The Effects of Question, Respondent and Interviewer Characteristics on Two Types of Item Nonresponse

Silber, Henning; Roßmann, Joss; Gummer, Tobias; Zins, Stefan; Weyandt, Kai Willem

doi:10.1111/rssa.12703

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 54 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The interplay of respondent and interviewer sociodemographic characteristics and their relationship with survey data quality has also been researched: The theory of homophily and higher liking of similar persons (McPherson, Smith-Lovin and Cook 2001) explains that genderor age-matched respondent-interviewer pairs can yield data of a higher quality. However, Silber et al (2021) found no evidence of gender matching or age matching in item nonresponse.…”

Section: Surveymentioning

confidence: 72%

“…Vandenplas et al (2018) researched the interview speed and found that short (fast) interviews were associated with more SL, whereas West et al (2020) found that longer interviews were associated with a lower data quality. On the other hand, Silber et al (2021) linked respondents' disengagement and difficulties with more nonresponse and satisficing. In contrast, Lechner et al (2019) showed a positive association between survey interest and the acquiescence response style (ARS hereafter; a preference for agreeing with survey questions) and a negligible association between other people's interference and ARS.…”

Section: Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We set up the female-female category as a reference category. Other studies have simplified the mismatch analysis by indicating whether a respondent and an interviewer had the same gender (e.g., Silber et al 2021). We also crossed the respondents' and interviewers' age categories and assumed the age matches when the respondent and interviewer fell into the same 10-year interval.…”

Section: Matching Respondents' and Interviewers' Genders And Agesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

What can Interviewer-Collected Paradata Tell About Measurement Quality in Face-to-Face Surveys? Analyzing Response Styles in six Rounds of the European Social Survey

Muszyński¹,

Jabkowski²

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Response styles, defined as choosing certain response options on a basis other than the content of a question can seriously threaten the validity of survey data. Although response styles are present in both face-to-face and self-completion surveys, they have been far more researched in the latter mode of data collection. Our study aimed to investigate the presence of response styles and their correlates in face-to-face surveys based on a large dataset of the European Social Survey (2002-2018). We identified main response styles covariates, concentrating on interviewer-collected survey paradata describing respondent characteristics and interview context. Our results pointed to a non-negligible role of respondent-interviewer gender and age matching and for the presence of response styles. Much lower effects were obtained regarding interviewer observations on respondents’ levels of cooperation before and during an interview. We concluded with recommendations for using interviewer-collected paradata and further studies on response styles in face-to-face surveys.

show abstract

Section: Surveymentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Matching Respondents' and Interviewers' Genders And Agesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

What can Interviewer-Collected Paradata Tell About Measurement Quality in Face-to-Face Surveys? Analyzing Response Styles in six Rounds of the European Social Survey

Muszyński¹,

Jabkowski²

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The literature mentions four main factors that affect INR: the respondent, the question (Lipps and Monsch 2022), the interviewer (Silber et al 2021), and the survey mode. In this research, we focus on effects from the respondent and in particular the survey mode.…”

Section: What Affects Item (Non-)responses?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Changing Modes on Item Nonresponse in Panel Surveys

Lipps

Voorpostel

Monsch

2023

Journal of Official Statistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To investigate the effect of a change from the telephone to the web mode on item nonresponse in panel surveys, we use experimental data from a two-wave panel survey. The treatment group changed from the telephone to the web mode after the first wave, while the control group continued in the telephone mode. We find that when changing to the web, “don’t know” answers increase moderately from a low level, while item refusal increases substantially from a very low level. This is the case for all person groups, although socio-demographic characteristics have some additional effects on giving a don’t know or a refusal when changing mode.

show abstract

“…When aiming to solely produce a sufficient answer to a question at hand, there are several response strategies that respondents can apply. Among those strategies of shortening the survey process are: non-differentiation of response options in matrix questions (e.g., Roßmann et al, 2018), selecting "don't know" instead of a substantial response option (e.g., Silber et al, 2021), selecting the first acceptable response option of a question (e.g., Holbrook et al, 2007), selecting mid-responses on rating scales (e.g., Kaminska et al, 2010), and speeding through the questionnaire (e.g., Zhang & Conrad, 2014). Previous research investigating satisficing response strategies in a longitudinal context has shown that experienced respondents are indeed more likely to non-differentiate their answers on matrix questions (Schonlau & Toepoel, 2015) and speed through the questionnaire without taking the time to properly process the survey tasks and form substantial and accurate answers (Zhang & Conrad, 2014).…”

Section: Survey Satisficingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Panel Conditioning in a German Probability-Based Longitudinal Study: A Comparison of Respondents with Different Levels of Survey Experience

Kraemer¹,

Silber²,

Struminskaya³

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Learning effects due to repeated interviewing, which are referred to as panel conditioning, are a major threat to response quality in later waves of a panel study. Up to date, research has not provided a clear picture regarding the circumstances, mechanisms, and dimensions of potential panel conditioning effects. Especially the effects of conditioning frequency, that is, different levels of experience within a panel, on response quality are underexplored. Against this background, we investigated the effects of panel conditioning by using data from the GESIS Panel, a German mixed-mode probability-based panel study. Using two refreshment samples, we compared three panel cohorts with differing levels of experience with respect to several response quality indicators related to the mechanisms of reflection, satisficing, and social desirability. Overall, we find evidence for both negative (i.e., disadvantageous for response quality) as well as positive (i.e., advantageous for response quality) panel conditioning. Highly experienced respondents were more likely to satisfice by selecting mid-point responses or by speeding through the questionnaire. They also had a higher probability of refusing to answer sensitive questions than less experienced panel members. However, more experienced respondents were also more likely to optimize the response processes by needing less time compared to panelists with lower experience levels (when controlling for speeding). In contrast, we did not find significant differences with respect to the number of “don’t know” responses, non-differentiation, the selection of first response categories, and the number of non-triggered filter questions. Of the observed differences, speeding showed the highest magnitude with an average increase of 5.9 percentage points for highly experienced panel members compared to low experienced panelists.

show abstract

The Effects of Question, Respondent and Interviewer Characteristics on Two Types of Item Nonresponse

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Cited by 12 publications

References 54 publications

What can Interviewer-Collected Paradata Tell About Measurement Quality in Face-to-Face Surveys? Analyzing Response Styles in six Rounds of the European Social Survey

What can Interviewer-Collected Paradata Tell About Measurement Quality in Face-to-Face Surveys? Analyzing Response Styles in six Rounds of the European Social Survey

Effects of Changing Modes on Item Nonresponse in Panel Surveys

Panel Conditioning in a German Probability-Based Longitudinal Study: A Comparison of Respondents with Different Levels of Survey Experience

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About