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Using Verbal Paradata Monitoring to Test Gender Identity Questions in CHIS: The Role of Qualitative and Quantitative Feedback
Matt Jans
UCLA
David Grant
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Royce Park
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Jane Kil
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Joe Viana
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Nicole Lordi
Public Health Institute
Bianca D. M. Wilson
UCLA School of Law
Jody L. Herman
UCLA School of Law
This study reports on interview monitoring conducted as part of gender identity question testing in the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). Four methods of asking gender identity or transgender status were randomly assigned across approximately 3,000 respondents in production telephone interviewing. Two methods used a two-step process, first asking the respondent's sex assigned at birth followed by the sex/gender they identify with now. The other two methods used one question, beginning with a short definition of transgender, and asked if the respondent identified as transgender. We used a combination of qualitative monitoring and question duration coding to assess the relative difficulty of asking each type of question. Two-hundred and twenty (165 English; 55 Spanish) recordings were monitored (50% with men, and a range of ages from 18-70 years). The two-step version was shown to be the easiest to administer by qualitative assessments and quantitative metrics. We discuss theoretical and survey practice motivations for the coding approach and process, and explain how monitoring results were used in conjunction with other pilot test information to evaluate the four methods.