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Activity Number:
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301
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Type:
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Luncheons
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Date/Time:
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Tuesday, August 8, 2006 : 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM
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Sponsor:
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Section on Government Statistics
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| Abstract - #305387 |
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Title:
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Including Sexual Orientation Questions in Surveys: Issues and Approaches
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Author(s):
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Sarah Boslaugh*+
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Companies:
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Washington University in St. Louis
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Address:
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School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, St Louis, MO, 63108,
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Keywords:
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measurement issues ; questionnaire design ; survey research ; sexual orientation
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Abstract:
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There is increasing interest within the social science community in studying sexual orientation as a demographic characteristic analogous to gender or race. However, measuring sexual orientation on a questionnaire raises a number of measurement issues, the most important of which is that there is neither philosophical nor practical agreement about what it means to be "gay" or "straight." The way sexual orientation is defined and the way the questions are worded can make a huge difference in what categories people select to define themselves. This roundtable will review differing ways major surveys have measured sexual orientation and some of the ways researchers have been able to glean information about sexual orientation from surveys that did not include questions specifically about sexual orientation.
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