Staff from the UWSC are participating in the annual meeting of the 2019 conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in Toronto, Canada on May 16-19. As in previous years, UWSC staff will demonstrate their contributions to survey research methodology by delivering presentations of current research (staff names appear in bold). Faculty Director Nora Cate Schaeffer serves as President-Elect of the association and is a member of the Conference and Student Poster Award Committees. Associate Director John Stevenson is participating as a session moderator. Distinguished Scientist and Survey Methodologist Jennifer Dykema serves as a member of the Public Opinion Advisory Committee.
Jennifer Dykema, Dana Garbarski, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Isabel Anadon and Dorothy Farrah Edwards, “Correlates of Differences in Interactional Patterns Among Black and White Respondents”
Features of the survey measurement process may affect responses from respondents in different racial, ethnic, or cultural groups incongruously. When responses from multiethnic populations are combined, such variability in responding could bias results or increase variable error. The current study examines the survey response process among black and white respondents answering questions about trust in medical researchers and research participation. Using transcriptions from telephone interviews, we code a rich set of behaviors produced by interviewers and respondents that have been demonstrated to be associated with measurement error, including respondents displaying comprehension or mapping difficulties and interviewers administering questions with reading errors. In analysis, we test for differences between black and white respondents in the frequency with which behaviors are displayed and examine whether the behaviors vary by specific categorizations of the questions, including topic and whether the questions are racially focused. Preliminary analysis indicate a complicated set of results in which white respondents produce more behaviors that indicate cognitive processing problems for racially focused questions, which may be interpreted as demonstrating a “cultural” difference in the display of cognitive processing and interaction. Data are provided by the 2013-2014 “Voices Heard” survey, a computer-assisted telephone survey designed to measure respondents’ perceptions of barriers and facilitators to participating in medical research.
Click here to visit the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) website.