Reducing Response Burden in the American Community Survey Proceedings of a Workshop (2016) / Chapter Skim
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2 Approaches to Reducing Response Burden
2 Approaches to Reducing Response Burden
Pages 5-12
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From page 5... ...
The importance of the survey, he said, "puts extraordinary pressure on the C ensus Bureau to not only educate the nation on the importance of the ACS and meeting the needs of our democracy, but to execute the survey in a manner that maximizes efficiency and minimizes burden." Salvo emphasized that the steering committee adopted a broad view of burden. Burden is not simply the length of the questionnaire or the time needed to complete it, he explained, but also the perceptions of burden that come from many sources, including a respondent's views about government.
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From page 6... ...
Stempowski summarized a number of initiatives in the report that have formed the basis for the Census Bureau's approach: creation of the position of respondent advocate; fewer computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) contact attempts; a new brochure, "Why We Ask"; refresher training for staff in contact centers and field representatives; some change in the content of the survey; reduction in the number of mail contacts; individual performance coaching for the field interviewers; and enhancement of the Internet part of the survey.
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From page 7... ...
In 2015, the Census Bureau eliminated the prenotice postcard, and it has also accelerated the initial mailing date to increase the likelihood of self response before the respondent receives the paper questionnaire. • Individual performance coaching for field interviewers Though expensive, one-on-one coaching is valuable to provide feedback and reinforcing reminders, Stempowski said.
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From page 8... ...
The continuing downward trend in response rates for most surveys has increased concern about the effect of burden on non response, including panel attrition. He stated that establishment surveys are particularly concerned with delayed responses that affect initial estimates.
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From page 9... ...
The characteristics of respondents cover their cognitive capacity, motivation, attitudes about this survey or surveys in general, confidentiality concerns, and factors that might make the survey task more or less difficult, for example, household size. Fricker described the BLS research focus on understanding respondents' subjective experiences of participating in the Consumer Expenditure Survey.
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From page 10... ...
It also showed the importance of including respondents' subjective reactions in models: doing so improves model fit and strengths of association with survey outcomes. Looking at the individual contributions of objective measures of burden and more subjective metrics in these models, Fricker concluded burden is most highly associated with perceptual measures.
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From page 11... ...
Interestingly, the data collected from these reluctant participants had little influence on the weighted estimates and the regression coefficients. In another test relevant to the ACS, BLS found using a split questionnaire, in which a subsample selected on a matrix basis received a questionnaire with fewer items, resulted in lower burden and in higher data quality.
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From page 12... ...
Second, perceived length is a driver of burden, but there are many others. Third, the interaction of respondent characteristics with survey features should be a key consideration.
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