*4.1. Survey Construction and Distribution*

The online survey consisting of 15 separate questions was prepared to find out parents' opinions on the quality of state kindergartens operating in Vilnius (capital of Lithuania). VAS Matrix was placed as the sixth question, where respondents were asked to indicate how important the analyzed criteria are for the search of the most suitable kindergarten for their children. Thirteen criteria adapted from the research of Malovi´c [58] were presented in the VAS matrix. Continuous bipolar VAS scales with the single tick mark at the center of the scales were used. The anchors were named as *"Extremely important"* and *"Absolutely unimportant"* (Figure 1). All the texts were provided in Lithuanian, which is the national language of most of the respondents. The target audience was reached through the parents' groups already existing in the social networks. The survey took place just before the start of the new

school year (at the end of August 2019). Since the survey had to be completed online, respondents were free to choose at what time of day to conduct the survey.

A total of 133 individuals completed the online survey. The results of three respondents were excluded from further study because they did not move any of the sliders in the VAS matrix. The demographic profile of all the rest of the respondents is presented in Table 2.


**Table 2.** Demographic profile of the respondents.
