Telephone survey respondents' reactions to questions regarding interpersonal violence

Concerns have been raised regarding the appropriateness of asking about violence victimization in telephone interviews and whether asking such questions increases respondents' distress or risk for harm. However, no large-scale studies have evaluated the impact of asking such questions during a telephone interview. This study explored respondents' reactions to questions regarding violence in two large recently completed telephone surveys. After respondents were asked about violence, they were asked if they thought surveys should ask such questions and whether they felt upset or afraid because of the questions. In both surveys, the majority of respondents (regardless of their victimization history) were willing to answer questions about violence and were not upset or afraid because of the questions. More than 92% of respondents thought such questions should be asked. These results challenge commonly held beliefs and assumptions and provide some assurance to those concerned with the ethical collection of data on violent victimization.     

A Study of Experimental Techniques for Telephone Interviewing

This investigation focused on the effects of experimental interviewingprocedures, which were developed in face-to-face interviews,on reporting in telephone contacts. Respondents in a nationalRDD sample (N=1,1054) were randomly assigned to be interviewedwith one of two experimental procedures, or a control technique.The experimental procedures involved two different combinationsof three interviewing techniques which had been found to beeffective in personal interviewing studies—commitment,instructions, and feedback. The techniques are designed to betterinform respondents about reporting tasks and to motivate themto perform the tasks well. The findings suggest that the experimentalprocedures can improve reporting in telephone interview, althoughthe effects in this study were not as strong as we expected.This research may be seen as a beginning step in the developmentof optimal telephone interviewing procedures.     

Reaching the U.S. Cell Phone Generation: Comparison of Cell Phone Survey Results with an Ongoing Landline Telephone Survey

Noncoverage rates in U.S. landline-based telephone samples dueto cell phone only households (i.e., households with no landlinebut accessible by cell phone) and the corresponding potentialfor bias in estimates from surveys that sample only from landlineframes are growing issues. Building on some of the few publishedstudies that focus on this problem, a study was conducted inthree states (Georgia, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania) as partof the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), theworld's largest ongoing public health telephone survey, to evaluatethe effectiveness of conducting the BRFSS interview with a sampledrawn from dedicated cell phone telephone exchanges and mixed-use(landline and cell phone) exchanges. Approximately 600 interviewswere conducted in each of two groups: cell phone only adults(n = 572) and adults with both a landline and a cell phone (n= 592). Making comparisons with data from the ongoing, landline-basedBRFSS survey, we report on response rates, demographic characteristicsof respondents, key survey estimates of health conditions andrisk behaviors, and survey costs. The methods used in this studyhave wide application for other U.S. telephone surveys.     

Question Order and Fair Play: Evidence of Even-Handedness in Rural Surveys1

The norm of even-handedness is a question-order effect known to occur in face-to-face interviews when respondents favor one of two complementary or competing opinion questions, both written at the same level of specificity. After defining and illustrating the concept, evidence of even-handedness in opinion questions is explored in a Montana mail survey and in recall of recent behavior in Iowa telephone interviews. The Montana survey provides evidence of education effects that are not consistent with previous theories of cognitive sophistication, suggesting that future research must consider the interaction between substantive issues and cognitive processes. The Iowa poll provides evidence that respondents' recall of their recent behaviors and the behaviors of their partner also are subject to context effects. This poll also provides evidence that even-handedness operates independently of social desirablity, especially among women.     

CARRYOVER EFFECTS IN ATTITUDE SURVEYS

Answers to attitude questions in surveys can vary markedly dependingon the preceding items in the questionnaire. This study concernssuch context effects. More than 1,100 respondents were askedabout six target issues in a telephone survey. Before answeringthe target questions, most of the respondents had been askedabout one of two sets of related issues; the remainder receivedunrelated, "neutral" context items. For five of the six targetissues, the two groups receiving different sets of context itemsdiffered significantly in their answers to the target questions.However, only one of the substantive context groups differedsignificantly from the group that received the neutral contextitems. Additional results indicated that context effects werelarger when respondents reported that their beliefs about thetarget issue were both mixed and important. Coding of openendedresponses to follow-up questions suggested that the contextitems may have changed how respondents thought about the targetissues.     

