J.J. Hox

Artifacts in Mail Surveys: the Influence of Dillman’s Total Design Method on the Quality of the Responses

Dillman (1978) has developed a set of procedures, called the Total Design Method (TDM), to improve the quality of mail survey data. Most research on the efficacy of the TDM has been concerned with the response rate. Using the TDM Dillman (1978, p. 27) reports an average response rate of 70 per cent for samples from the general population of the United States. There is some evidence for the cross-cultural usefulness of the TDM. For instance, in The Netherlands, Hox, de Leeuw and Duijx (1984a) report a response rate of 71 per cent for a sample of the general population. Their study shows that, to achieve a response rate as high as this, the TDM has to be followed completely.1