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How does interview methodology affect interviewer variance?

Frauke Kreuter compares the effectiveness of commonly-used face-to-face interview methods

MPRC Faculty Associate Frauke Kreuter has begun a new project, funded by the National Science Foundation, which compares two commonly used face-to-face interview methods, Standard Interviewing (SI) and Conversational Interviewing (CI), in order to examine the interviewer variance introduced by each technique into measurement error variance and nonresponse error variance among interviewers.

Standardized Interviewing (SI) requires survey interviewers to read questions as worded and provide only neutral or non-directive probes in response to questions from respondents. While many major surveys in the government, non-profit, and private sectors use SI in an effort to minimize the effects of interviewers on data quality, the existing literature shows that between-interviewer variance in key survey statistics still arises despite the assignment of random subsamples to interviewers. Despite proper training in SI, interviewers may still diverge from scripts because survey respondents often request additional information. By contrast, in Conversational Interviewing (CI), interviewers are trained to read questions as worded, initially, and then say whatever is required to help respondents understand the questions. Despite literature demonstrating that CI produces noticeable decreases in the measurement error bias of survey estimates, survey researchers (and governmental agencies in particular) have been hesitant to employ it in practice, in part because of increased questionnaire administration time but also due to the fear of increased interviewer variance.

Dr. Kreuter’s project aims to compare the interviewer variance, bias, and mean squared error (MSE) arising in a variety of survey estimates from these two face-to-face interviewing techniques, and decompose the total interviewer variance introduced by each technique into measurement error variance and nonresponse error variance among interviewers. She will conduct original data collection in Germany.

 

 

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