A Comparison of Survey Techniques on Sensitive Sexual Behavior in Italy

This article compares two national surveys carried out through the most commonly used procedures in Italy: CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviews) and SAQ-FI (self-answered questionnaires following interviews). Both surveys ask two identical questions concerning sensitive sexual behavior: early age at first intercourse and same-sex attraction. The SAQ-FI survey had both unit non-response and item non-response rates much lower than the CATI survey. Moreover, in the CATI survey, the groups with highest item non-response rates were also the groups with the lowest proportions of early intercourse and homosexual attraction. In addition, a differential analysis of the respondents produced diverse results for the two surveys. This is especially true of results by gender for same-sex attraction: Such behavior is more common among men (3.1%) than women (2.9%), according to the CATI survey, whereas the opposite is true of the SAQ-FI survey (6.1% of men vs. 7.7% women). In Italy at the beginning of the 21st century, CATI surveys reveal a lower level of early intercourse and same-sex attraction than SAQ-FI surveys. This article argues that the CATI survey underestimates the true level of these sensitive sexual behaviors in the Italian population.     

Respite reconsidered: A typology of meanings based on the caregiver's point of view

Respite has been de facto conceptualized as a service rather than an outcome. In this study, the meaning of respite was determined from the perspective of caregivers. The first phase of the project involved in-depth interviews and a focus group. The second phase included a random sample of caregivers in Victoria, BC, Canada screened through household residence telephone numbers. Two hundred ninety-four caregivers were interviewed face-to-face, utilizing both structured and open-ended questions asking caregivers about the meaning of respite to them. Six distinct themes emerged from the qualitative and more structured interviews. Categories included: stolen moments, relief, physical/mental stimulus, connections, minimizing its importance, and angst-free care receivers. This study recommends that policymakers and service providers redefine respite as an outcome rather than a service, taking caregivers' experiences into account. Over 60% of the caregivers defined a break in ways that policy makers, professionals, and researchers would not. Importantly, meanings did not vary by gender or class (as well as other demographic variables such as age), caregiver, care receiver, or social support variables.     

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.     

Has protest increased since the 1970s? How a survey question can construct a spurious trend

The literature on political participation asserts that protest has increased over the last four decades, all over the world. This trend is derived from surveys asking questions about participation in various forms of protest, including demonstrations, boycotts, and unofficial strikes. The latter question made sense in the context in which it was formulated, Britain in the early 1970s, and with regard to the original methodological aim, measuring ‘protest potential’. The absence of a generic question on strikes, however, distorts our understanding of protest. Two sources of data on Britain in the 1980s and 1990s – a population survey and an event catalogue – comprehensively measure strikes. They show that strikes greatly outnumbered demonstrations and other forms of protest. Another claim in the literature, that protesters are highly educated, no longer holds once strikes are properly counted. Strikes in Britain, as in many countries, have dramatically declined since the 1980s. This decline more than offsets any increase in demonstrations and boycotts, meaning that the total volume of protest has decreased. The episode illustrates how survey questions, when replicated without scrutiny, can misconstrue social trends.     

Race-of-Interviewer Effects in Telephone Interviews

Previous studies have found a race-of-interviewer effect onsurvey questions dealing with racial issues. This effect hasbeen found in both personal interviews and on questionnairesfilled out in the presence of an interviewer. This study examineswhether a race-of-interviewer effect is also present in telephoneinterviews. The results show that a race-of-interviewer effectdoes occur in telephone interviews on racial questions.     

The relative costs and benefits of telephone interviews versus self-administered diaries for daily data collection

This article compares two methods of collecting daily data: self-administered diaries and telephone interviews. Study participants included 44 men and 56 women between the ages of 16 and 35 who participated in a larger study of drinking, drug use, and sexual activity. Participants were randomly assigned to either the written diary or the telephone interview conditions; question wording and format were identical in both conditions. Daily data were collected for a period of 8 weeks. Results indicate that although telephone interviews resulted in slightly more missed days of data collection, they generally yielded less item-level missing data, produced cleaner data and therefore were less costly to process, and were as palatable to participants as self-administered diaries. Except for reports of drinking and vegetable consumption, telephone and diary conditions did not differ in the amount of behavior reported; more drinking and vegetable consumption were reported with telephone interviews, however. Telephone interviews also imposed considerably higher overall personnel costs.     

