Nora Cate Schaeffer

Evaluating Race-of-Interviewer Effects In a National Survey

The present article attempts to overcome some of the problems involved in estimating race-of-interviewer effects in a nonexperimental national survey. Individual items as well as scales were examined, using General Social Survey (GSS) data. Race-of-interviewer effects large enough to justify the practice of matching interviewer and respondent race for interviews on racial topics were found for both black and white respondents. A few such effects were found for nonracial items among blacks, but the range of items involved is smaller than what has been reported in previous studies. The impact of race-of-interviewer effects on mean estimates in the GSS appears to be small for white respondents, due to the small proportion of cross-race interviews. The proportion of cross-race interviews among blacks is larger and more variable over the years, and the impact of race-of-interviewer effects should be considered when analyzing items which show these effects.

An Application of Item Response Theory to the Measurement of Depression

Studies of group differences in a subjective phenomenon are generally concerned with dzfferences in the degree of the trait. To determine differences in degree, however, it is first necessary to determine that the items used to measure the trait in the groups do not differ in kind. In other words, the items must be unbiased. Evaluating differences in kind and in degree requires the ability to scale questions and respondents. Item response theory (IRT) models offer a method for scaling questions and respondents with respect to a subjective phenomenon. These models state that the probability of a correct response depends on the level of the trait the person has and on the characteristics of the item being answered. This paper presents an application of the two-parameter logistic IRT model to the measurement of depression.

Calling for Participation: Requests, Blocking Moves, and Rational (Inter)action in Survey Introductions

We draw on conversation analytic methods and research to explicate the interactional phenomenon of requesting in general and the specific case of requesting participation in survey interviews. Recent work on survey participation gives much attention to leverage-saliency theory but does not explore how the key concepts of this theory are exhibited in the actual unfolding interaction of interviewers and potential respondents. We examine interaction using digitally recorded and transcribed calls to recruit participation in the 2004 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We describe how potential respondents present interactional environments that are relatively discouraging or encouraging, and how, in response, interviewers may be relatively cautious or presumptive in their requesting actions. We consider how interviewers’ ability to tailor their behavior to their interactional environments can affect whether an introduction reaches the point at which a request to participate is made, the form that this request takes, and the sample person’s response. This article contributes to understanding the social action of requesting and specifically how we might use insights from analyses of interaction to increase cooperation with requests to participate in surveys.We draw on conversation analytic methods and research to explicate the interactional phenomenon of requesting in general and the specific case of requesting participation in survey interviews. Recent work on survey participation has given much attention to leverage-saliency theory, but has not engaged how the key concepts of this theory are exhibited in the actual unfolding interaction of interviewers and potential respondents. We do so using digitally recorded and transcribed calls to recruit participation in the 2004 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We describe how potential respondents present interactional environments that are relatively discouraging or encouraging, and how, in response, interviewers may be relatively cautious or presumptive in their requesting actions. We consider how the ability of interviewers to tailor their behavior to their interactional environment can affect whether the introduction reaches the point at which a request to participate is made, the form that this request takes, and the sample persons response. Our analysis contributes to understanding how we might use insights from the analysis of interaction to increase cooperation with requests to participate in surveys.

The Discovery of Grounded Uncertainty: Developing Standardized Questions about Strength of Fertility Motivation

In survey interviews expressions of uncertainty about subjective phenomena result from the interaction between the respondents true answer and the structure of the survey task. The 1st kind of uncertainty state uncertainty is important in conceptualizing the theoretical construct under study. Task uncertainty raises operational issues such as whether to use filter questions and which response alternatives to offer respondents. Analysis of a series of answers to open question concerning feelings about having and not having children reveals that respondents feelings may have low intensity or be unclear and that respondents may be ambivalent or indecisive. Any of these states may lead respondents to express uncertainty. In addition respondents recognize that circumstances shape their feelings and fertility goals and introduce uncertainty into their fertility plans. The authors propose standardized response categories to record spontaneous expressions of uncertainty as well as questions to measure these uncertainty dimensions directly. Data are provided by semistructured interviews with 18 randomly selected Wisconsin adults ages 18-34. (authors)

Calling for Participation

We draw on conversation analytic methods and research to explicate the interactional phenomenon of requesting in general and the specific case of requesting participation in survey interviews. Recent work on survey participation gives much attention to leverage-saliency theory but does not explore how the key concepts of this theory are exhibited in the actual unfolding interaction of interviewers and potential respondents. We examine interaction using digitally recorded and transcribed calls to recruit participation in the 2004 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We describe how potential respondents present interactional environments that are relatively discouraging or encouraging, and how, in response, interviewers may be relatively cautious or presumptive in their requesting actions. We consider how interviewers’ ability to tailor their behavior to their interactional environments can affect whether an introduction reaches the point at which a request to participate is made, the form that this request takes, and the sample person’s response. This article contributes to understanding the social action of requesting and specifically how we might use insights from analyses of interaction to increase cooperation with requests to participate in surveys.We draw on conversation analytic methods and research to explicate the interactional phenomenon of requesting in general and the specific case of requesting participation in survey interviews. Recent work on survey participation has given much attention to leverage-saliency theory, but has not engaged how the key concepts of this theory are exhibited in the actual unfolding interaction of interviewers and potential respondents. We do so using digitally recorded and transcribed calls to recruit participation in the 2004 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We describe how potential respondents present interactional environments that are relatively discouraging or encouraging, and how, in response, interviewers may be relatively cautious or presumptive in their requesting actions. We consider how the ability of interviewers to tailor their behavior to their interactional environment can affect whether the introduction reaches the point at which a request to participate is made, the form that this request takes, and the sample persons response. Our analysis contributes to understanding how we might use insights from the analysis of interaction to increase cooperation with requests to participate in surveys.

