Work

Do Interviewer Errors Help Explain the Impact of Question Characteristics on Respondent Difficulties?

Year: 2016

Type: dissertation

Abstract: Respondents, interviewers, and questions are all sources of potential error in responses to survey questions. Using behavior coding to measure respondent problems and interviewer errors, we assess whether question characteristics influences these behaviors. We also assess whether interviewer errors may help to explain the impact of question characteristics on respondent difficulties. Specifically, we assess whether more difficult questions (e.g., longer or more difficult to read) lead to more respondent problems (e.g., answers that do not fit the requirements of the question) at least in part because more difficult questions also lead to interviewer errors (e.g., deviating from the reading the question as written or failing to probe correctly).

Source: Survey Practice

DOI: 10.29115/sp-2016-0009

Authors: Allyson L. Holbrook, Timothy P. Johnson, Young Ik Cho, Sharon Shavitt, Noel Chavez, Saul Weiner

Institutions: University of Illinois Chicago, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois System

Language: English

Topic: Survey Methodology and Nonresponse

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health

Award: Cultural Variability in Survey Question Processing and Response Behaviors