Interviewer Training to Increase Survey Participation

• Activity Number: 206
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods*
• Author(s): Eileen O Brien*+ and Thomas Mayer and Robert Groves and G. O'Neill
• Affiliation(s): U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau and University of Michigan and Joint Program in Survey Methodology
• Keywords: Nonresponse ; interviewer training

Abstract

Initial response rates are decreasing for ongoing Federal household surveys. One reason may be that interviewers do not feel prepared in answering respondents' questions, communicating the purpose of the survey, and establishing and maintaining rapport with the respondent. Groves and Couper (1998) provide a theoretical connection between the early interviewer-respondent interactions and survey participation rates. Previous research has shown a refusal aversion training protocol based on the Groves and Couper work to reduce unit nonresponse in telephone-administered establishment surveys and in an RDD household survey.

Preliminary analyses from a refusal aversion training experiment in a national face-to-face household health survey suggest similar reductions in unit nonresponse. This paper explores the effect of training over time: when the effect of training begins, when it peaks, and when it begins to decay. In addition, the Groves and McGonagle (2001) model to predict future performance in obtaining survey participation is retested. Trainee scores on an evaluation protocol are used to predict the effect of training on later performance.