Thesis
Improving survey response in mail and internet general public surveys using address-based sampling and mail contact procedures
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2009
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103714
Abstract
Problems associated with random-digit dialing (RDD) telephone surveys, including under-coverage and increased non-response, have stimulated new investigations for using alternative data collection methods. The Internet is increasingly being used as a survey method but also suffers from incomplete coverage of households. However, mail, once thought inferior due to lack of an adequate sample frame, now may become used much more frequently with the development of a new address-based sample frame (ABS), the U.S. Postal Service's Delivery Sequence File (DSF), which provides a near- complete listing of U.S. residential postal addresses. Yet it remains unclear as to what procedures are most effective in using the DSF with mail and the Internet survey modes to obtain acceptable levels of non-response, particularly for statewide general public household surveys. The 2008 Washington Community Survey (WCS) provides an opportunity to examine these issues. The WCS was conducted by sampling from the DSF and asking people in nine different panels to respond by Internet and/or mail. Different implementation procedures were also tested to determine their impact on non-response. These include an Internet instruction card (vs. none), a $5 cash incentive (vs. none), and multiple ways of introducing the choice between Internet and mail. Statistical comparisons of the characteristics between WCS Internet and mail respondents as well as between WCS Internet and mail respondents and both the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS) respondents to determine whether differences exist and how representative different WCS respondents are of general public households in Washington. Overall, I found mail and Internet respondents are very different types of people but an Internet preference approach with a $5 incentive and a mail follow-up sent three weeks later can obtain reasonable response rates (46.3%) and levels of non-response error. A mail-only treatment, with a $5 incentive, obtained the highest response rates (56.7%) but also produced similar levels of nonresponse error as the Internet preference approach. Furthermore, neither mail nor Internet preference respondents were consistently representative of the general population
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Details
- Title
- Improving survey response in mail and internet general public surveys using address-based sampling and mail contact procedures
- Creators
- Benjamin Lee Messer
- Contributors
- Don A. Dillman (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Sociology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525043401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis