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The British Household Panel Survey. Began in September 1991 National sample of England, Scotland and Wales 5,000 households/10,000 interviewed adults 16+ (approx.) Annual face-to-face interview carried out by NOP Wave 9 (1999) first CAPI wave Wave 10 now in the field.
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The British Household Panel Survey • Began in September 1991 • National sample of England, Scotland and Wales • 5,000 households/10,000 interviewed adults 16+ (approx.) • Annual face-to-face interview carried out by NOP • Wave 9 (1999) first CAPI wave • Wave 10 now in the field
The British Household Panel Survey • 1997 • added sub-sample of 950 low income households from former UK European Community Household Panel • 1999 • two new samples added in Scotland and Wales in response to devolution • 1500 interviewed households in each sample
Main areas of coverage • Household and demographic change • Housing, consumption • Training and education • Health and caring • Labour market behaviour • Labour and non-labour income • Values and opinions • Household finances
Questionnaire documents • Coversheet • Household questionnaire • Individual questionnaire (all aged 16+) • Self completion questionnaire • Proxy questionnaire • Youth interview (all aged 11-15, since Wave 4)
Reasons for CAPI transition • Potential for improvements in data quality • reduction in missing data • consistency checks within the interview • plausibility checks at the point of data collection • Potential improvement in speed of data turn-around • Savings in fieldwork costs
Main concerns • mode effects • response rates and respondent reactions • interviewer training • potential for technical problems • data processing and data release delays
Requirements of CAPI system • minimise potential mode effects • ensure a positive reaction to CAPI from interviewers and respondents • ensure adequate interviewer training • maintain high response rates • choose software which had the capability to handle a lengthy and complex questionnaire design
Requirements of CAPI system • maintain a secure sample management system • have adequate debugging and code checking facilities within the software • develop a CAPI system compatible with existing data processing procedures at ISER • have sufficient hardware capabilities • ensure data security at all times
Questionnaire design • Limited CAPI conversion to two main survey schedules • Household Questionnaire • Individual Questionnaire • Retained paper for • Coversheet • Self-Completion • Proxy • Youth interviews
CAPI Software • In2itive • owned and supported by SPSS MR • used by SOEP for piloting CAPI • used by our fieldwork agency, NOP • Interviewers used touch screen lap-tops • light to carry and robust • good screen resolution • easy to use • interviews dialled in via modem
Minimising mode effects • maintain comparability with paper schedules as far as possible (and sensible) • maintain standard fieldwork procedures in all other respects • ensure good training for interviewers • introduce the lap-top to respondents without fuss
The human/machine interface • Established clear conventions for interviewers • standard fonts, colours, message types used throughout • kept the screens uncluttered • provided navigation through complex sections of the questionnaire • e.g. annual job history collecting events over the past year
Conclusions • transition to CAPI successful but not easy • response rates remained high • no evidence of significant mode effects • some technical problems with software • data processing required new systems to be built for matching paper and CAPI data streams • interviewers are human and will make errors • W10 improvements based on W9 experience