has always used English with me at home.
- Both of my parents have spent at least 12 years between the ages of 0 and 18 in one or more of the countries in the Country List below, and at least one of them has always used English with me at home.
- None of the above
I wondered if a respondent's case was where 'I spent so many years in the countries, and between my parents, only one of them spent so many years in the countries and has always used English with me at home,' he/she might only click (1) but not (1) and (2). (Because he/she thinks (2) means '(no other members of my family but) only one of my parents has ....')