RESPONSE-TIME MEASUREMENT IN SURVEY RESEARCH A METHOD FOR CATI AND A NEW LOOK AT NONATTITUDES

The paper introduces a methodology for measuring accuratelythe time it takes respondents to answer questions in computer-assistedtelephone surveys. The methodology, which is completely invisibleto respondents, comprises a computer "clock," capable of timingresponses with millisecond accuracy, and a "voice-key" thatconverts sounds emitted by respondents into signals capableof triggering the computer clock. Response times to questionson a range of attitude questions, including stable and unstableattitudes, were measured. The results revealed orderly normsin the latencies associated with various types of survey questions.The latencies associated with the expression of stable and unstableattitudes are discussed in the context of the notion of "nonattitudes"and shed new light on this controversial thesis. Overall, ourresults demonstrate that response latencies can be measuredprecisely and reliably in telephone surveys and that the datafrom such measurement open new windows on the cognitive dynamicsof survey responses.     

Effects of method on participants and disclosure rates in research on sensitive topics

This study replicates and extends the research of Rosenbaum, Rabenhorst, Reddy, Fleming, and Howells, which also appears in this special issue. Responses from 398 randomly assigned participants regarding differentially sensitive topics were collected via four methods of data collection: written questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and an automated telephonic data collection system (ATDC). Several significant differences in data collection methodology and topic area were found, including greater disclosure of sensitive information via the ATDC system than via face-to-face and paper-and-pencil conditions. Participants who were assigned to the ATDC condition felt significantly more comfortable answering questions compared to those in the face-to-face interview condition. Participants in the telephone interview condition reported answering significantly more carefully than participants answering via written questionnaire. Taken together, the results of this study and the previous one it replicates suggest that the ATDC produces disclosure rates that are at least equivalent to, if not greater than, those generated using traditional methods for collecting sensitive data.     

Impact of Repeated Questioning on Interviewers: Learning From a Forensic Interview Training Project

Forensic interviewers have a difficult job with high risk for career burnout and secondary trauma. Few studies have addressed how new forensic interviewers or trainees experience repeated questioning and multiple interviews. This study simulated the process of training new forensic interviewers through the creation of two interview videos in which social work graduate students participated as actors portraying the roles of interviewer and child. These films served as instructional aids preparing graduate social work students for professional child welfare roles while promoting research-based approaches to interviewing children about sexual abuse allegations. Qualitative data from two cohorts of student actors were collected to analyze interviewers’ perspectives on repeated questioning and interviews in child sexual abuse cases. Two themes were extracted from the subjects’ experiences: “It is emotionally taxing” and “Navigating the interviewer role is unexpectedly complex.” Exposure to repeated questions and multiple interviews affected the performance and confidence of the interviewers.     

Editorial: Speaking in Tongues—Diversity in Mixed Methods Research

Pre‐testing is a standard tool to increase appropriateness and to capture the audience, yet rarely is this technique employed for population surveys. This study aimed to examine parental views on the content and methodology of a population child health survey. Forty‐eight Australian families of children aged 0–12 years were interviewed about the content and proposed data collection methods of the draft Victorian Population Survey of Child Health and Wellbeing. Concerns with instructions and items of several commonly used child health measures were identified. Parents preferred face‐to‐face methods rather than telephone interviews due to survey legitimacy; however, 72% of parents indicated that they would participate in a telephone survey. This study provided new findings about respondent views on child health measures and the conditions under which CATI versus face‐to‐face methods for child health data collection methods would be acceptable.     

Interviewing Older Adults: A Comparison of Telephone and Face-to-Face Modalities

This article examines telephone interviewing of older adultsand compares it with face-to-face interviews. Specifically,the following issues are examined in several national surveys:(1) differences in age distributions between the samples ofadults reached in both modes; (2) explanations for potentialdifferences in age distributions; (3) differences between thetwo modes in demographic characteristics in the adults reached,in interview process and in response quality, and how thesemode differences vary by age of the respondents. Telephone surveystend to underrepresent older persons, and older persons whodo participate in a telephone survey are disproportion atelywell educated. Implications of the lower response rate amongolder persons are softened by the fact that reponse distributionsacross a range of questions show little difference by interviewmode between older persons and persons of other age groups.     

