Yan Ting, Wivagg Jonathan, Young William J, Delnevo Cristine D, Gundersen Daniel A
Westat.
Rutgers Center for Tobacco Studies.
Surv Res Methods. 2023 Dec 22;17(4):509-517. doi: 10.18148/srm/2023.v17i4.8128.
Young adults are generally hard to survey, presenting researchers with numerous difficulties. They are hard to locate and contact due to high mobility. They are hard to persuade and exhibit high levels of resistance to survey participation. As a result, they pose a greater challenge for longitudinal surveys. This paper explores the role of mode of data collection in young adults' decisions to stay in a longitudinal panel. We draw on data from the National Young Adult Health Survey (NYAHS). NYAHS is a longitudinal study (three annual waves and 2 brief between-wave follow-up surveys) of adults aged 18-34 initially recruited in 2019 through RDD sampling of cell phone numbers nationwide. All sampled cell phone numbers were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions; the conditions differed in mode of data collection used in subsequent interviews once screened in. In the first condition, young adults continue all rounds of interviews by telephone ("telephone only" condition). The second group of young adults completed one round of interview by web and the rest by telephone ("telephone mostly" condition). The last third was asked to complete three interviews online and two interviews by telephone ("web mostly" condition). We examined the impact of mode switching on young adults' likelihood of participating in later surveys and on nonresponse bias in key survey outcomes. We found that switching young adults from telephone to web had an immediate negative effect on their likelihood of participating in that web survey, but it did not have a continued negative effect. Switching them from web to telephone increased response rates and reduced nonresponse bias. The findings have important practical implications on how to survey young adults.
年轻成年人通常很难进行调查,给研究人员带来了诸多困难。由于流动性高,他们很难找到并联系上。他们很难被说服,对参与调查表现出很高的抵触情绪。因此,他们给纵向调查带来了更大的挑战。本文探讨了数据收集方式在年轻成年人决定留在纵向调查小组中的作用。我们利用了全国年轻成年人健康调查(NYAHS)的数据。NYAHS是一项针对18 - 34岁成年人的纵向研究(三年的年度调查以及两次简短的波间随访调查),最初于2019年通过对全国手机号码的随机数字拨号抽样招募。所有抽样的手机号码被随机分配到三种实验条件之一;这些条件在筛选后后续访谈中使用的数据收集方式上有所不同。在第一种条件下,年轻成年人通过电话完成所有轮次的访谈(“仅电话”条件)。第二组年轻成年人通过网络完成一轮访谈,其余通过电话完成(“主要是电话”条件)。最后三分之一的人被要求在线完成三次访谈,两次通过电话完成(“主要是网络”条件)。我们研究了方式转换对年轻成年人参与后续调查的可能性以及关键调查结果中的无应答偏差的影响。我们发现,将年轻成年人从电话调查转换为网络调查对他们参与该网络调查的可能性立即产生了负面影响,但并没有持续的负面影响。将他们从网络调查转换为电话调查提高了回复率并减少了无应答偏差。这些发现对于如何调查年轻成年人具有重要的实际意义。