McGonagle Katherine A, Sastry Narayan
University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, Survey Research Center.
Surv Res Methods. 2023 Dec 22;17(4):411-427.
The U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) made a planned transition to a web-first mixed-mode data collection design in 2021 (web and computer-assisted telephone interviewing [CATI]), following nearly five decades of collecting data primarily using CATI with professional interviewers. To evaluate potential effects of mode on fieldwork outcomes, two sequential mixed-mode protocols were introduced using an experimental design. One protocol randomized sample families to a "web-first" treatment, which encouraged response through an online interview, followed by an offer of telephone to complete the interview; a second protocol randomized sample families to a "CATI-first" treatment until the last phase of fieldwork when the option to complete a web interview was offered. This paper examines the comparative effects of the two protocols on fieldwork outcomes, including response rates, interviewer contact attempts, fieldwork duration, and cost. Comparisons are also made with fieldwork outcomes and characteristics of non-responding sample members from the prior-wave when a traditional telephone design was used. We found that the web-first design compared to the CATI-first design led to comparably high response rates, and faster interview completion with lower effort and cost. With some notable exceptions, compared to the prior wave, the mixed-mode design reduced effort and had generally similar patterns of non-response among key respondent subgroups. The results provide new empirical evidence on the effects of mixing modes on fieldwork outcomes and costs and contribute to the small body of experimental evidence on the use of mixed-mode designs in household panel studies.
美国收入动态面板研究（PSID）在2021年有计划地过渡到以网络优先的混合模式数据收集设计（网络和计算机辅助电话访谈[CATI]），此前近五十年主要使用CATI与专业访谈员收集数据。为了评估模式对实地调查结果的潜在影响，采用实验设计引入了两个连续的混合模式方案。一个方案将样本家庭随机分配到“网络优先”处理组，该组通过在线访谈鼓励回应，随后提供电话访谈以完成整个访谈；第二个方案将样本家庭随机分配到“CATI优先”处理组，直到实地调查的最后阶段才提供网络访谈选项。本文研究了这两个方案对实地调查结果的比较影响，包括回应率、访谈员联系尝试次数、实地调查持续时间和成本。还将其与使用传统电话设计时前一波未回应样本成员的实地调查结果和特征进行了比较。我们发现，与“CATI优先”设计相比，“网络优先”设计导致了相当高的回应率，并且访谈完成速度更快，工作量和成本更低。除了一些明显的例外情况，与前一波相比，混合模式设计减少了工作量，并且在关键受访者子群体中的无回应模式总体相似。这些结果为混合模式对实地调查结果和成本的影响提供了新的实证证据，并为家庭面板研究中使用混合模式设计的少量实验证据做出了贡献。