Personal assistance services as a workplace accommodation

This paper describes current US trends and practices regarding workplace personal assistance services (PAS) as part of available work accommodation options. Workplace PAS include task-related assistance at work, such as readers, interpreters, help with lifting or reaching, re-assignment of non-essential duties to co-workers, and other help related to performing work tasks; and personal care-related assistance such as helping someone with using the rest room, eating, or drinking while at work. The results reported here are based on forty-one telephone interviews conducted in 2004, which included 20 workplace PAS users and 21 US employers familiar with workplace accommodations. Employers and consumers described a range of workplace personal assistance currently used. Barriers to expansion of workplace PAS include negative co-worker or supervisor attitude, cost to employers and workers, waiting time for accommodations, employee attitude and knowledge, and confusing terminology. Development of organizational culture that encourages employment of people with disabilities and developing employer-employee partnerships in arranging for accommodations can contribute to workplace PAS solutions. The survey findings contribute to better understanding of current practices related to workplace PAS.     

From Agenda Setting to Refusal Setting: Survey Nonresponse as a Function of Media Coverage Across the 2004 Election Cycle

Past research suggests that there is a relationship betweensurvey response and topic salience, namely that individualsresponding to a survey are likely to find the survey topic moresalient than nonrespondents do. For election surveys, nonresponseresulting from a lack of salience can influence findings becauserespondents may be more interested in politics than nonrespondents.The agenda-setting model suggests that media coverage shouldheighten salience. Thus, as media coverage of political campaignsincreases over the course of an election, refusals to a politicalsurvey should decline. Using data from the National AnnenbergElection Survey (NAES), which was conducted nearly continuouslyin 2004, this study investigates the issue of nonresponse ina random digit dial telephone survey across the election cycleby examining daily changes in the refusal rates using time-seriesanalysis. Content analyses of the frequencies of presidentialcampaign stories mentioned in the New York Times and three networknews broadcasts were matched against a time series from theNAES to demonstrate that increases in media coverage of theelection were negatively related to the survey refusal rate. Received for publication January 15, 2005. Revision received March 18, 2007. Accepted for publication May 14, 2007.     

Effects and Costs of Tracing Strategies on Nonresponse Bias in a Survey of Workers with Low-Back Injury

Declining rates of participation are an increasing challengefor studies that involve telephone surveys. This study examinedthe costs of a telephone survey methodology that used increasinglyintensive tracing methods to track a pool of claimants who hadsustained occupational back injuries. It also compared the respondentsample to people who refused the survey and/or were not locatedor contacted. 3,181 claimants were drawn from a database maintainedby the Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC)and 1,475 completed a telephone interview. The DWC databaseprovided data reflecting monetary and disability outcomes forall potential participants; telephone interviews provided additionalself-reported data. More intensive tracing strategies improvedthe representativeness of the sample, yielding more women andminority participants. Relative to less intensive techniques,advanced tracing efforts located people whose DWC records weremore similar to claimants not located. While the hands-on tracingefforts reduced the apparent bias of the respondent sample,costs increased as tracing strategies intensified – over$98,000 was spent to trace 1,027 claimants who were never locatedor contacted. The results suggest some guidelines that may facilitatedecision-making for researchers and funders who must balancethe trade-off between costs and nonresponse bias when planningsurveys.     

Taxes and economic behavior: Some interview data on tax evasion in Sweden

The article describes a survey carried out with a sample of 426 Swedish male adults. In telephone interviews questions were asked on attitudes to taxation, attitudes to tax crimes, the respondent's economic situation, tax evasion in the sense of underreporting income and overstating deductions, black payments, and tax planning, i.e. attempts to reduce the tax burden by legal means. Multivariate analyses of the data indicated that younger age, more opportunity for tax evasion than people in general, more negative attitudes than the average, and lenient attitudes to tax crimes were significant factors for explaining tax evasion and black payments. Financial strain was not a significant factor, since those who admitted tax evasion judged their economic situation more favorably than the rest of the sample.