scholarly journals The Interviewer in the Respondent’s Shoes: What Can We Learn from the Way Interviewers Answer Survey Questions?

Field Methods ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celine Wuyts ◽  
Geert Loosveldt
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Household Income ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Multiple Response ◽  
Item Nonresponse ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Response Characteristics ◽  
Survey Questions ◽  
Survey Interviews

Previous research shows that interviewers to some extent fail to expend the effort that is needed to collect high-quality survey data. We extend the idea of interviewer satisficing to a related task, in which the interviewers themselves answer survey questions. We hypothesize that interviewers who self-administer the questionnaire in a careless manner will also not apply themselves fully to the task of administering survey interviews. Based on interviewer and respondent data from the sixth round of the European Social Survey in Belgium, we find support for some of the hypothesized associations between (suboptimal) response characteristics of interviewers in the “task as respondent” and the same (suboptimal) response characteristics recorded for their respondents, specifically with regard to interview speed, multiple response, and item nonresponse to the household income question.

scholarly journals Improving Data Quality with Sociodemographic Matching?: About the Effects and Implications of Age and Gender Matching in Face-to-Face Interviews

2021 ◽  
pp. 193672442199825
Author(s):  
Felix Bittmann
Keyword(s):  
Data Quality ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Item Nonresponse ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
And Gender ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Gender Matching

According to the theory of liking, data quality might be improved in face-to-face survey settings when there is a high degree of similarity between respondents and interviewers, for example, with regard to gender or age. Using two rounds of European Social Survey data from 25 countries including more than 70,000 respondents, this concept is tested for the dependent variables amount of item nonresponse, reluctance to answer, and the probability that a third adult person is interfering with the interview. The match between respondents and interviewers is operationalized using the variables age and gender and their statistical interactions to analyze how this relates to the outcomes. While previous studies can be corroborated, overall effect sizes are small. In general, item nonresponse is lower when a male interviewer is conducting the interview. For reluctance, there are no matching effects at all. Regarding the presence of other adults, only female respondents profit from a gender match, while age is without any effect. The results indicate that future surveys should weigh the costs and benefits of sociodemographic matching as advantages are probably small.

Political attitudes and trade union membership in the Nordic countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Strøby Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Impact

Do political attitudes influence the likelihood of employees being members of a trade union, and to what extent is this the case in the Nordic countries with their high aggregate levels of membership? In this article, I address these questions using European Social Survey data from 2012. The results show that left-wing political attitudes have the most impact on the likelihood of trade union membership in Sweden and to a lesser extent in Denmark. In Norway and Finland, there is no statistically significant impact. I argue that the impact of left-wing political attitudes on unionization in Sweden and Denmark reflects a conception among employees that trade unions are normative organizations.

Defensive Citizenship in Europe: Definition and Measurement

2020 ◽  
pp. 147892992090699
Author(s):  
Izhak Berkovich
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Immigration Attitudes ◽  
The Stability

In this article, I define and measure the new phenomenon of defensive citizenship in Europe. The literature suggests that defensive citizenship engagement is related to attempts by entitled citizens to preserve their threatened interests. It has been on the rise worldwide, especially in Europe. Based on studies and reports on the phenomenon, I argue that defensive citizenship can be assessed among entitled citizens (those born in the country, whose both parents were born in the country) based on mistrust towards political institutions, anti-immigration attitudes and a challenging personal situation. The analysis, based on European Social Survey data, ranks European countries and uncovers concentrations of countries with high levels of defensive citizenship in Eastern Europe. I contend that this phenomenon has significant implications for the democratic functioning of European countries and the stability of the continent.

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