Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Interviewer Observations

Interviewer observations of household characteristics can be useful variables for constructing post-survey nonresponse adjustments, particularly if the observations are good proxies of key variables collected later in the survey. The U.S. Census Bureau and other survey data-collection organizations now systematically design interviewer observations with this purpose in mind. However, because these observations are typically estimates or judgments made by the interviewers, they may be incorrect. The effectiveness of nonresponse adjustments using these observations is hampered by such errors. Thus, knowledge about both household- and interviewer-level factors that affect the accuracy of interviewer observations is important for survey researchers in their efforts to design interviewer observations. To date, only one published study of a face-to-face household survey has attempted to identify these factors. This paper attempts to help fill this gap in knowledge by presenting multilevel models of the accuracy of a housing-unit observation recorded by interviewers in the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG): whether or not young children under the age of 15 are present in the household. The presence of children in the household is an important correlate of key variables in the NSFG and many other socio-economic surveys, and is related to survey participation in general. The accuracy of this observation was found to be a function of selected household-level factors and interactions between household- and interviewer-level factors. Implications of these results for practice and directions for future research are discussed

Affect (linguistics · Data collection · Family planning · Interview · National Survey of Family Growth · Research methodology · Sociology · Statistics · Survey data collection · Survey methodology · Survey research · Health disparities and outcomes · Mathematics · Psychology · Survey Methodology and Nonresponse · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies · Applied Psychology · Demography · Social Psychology

• A formula to communicative success in the structured telephone interview

  Open Access•Anna Ipatova, Dmitry Rogozin•Sociological Journal•2014

  Incluir item

• Bystanders, noise, and distractions in face-to-face surveys in Africa and Latin America

  Charles Q Lau, Charles Lau et al.•International Journal of Social…•2016

  Incluir item

• The effect of interviewer evaluation of respondents’ attitudes and understanding on future survey participation in a panel study

  Mingnan Liu•International Journal of Social…•2018

  Incluir item

• The Report of the International Workshop on Using Multi-level Data from Sample Frames, Auxiliary Databases, Paradata and Related Sources to Detect and Adjust for Nonresponse Bias in Surveys

  Tom W Smith, Tom Smith•International Journal of Public…•2011

  Incluir item

• Sources of Variance in the Accuracy of Interviewer Observations

  Open Access•Brady T West, Dan Li•Sociological Methods & Research•2019

  Incluir item

• Do Interviewer Assessments of Respondents’ Performance Accurately Reflect Response Behavior

  Open Access•Laura Jacobs, Geert Loosveldt et al.•CAM•2020

  Incluir item

• Factors Associated with Interviewers’ Evaluations of Respondents’ Performance in Telephone Interviews

  Open Access•Dana Garbarski, Jennifer Dykema et al.•Public Opinion Quarterly•2023

  Incluir item

• Do Interviewer Postsurvey Evaluations of Respondents’ Engagement Measure Who Respondents Are or What They Do? A Behavior Coding Study

  Antje Kirchner, Kristen Olson et al.•Public Opinion Quarterly•2017

  Incluir item

• Advances in Survey Methods for the Developing World

  Noam Lupu, Kristin Michelitch•Annual Review of Political Science•2018

  Incluir item

• Content Analysis and Predicting Survey Refusal

  Open Access•Sanaa Hyder, Lisa Bilal et al.•CAM•2021

  Incluir item

• A Practical Technique for Improving the Accuracy of Interviewer Observations of Respondent Characteristics

  Open Access•Brady T West, Frauke Kreuter•CAM•2015

  Incluir item

• What You See Is What You Set

  Steven B Most, Brian J Scholl et al.•Psychological Review•2005

  Incluir item

• Hierarchical Grouping to Optimize an Objective Function

  Joe H Ward•Journal of the American…•1963

  Incluir item

• Judgment under Uncertainty

  Amos Tversky, Daniel Kahneman•Utility, Probability, and Human…•1975

  Incluir item

• Hierarchical linear models

  Anthony S Bryk, Stephen W Raudenbush•Hierarchical linear models•2002

  Incluir item

• Responsive Design for Household Surveys

  Open Access•Robert M Groves, Steven G Heeringa•Journal of the Royal Statistical…•2006

  Incluir item

• The Influence of Interviewers' Contact Behavior on the Contact and Cooperation Rate in Face-to-Face Household Surveys

  Mark Blohm, Joop J Hox et al.•International Journal of Public…•2006

  Incluir item

• Nonresponse Rates and Nonresponse Bias in Household Surveys

  Robert M Groves•Public Opinion Quarterly•2006

  Incluir item

• Changes in Telephone Survey Nonresponse over the Past Quarter Century

  Richard T Curtin, R Curtin et al.•Public Opinion Quarterly•2005

  Incluir item

• A Field Study of Interviewer Effects on the Quality of Survey Data

  Jacob J Feldman, Herbert Hyman et al.•Public Opinion Quarterly•1951

  Incluir item

• Using Survey Participants to Estimate the Impact of Nonparticipation

  I F Lin, I-Fen Lin et al.•Public Opinion Quarterly•1995

  Incluir item

• Total Survey Error

  Paul P Biemer•Public Opinion Quarterly•2010

  Incluir item

• Total Survey Error

  Robert M Groves, Lars Lyberg•Public Opinion Quarterly•2010

  Incluir item

• Evaluating the Measurement Error of Interviewer Observed Paradata

  Jennifer Sinibaldi, Gabriele B Durrant et al.•Public Opinion Quarterly•2013

  Incluir item

• Accuracy of judgments of sexual orientation from thin slices of behavior

  Nalini Ambady, Mark Hallahan et al.•Journal of Personality and Social…•1999

  Incluir item

• On judging and being judged accurately in zero-acquaintance situations

  Nalini Ambady, Mark Hallahan et al.•Journal of Personality and Social…•1995

  Incluir item

• Race of the Interviewer and Perception of Skin Color

  Mark Hill, Mark E Hill•American Sociological Review•2002

  Incluir item

• Eyes on the block

  Open Access•Malia Jones, Anne R Pebley et al.•Social Science Research•2011

  Incluir item