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542 – Nonresponse Issues
Impact of the 2012 Computer Audio Recorded Interviewing Application on Survey of Income and Program Participation Event History Calendar Response Rates and Item-level Responses
Robyn Sirkis
U.S. Census Bureau
The Computer Audio Recorded Interviewing (CARI) system is a laptop software application that seamlessly records the verbal exchange of pre-specified questions between the interviewer and the respondent without disrupting the normal interview process. After the interview, any recordings obtained are digitally stored and can be reviewed later for quality assurance purposes. CARI was incorporated into the 2012 Survey of Income and Program Participation Event History Calendar (SIPP-EHC) instrument. The purpose of this research was to determine the impact on response rates and item level responses due to the addition of CARI to the survey instrument. Distributions and item nonresponse rates were compared within the 2012 CARI SIPP-EHC test and with the 2011 SIPP-EHC test. Cooperation rates were calculated to determine the percent of respondents who agreed to be recorded. Statistical models were constructed to determine if certain characteristics of respondents or geographic regions predict CARI consent propensity. Finally, we examined interviewer effects.