Events, instruments, and reporting errors

Social scientists frequently lack methods for assessing the accuracy of survey responses about events and behaviors. And often they do not have a general framework for understanding or systematically analyzing the characteristics of experience, if any, that influence errors in reports about those events. In this validation study, structural features or characteristics of exchanging child support payments are examined to predict errors in reports about those events. The analysis compares court records about child support payments with answers from two telephone surveys that use parallel samples of divorced parents. Results show that indicators for the complexity, clarity, and affective intensity of the events predict reporting errors

The effects of response option order and question order on self-rated health

ObjectivesThis study aims to assess the impact of response option order and question order on the distribution of responses to the self-rated health (SRH) question and the relationship between SRH and other health-related measures.MethodsIn an online panel survey, we implement a 2-by-2 between-subjects factorial experiment, manipulating the following levels of each factor: (1) order of response options (“excellent” to “poor” versus “poor” to “excellent”) and (2) order of SRH item (either preceding or following the administration of domain-specific health items). We use Chi-square difference tests, polychoric correlations, and differences in means and proportions to evaluate the effect of the experimental treatments on SRH responses and the relationship between SRH and other health measures.ResultsMean SRH is higher (better health) and proportion in “fair” or “poor” health lower when response options are ordered from “excellent” to “poor” and SRH is presented first compared to other experimental treatments. Presenting SRH after domain-specific health items increases its correlation with these items, particularly when response options are ordered “excellent” to “poor.” Among participants with the highest level of current health risks, SRH is worse when it is presented last versus first.ConclusionWhile more research on the presentation of SRH is needed across a range of surveys, we suggest that ordering response options from “poor” to “excellent” might reduce positive clustering. Given the question order effects found here, we suggest presenting SRH before domain-specific health items in order to increase inter-survey comparability, as domain-specific health items will vary across surveys.

Public Opinion about a Child Support Assurance System

The state of Wisconsin has begun implementing a new child support assurance system based on three innovations: (1) establishing support obligations equal to a proportion of the obligors gross income; (2) automatically withholding support obligations from earnings; and (3) guaranteeing that eligible children receive no less than a publicly assured minimum benefit. Public support for these provisions was examined using the responses of a representative sample of Wisconsins citizens to a series of vignettes. The results of the survey suggest that the public generally supports the new Wisconsin approach for setting child support obligations, although there is support for reducing the award if the custodial parent either remarries or has substantial earnings. Respondents also evidenced moderate support for automatically withholding obligations from earnings and considerable support for the guaranteed child support payment provision of the reform.

Interviewing Practices, Conversational Practices, and Rapport Responsiveness and Engagement in the Standardized Survey Interview

“Rapport” has been used to refer to a range of positive psychological features of an interaction, including a situated sense of connection or affiliation between interactional partners, comfort, willingness to disclose or share sensitive information, motivation to please, and empathy. Rapport could potentially benefit survey participation and response quality by increasing respondents’ motivation to participate, disclose, or provide accurate information. Rapport could also harm data quality if motivation to ingratiate or affiliate causes respondents to suppress undesirable information. Some previous research suggests that motives elicited when rapport is high conflict with the goals of standardized interviewing. The authors examine rapport as an interactional phenomenon, attending to both the content and structure of talk. Using questions about end-of-life planning in the 2003–2005 wave of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, the authors observe that rapport consists of behaviors that can be characterized as dimensions of responsiveness by interviewers and engagement by respondents. The authors identify and describe types of responsiveness and engagement in selected question-answer sequences and then devise a coding scheme to examine their analytic potential with respect to the criterion of future study participation. The analysis suggests that responsive and engaged behaviors vary with respect to the goals of standardization; some behaviors conflict with these goals, whereas others complement them.

Improving Response Rates in Telephone Interviews

Fewer people are responding to surveys than in the past, which is a problem of urgent importance for social science, government, business and other institutions that depend on this form of data gathering. In this chapter we report a study involving the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), which was begun with a one-third sample of 1957 Wisconsin high school graduates and had follow-up waves in 1965, 1975, 1992 and in 2004. The WLS collects a wide range of economic, familial, health and other information and has been used in many different kinds of studies, most recently about the life course, intergenerational relationships, family functioning, and physical and mental health.2