Assessment of Cigarette Smoking and Smoking Susceptibility among Youth: Telephone Computer-Assisted Self-Interviews versus Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews

This experimental study assesses the effect of two survey methods,telephone audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (T-ACASI)and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), on self-reportsof smoking behavior and smoking susceptibility among adolescents12–17 years of age in California. In T-ACASI, participantslisten to prerecorded, computer-controlled questions and respondby pressing the keypad on a touch-tone telephone. In CATI, interviewersadminister the questions and enter responses into a computer.Prior research suggests that youth may be more likely to reportsensitive behaviors in a self-administered survey like T-ACASIcompared to an interviewer-administered survey like CATI, dueto greater perceived confidentiality. Logistic regression analyseswere conducted on unweighted data, controlling for demographicdifferences. Adjusted estimates of current smoking (past 30days) were significantly greater in T-ACASI (8.3 percent) thanCATI (4.5 percent). Smoking susceptibility (i.e., lack of afirm commitment not to smoke among those who have never smoked)was also greater in T-ACASI (45.0 percent) than CATI (34.9 percent).In both surveys, social desirability response bias was negativelyassociated with smoking, which suggests that response bias wasproblematic for both modes. Many respondents reported that aparent was present during the interview (59.4 percent in CATI;42.0 percent in T-ACASI). In both surveys, parental presencewas negatively associated with smoking, which suggests thatthis factor could also contribute to underreporting. Applicationof sample weights to the data eliminated the survey mode effects;however, the CATI current smoking estimate (9.3 percent) fromthis study was significantly less than an estimate (14.2 percent)obtained from a self-administered, school-based survey conductedthe same year on California adolescents.     

COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH: THE CASE OF THE U.S. TELEPHONE INDUSTRY

The article focuses on the relation of competition to changes in productivity. Specifically, it compares the experience of AT&T Long Lines, operating in an increasingly competitive market, with that of eight local telephone monopolies. Both the estimation of total factor productivity growth and the analysis of shifts in cost functions show a markedly faster change in efficiency in the effectively competitive market than for the local monopolies. The article also examines three channels through which competition produces differential changes in efficiency. The results support, by implication, a policy of permitting entry and increasing competition in local telephone markets. ( JEL L11, L96)     

The impact of touch‐tone data entry on reports of HIV and STD risk behaviors in telephone interviews

Respondents’ concerns about privacy can decrease reporting of HIV and STD risk behaviors in general population telephone surveys. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of an experimental study evaluating whether one method for increasing privacy, touch‐tone data entry (TTDE), is effective in increasing estimates of sexual behaviors from a population‐based survey. We conducted a random‐digit‐dial telephone survey of adults in New Jersey (n = 405), with half the respondents using TTDE for answering sexual behavior questions. TTDE led to increased reports of same‐sex sexual behavior, certain HIV and STD risk factors, and concern about one's risk for HIV and STD transmission. TTDE also narrowed the difference between men's and women's reports of the number of different sexual partners over the past 10 years. The feasibility and limitations of TTDE are discussed, along with possible alternative interpretations that consider the impact of TTDE on the dynamics of the interaction between the respondent and the interviewer.     

The restructuring and reengineering of AT&T: Analysis of a public relations crisis using organizational theory

In this study, five perspectives from organizational theory were used to interpret the public relations crisis surrounding the restructuring and downsizing of AT&T in 1995–1996. Organizational legitimacy and resource dependence theories highlighted two key reasons why efforts to manage the crisis were unsuccessful: AT&T's failure to construct a shared system of beliefs that made sense of the need to downsize, and its inability to cope with the conflicting demands of key external publics. Such insights underscored the value of using organizational theory when trying to understand and respond to crisis situations.     

Follow the money: using payment behaviour as predictor for future self-exclusion

Behavioural tracking is an increasingly discussed method of early detection of potential gambling-related problems. Recent research has focused predominantly on information derived from gambling transactions and communication logs. Even though payment behaviour establishes a direct link to the financial consequences of gambling, it had thus far not become subject to this field of research. This article uses transactional data generated by 2696 customers from the online gambling label bwin.com to investigate how far specific payment behaviours and specific payment methods enable a prospective differentiation between self-excluders and controls. The number and amount of deposits, the variance of withdrawals, the amount of funds subject to reversed withdrawals and the usage of mobile phone billing were found to be positively associated with self-exclusion; the number of active gambling months and the usage of electronic wallets and prepaid cards negatively. Customer age displayed a U-shaped relation, with customers of below and above average being stronger associated with self-exclusion. However, it must be noted that the validity of the resulting predictive model derived from payment data is lower than comparable models derived from gambling data. The results are discussed in the light of implementing early-detection and intervention algorithms based on customer behaviour.     

