Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Respondent Characteristics (respondent + characteristic)
Selected AbstractsIdentifying Welfare Effects from Subjective QuestionsECONOMICA, Issue 271 2001Martin Ravallion We argue that the welfare inferences drawn from answers to subjective,qualitative survey questions are clouded by concerns over the structure of measurement errors and how latent psychological factors influence observed respondent characteristics. We propose a panel data model that allows more robust tests and we estimate the model on a high-quality survey for Russia. We find significant income effects on an individual's subjective economic welfare. Demographic effects are weak at given income per capita. Ill-health and becoming unemployed lower welfare at given current income, although the unemployment effect is not robust, and returning to work does not restore welfare without an income gain. [source] The validity of self-reports of alcohol consumption: state of the science and challenges for researchADDICTION, Issue 2003Frances K. Del Boca ABSTRACT Aims To review three topics pertaining to the validity of alcohol self-reports: factors that influence response accuracy; the relative merits of different self-report approaches; and the utility of using alternative measures to confirm verbal reports. Findings Response behavior is influenced by the interaction of social context factors, respondent characteristics, and task attributes. Although research has advanced our knowledge about self-report methods, many questions remain unanswered. In particular, there is a need to investigate how task demands interact with different patterns of drinking behavior to affect response accuracy. There is also a continuing need to use multiple data sources to examine the extent of self-report response bias, and to determine whether it varies as a function of respondent characteristics or assessment timing. Conclusion Self-report methods offer a reliable and valid approach to measuring alcohol consumption. The accuracy of such methods, however, can be improved by research directed at understanding the processes involved in response behavior. [source] Self-reported use of mental health services versus administrative records: should we care?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue 3 2002Dr Anne E. Rhodes Abstract Studies of mental health services have emphasized that people in need are not receiving treatment. However, these studies, based on self-reported use, may not be consistent with administrative records. This study compared self-reports of mental health service use with administrative records in a large representative sample. Respondent reports within the Ontario portion of the 1994/95 Household Component of the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) were individually linked to the provincial mental-health physician reimbursement claims. A total of 5,187 Ontarians, aged 12 years or more, reported on their use of mental healthcare within the NPHS and 4,621 (89%) consented and were successfully linked to administrative records. Comparisons between the two sources identified that the agreement for any use and volume of use was moderate to low and varied according to select respondent characteristics. These differences affected estimates of the associations with use and volume of use. People who reported high levels of distress reported more visits than those who did not and this effect was stronger in the self-reported data. These results suggest that recall bias may be present. Regardless of the definition of care, access for those in need remains a concern despite universal medical insurance coverage. Copyright © 2002 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] Domestic tourism destination choices,,,a choice modelling analysisINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 6 2003Twan Huybers Abstract Tourism destinations compete with each other to attract visitors. Although international tourism has received a lot of attention, domestic tourism remains the mainstay for many destinations. To inform the basis on which destinations compete, an understanding of the determinants of destination choices is required. In this paper, the discrete choice modelling method is applied to investigate the determining factors underlying the short-break holiday destination choices of prospective tourists from Melbourne, Australia. The results from an estimated nested logit model indicate the relative importance of a number of destination and trip attributes and respondent characteristics. The model results are used to simulate the effects on destinations' market shares resulting from various changes in attributes and tourist characteristics. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative PerspectivesPERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, Issue 3 2005B. Lawrence CONTEXT: Understanding women's reasons for having abortions can inform public debate and policy regarding abortion and unwanted pregnancy. Demographic changes over the last two decades highlight the need for a reassessment of why women decide to have abortions. METHODS: In 2004, a structured survey was completed by 1,209 abortion patients at 11 large providers, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 38 women at four sites. Bivariate analyses examined differences in the reasons for abortion across subgroups, and multivariate logistic regression models assessed associations between respondent characteristics and reported reasons. RESULTS: The reasons most frequently cited were that having a child would interfere with a woman's education, work or ability to care for dependents (74%); that she could not afford a baby now (73%); and that she did not want to be a single mother or was having relationship problems (48%). Nearly four in 10 women said they had completed their childbearing, and almost one-third were not ready to have a child. Fewer than 1% said their parents' or partners' desire for them to have an abortion was the most important reason. Younger women often reported that they were unprepared for the transition to motherhood, while older women regularly cited their responsibility to dependents. CONCLUSIONS: The decision to have an abortion is typically motivated by multiple, diverse and interrelated reasons. The themes of responsibility to others and resource limitations, such as financial constraints and lack of partner support, recurred throughout the study. [source] Fast times and easy questions: the effects of age, experience and question complexity on web survey response timesAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Ting Yan This paper examines response times (RT) to survey questions. Cognitive psychologists have long relied on response times to study cognitive processes but response time data have only recently received attention from survey researchers. To date, most of the studies on response times in surveys have treated response times either as a predictor or as a proxy measure for some other variable (e.g. attitude accessibility) of greater interest. As a result, response times have not been the main focus of the research. Focusing on the nature and determinants of response times, this paper examines variables that affect how long it takes respondents to answer questions in web surveys. Using the survey response model proposed by Tourangeau, Rips, and Rasinski (2000), we include both item-level characteristics and respondent-level characteristics thought to affect response times in a two-level cross-classified model. Much of the time spent on processing the questions involves reading and interpreting them. The results from the cross-classified models indicate that response times are affected by question characteristics such as the total number of clauses and the number of words per clause that probably reflect reading times. In addition, response times are also affected by the number and type of answer categories, and the location of the question within the questionnaire, as well as respondent characteristics such as age, education and experience with the Internet and with completing web surveys. Aside from their fixed effects on response times, respondent-level characteristics (such as age) are shown to vary randomly over questions and effects of question-level characteristics (such as types of questions and response scales) vary randomly over respondents. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Bringing features of human dialogue to web surveysAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2007Frederick G. Conrad When web survey respondents self-administer a questionnaire, what they are doing is in many ways similar to what goes on in human,human interviews. The studies presented here demonstrate that enabling web survey respondents to engage in the equivalent of clarification dialogue can improve respondents' comprehension of questions and thus the accuracy of their answers, much as it can in human,human interviews. In two laboratory experiments, web survey respondents (1) answered more accurately when they could obtain clarification, that is, ground their understanding of survey questions, than when no clarification was available, and (2) answered particularly accurately with mixed-initiative clarification, where respondents could initiate clarification or the system could provide unsolicited clarification when respondents took too long to answer. Diagnosing the need for clarification based on respondent characteristics,in particular, age,proved more effective than relying on a generic model of all respondents' need for clarification. Although clarification dialogue increased response times, respondents preferred being able to request clarification than not. The current results suggest that bringing features of human dialogue to web surveys can exploit the advantages of both interviewer- and self-administration of questionnaires. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||