Some characteristics of inaccessible respondents in a telephone survey.

Abstract

Characteristics of inaccessible respondents in a telephone survey were investigated. City employees (N = 514) of San Antonio, Texas, answered a series of questions on birth date, employment, seniority, monthly salary, occupation, and 18-year old voters. Refusal rates were examined across ethnicity, salary, and age with the highest rate occurring for the oldest age group. Overall percentage of refusals (10.9) and pattern of refusals by age were similar to those of face-to-face surveys. An analysis of inaccessible black respondents (refusers and those not reached, n -140) indicated an unusually high inaccessibility rate (42%). Neither refusals nor inaccessibility resulted in large differences between the distributions of persons contacted and persons interviewed. Thus, the chance of bias in the survey responses seems minimal.

The Hidden 25 Percent: An Analysis of Nonresponse on the 1980 General Social Survey

“…Too few occupations were identifiable as involving exand DeMaio, 1980). Nonresponse was found higher for whites in three studies (Schuman and Gruenberg, 1970;Weaver et al, 1975;and Hawkins, 1975) and not significantly different across races in two studies (DeMaio, 1980;Lansing et al, 1971). Middle income groups are usually found to have the highest nonresponse (Lansing et al, 1971;DeMaio, 1980), but this may well be a function of estimating error.…”

“…Most previous research finds final nonresponse to be highest among the older ages(Lowe and McCormick, 1955; Lansing et al, 1971;Weaver et al, 1975;Hawkins, 1975; at New York University on May 28, 2015 http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from…”

The informal social control of intimate partner violence against women: Exploring personal attitudes and perceived neighborhood social cohesion

“…The method results in superior response rates and representation of hard to reach populations, as compared with random digit dialing~Miller, Wilder, Stillman & Becker, 1997! and is often used in poor, ethnic minority neighborhoods because telephone interview surveys often yield high refusal rates, are regarded with suspicion, and underrepresent the very poor, who do not have land-based telephone lines in their homes Aquilino, 1992;Weaver, Holmes, & Glenn, 1975;!. The sampling units identified in this project were "socio-spatial knowledge networks"~Cravey, Washburn, Gesler, Arcury, & Skelly, 2001!…”

Mail Survey Response Rate Patterns in a Population of the Elderly: Does Response Deteriorate With Age?

“…Evidence suggests that elderly, as compared to other age groups, have a lower rate of response to personal interviews (Hawkins 1975;Lowe and McCormick 1955; Mercer and Butler 1967/68) and to telephone surveys (Herzog, Rodgers, and Kulka 1983;Massey, Barker and Hsiung 1981; Thornberry 1982;Weaver, Holmes, and Glenn 1975). None of the studies cited above examined age and response rates to mail surveys, probably owing to the obvious difficulty in obtaining age data on nonrespondents to mail surveys.…”