The American Trade Dollar

The changes in technology that have affected mail delivery are a dynamic way to encourage students to think critically and make meaningful connections across historical eras. In the classroom, personal communication through the mail can become the “thematic glue” used across historical units to highlight the changes in everyday life caused by technological innovation. The post office initiated changes in streetlighting and crosswalks, stimulated the development of rural roads and highways, and provided passenger services on railways. Classroom teachers can use the activities and discussion questions to introduce students to this entity and its influence on our history.     

The impact of touch-tone data entry on reports of HIV and STD risk behaviors in telephone interviews

Respondents concerns about privacy can decrease reporting of HIV and STD risk behaviors in general population telephone surveys. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of an experimental study evaluating whether one method for increasing privacy, touch-tone data entry (TTDE), is effective in increasing estimates of sexual behaviors from a population-based survey. We conducted a random-digit-dial telephone survey of adults in New Jersey (n = 405), with half the respondents using TTDE for answering sexual behavior questions. TTDE led to increased reports of same-sex sexual behavior, certain HIV and STD risk factors, and concern about one s risk for HIV and STD transmission. TTDE also narrowed the difference between men s and women s reports of the number of different sexual partners over the past 10 years. The feasibility and limitations of TTDE are discussed, as well as possible alternative interpretations that consider the impact of TTDE on the dynamics of the interaction between the respondent and the interviewer.     

Insights from senior communicators: Navigating obstacles,leveraging opportunities,and leading teams to capitalize on data and analytics

While data, digital analytics, and technology have the possibility of further elevating public relations to a strategic function, many communicators cite barriers, including that many on their teams lack digital data and analytics competency. Researchers interviewed 28 senior-level communicators who have experience working with digital data and analytics. The study sought to examine how communicators are adapting to and leading teams in this data revolution by exploring two primary research questions: (1) What are the perceived opportunities and challenges with digital data and analytics? and (2) How can communicators create an environment to encourage discovery and innovation connected to digital data and analytics? Participants described the challenges of managing vast data streams and alignment, staying current with digital trends and technology, and dealing with the shortcoming of AI tools and algorithms. When asked about opportunities, participants described how communicators are uniquely positioned to align data and analytics efforts to help them understand audiences, foster mutually beneficial relationships with publics, and share stories with these publics and senior counsel that contribute to organizational objectives. Participants said they develop data competency among their communication teams by fostering a creative and curious culture, creating diverse teams, and championing employees. In summary, this study expands understanding of how communicators can evolve and lead in an increasingly data-driven world.     

Neighborhoods in the Network Society the e-Neighbors study

This study examines whether the Internet is increasingly a part of everyday neighborhood interactions, and in what specific contexts Internet use affords the formation of local social ties. Studies of Internet and community have found that information and communication technologies provide new opportunities for social interaction, but that they may also increase privatism by isolating people in their homes. This paper argues that while the Internet may encourage communication across great distances, it may also facilitate interactions near the home. Unlike traditional community networking studies, which focus on bridging the digital divide, this study focuses on bridging the divide between the electronic and parochial realms. Detailed, longitudinal social network surveys were completed with the residents of four contrasting neighborhoods over a period of three years. Three of the four neighborhoods were provided with a neighborhood email discussion list and a neighborhood website. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to model over time the number of strong and weak ties, emailed, met in-person, and talked to on the telephone. The neighborhood email lists were also analyzed for content. The results suggest that with experience using the Internet, the size of local social networks and email communication with local networks increases. The addition of a neighborhood email list further increases the number of weak neighborhood ties, but does not increase communication multiplexity. However, neighborhood effects reduce the influence of everyday Internet use, as well as the experimental intervention, in communities that lack the context to support local tie formation.     

The Cost-Effectiveness of Alternative Advance Mailings in a Telephone Survey

Advance letters are being used increasingly to combat the declinein response rates, but their effectiveness depends partly ontheir being read. In the face of the post-9/11 anthrax mailingscare, the Office for Survey Research (OSR) converted to usingadvance postcards rather than advance letters. Subsequently,the OSR conducted an experiment to test the effectiveness ofsending letters, postcards, or nothing to directory-listed numbersselected in a large random digit dial (RDD) telephone survey.In terms of response rates, the results clearly indicate thatsending advance letters is more effective than sending postcards,which, in turn, is more effective than sending nothing. A detailedcost-effectiveness evaluation indicates that sending lettersactually saves money, despite the increased costs associatedwith the mailings, compared to sending postcards; sending postcardsis also more cost-effective than not sending anything.     

Touch in residential child care: staff’s bodies and children’s agency

This paper concerns the significance of touch in the everyday life of those living and working in residential child care. Public and professional awareness about child abuse has focused attention on the bodies of children and their vulnerability – but the same cannot be said of the bodies of staff members who touch children. This ethnographic study of a Scottish residential child care unit shows such touch to be central to the everyday participation of children and young people in care. On the basis of participant observation, the paper analyses how care workers influence the agency of children and young people by bringing their own bodies into their relationships with them. Based on a relational understanding of care, the paper elaborates on how tender and restraining forms of touch form part of care workers’ professional repertoire of actions. The analysis of various instances of touch in terms of sociology of the body shows how staff members can help to shape children and young people’s opportunities for participation with their own bodies. In conclusion, the paper therefore argues for a professional and reflexive engagement with bodies rather than a general avoidance of touch between care workers and young people.     

Gender and the residential telephone, 1890–1940: Technologies of sociability

Recent work on gender and technology debunks the claim that household technologies have liberated women from domestic work. The history of telephone use in North America suggests, however, that global conclusions about gender and consumer technologies may be misleading. Although marketed primarily as a business instrument and secondarily as an instrument to facilitate housework, the telephone was, in a sense, appropriated by women for social and personal ends. This paper explores the affinity of women for the telephone, how women in the half-century before World War II used the telephone, and why. It suggests that there is a class of technologies that women have exploited for their own, gender-linked, social and personal ends.     

Monitoring youth behavior in response to structural changes. Alternative approaches for measuring adolescent drinking

Random digit dial (RDD) telephone and self-administered school-based surveys of drinking and drinking and driving were compared for adolescents from two Northern California communities. The RDD and school-based surveys resulted in very different samples. The telephone sample contained a greater proportion of European Americans and a smaller proportion of Asian Americans and "other" ethnicities. Respondents to the telephone sample also tended to be older and of higher socioeconomic status (SES). The telephone survey captured very few school dropouts. Moreover, it resulted in lower self-reports of drinking and drinking and driving. Survey mode appeared to influence respondents equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnicity, or SES.     

INTERFACING FEMINISM AND CULTURAL STUDIES IN HONG KONG: A CASE OF EVERYDAY LIFE POLITICS

Cultural studies, as a cultural and political re-articulation of common sense, knowledge and community practices, aims at opening up new cultural space for criticisms, reflections and action. Originating from the women' movement and later flourishing in the academy as well, feminism espouses similar aims to cultural studies. Both cultural studies and feminist/gender studies have a strong sense of intervening into everyday life politics. This paper is an attempt to discuss how feminism and cultural studies interface with each other, largely based on examples of gender-related everyday life politics taken from the feminist movement in Hong Kong. It will examine issues concerning the conflict of consumption and female subjectivities, the reconceptualization of home and housewives, and the representation of everyday life for women and history writing. It is argued that by blurring, negotiating or deconstructing the boundary or division between positions, identities and domains–such as subject and object, housewives and workers, private and public, personal and political, consumption and production–the re-articulation of knowledge about ‘victim’, ‘exploitation’, ‘home’ and ‘history’ in the feminist movement will not only provide the movement with new impetus and insight to reconsider its strategies in fighting for more cultural, social and economic space for women and other marginal groups at large in Hong Kong, but will also ‘metabolize’ the newly developed discipline of cultural studies in Hong Kong by providing a platform to strengthen the dynamic arm of cultural studies education and research. Based on her feminist and teaching experiences in Hong Kong, the author has highlighted activism and pedagogy as the two important dimensions of feminism and cultural studies in this paper.     

An Ethnography of an AIDS Hospice: Toward a Theory of Organizational Pastiche

This article describes everyday life at a hospice that provides terminal, residential care to persons with AIDS. Data were gathered over 12 months of participant observation and a series of formal interviews. The hospice is a nonprofit organization that receives most of its financial support from local community churches and agencies. The philosophy of the hospice is common to its genre—that is, care for dying patients should be holistic, personal, and palliative. The hospice staff largely adheres to this philosophy yet also organizes its everyday activities to meet the practical needs of everyone involved. Some of the more interesting staff practices include the use of touch for healing and communicating, and stress management techniques. The essence of everyday life in the hospice, though, is the relationship between the staff member and the resident. The study identifies three types of relationships—caring, pastoral, and intimate. The conclusion focuses on the value of integrating traditional interactionist ethnography and postmodernist social theory for conducting qualitative research on emerging health care phenomena like the AIDS hospice. The concept of organizational pastiche is offered to interpret the distinctive ways health care organizations specializing in HIV/AIDS care must adapt to the unprecedented cultural and biological features of the epidemic.     

Relational Listening II: Form & Variation across Social and Personal Relationships

This research examines, and provides theoretical extension regarding, those processes that characterize the construct of relational listening. First, a rationale for the continued examination of listening as everyday relational activity is provided. Second, data generated among relational partners representing (a) acquaintance, (b) friend, (c) good friend, (d) best friend, (e) romantic friend, and (f) relative relationships are analyzed in light of a grounded theoretical model of relational listening (Halone & Pecchioni, in press). Finally, implications for theory and research concerning listening and relational communication are discussed. Assessing relational listening across an array of social and personal relationships concurrently accomplishes objectives of (a) conceptually extending the knowledge base on relational listening while (b) providing scholars with comparative insight into those processes that govern the course and conduct of everyday relating.     

Estimating Residency Rates for Undetermined Telephone Numbers

The method for estimating residency rates in random digit dial(RDD) telephone surveys is important for computing responserates. This article reviews existing methods of estimating residencyrates and introduces a new "survival" method that takes advantageof more information to provide improved estimates. Examplesof applying this to large RDD samples are given along with suggestionsfor use of the method in other surveys.     

Household Telephone Service and Usage Patterns in the United states in 2004: Implications for Telephone Samples

Changes in the U.S. telephone system, especially the rapid growthin the prevalence and use of cell phones, raise concerns aboutundercoverage error in random digit dial (RDD) telephone samples.A supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) was conductedin 2004 to examine telephone service and usage in U.S. households.This article explores the potential for biases in RDD surveysresulting from the increases in cell phones by presenting estimatesof the percentage of households with different types of telephoneservice, including the percentage of cell-only households, andgiving demographic profiles of households by type of telephoneservice. Logistic regression models examine variables that predictwhether households are without a telephone or only have cellphones. These predictors may be used for weighting adjustmentsto reduce undercoverage biases. We address some additional issues,including the wording of questions for measuring telephone service,that are relevant if telephone-sampling methods are revisedto include cell phones. The estimates from the CPS supplementare also used to help understand some of the new sampling andweighting problems associated with selecting samples from cellphone numbers.     

Cell Phone Survey Feasibility in The U.S.: Sampling and Calling Cell Numbers Versus Landline Numbers

In 2004, we conducted a nationwide dual frame survey of landlineand cell phone numbers to evaluate the feasibility of includingcell phone numbers in a random digit dial telephone survey.Households with both landline and cell phones were eligiblefor selection in both samples. This article describes our designand data collection methods; compares the results from the twosamples (with an emphasis on operational characteristics); andpresents the outcomes of two experimental manipulations designedto improve the cell phone response rate.     

Screening Adolescents for Health Risks Using Interactive Voice Response Technology

ABSTRACT

This report presents an evaluation of an interactive voice response telecommunications system developed for adolescent health risk screening. The technology provides a means to screen adolescents for general health risks and to score self-reported risk immediately. Adolescents listen to a series of prerecorded risk questions on standard touch-tone telephones and respond by pressing the appropriate keys on the keyboard. Health care workers are provided immediate feedback in the form of a summary fax report. The fax report indicates the adolescent's risk level and suggested interventions. This paper reports on an evaluation of this technology to collect self-reported risk data for 116 adolescents seen in an urban family practice center in Cleveland, Ohio. Clinical impressions of the new technology are reported for a pilot cohort of 22 physicians. The authors examine the process of using this technology to implement screening guidelines in various settings.