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Responsive survey design is a technique aimed at improving the efficiency or quality of surveys by using incoming data from the field to make design changes. The technique was pioneered on large national surveys, but the tools can also be applied on the smaller-scale surveys most commonly used by sociologists. We demonstrate responsive survey design in a small-scale, list-based sample survey of students on the topic of sexual misconduct. We investigate the impact of individual incentive levels and a two-phase responsive design with changes to mode of contact as approaches for limiting the potential of nonresponse bias in data from such surveys. Our analyses demonstrate that a two-phase design introducing telephone and face-to-face reminders to complete the survey can produce stronger change in response rates and characteristics of those who respond than higher incentive levels. These findings offer tools for sociologists designing smaller-scale surveys of special populations or sensitive topics.

Objective: To identify factors independently associated with program participation and knowledge of campus processes to address sexual assault and harassment complaints. Participants: 1,182 undergraduates who completed the University of Michigan's 2015 campus climate survey on topics of sexual assault and harassment (67% response rate). Methods: We analyze survey responses to estimate multivariable models that identify subgroups of the student population least likely to have participated in programs or to know campus processes. Results: Students living off campus, not involved in major organizations, and males are less likely to report attending programming. Students not involved in major organizations and females are less likely to report knowing campus processes. Conclusions: Specific student subpopulations are more difficult to engage in programs designed to reduce sexual assault and harassment. Targeting additional effort to these groups may improve campus sexual climate. Careful analyses of campus climate survey data can help construct campus-specific priorities for these interventions.

Event history calendars (EHCs) are frequently used in social measurement to capture important information about the time ordering of events in people's lives and enable inference about the relationships of the events with other outcomes of interest. To date, EHCs have primarily been designed for face-to-face or telephone survey interviewing, and few calendar tools have been developed for more private, self-administered modes of data collection. Web surveys offer benefits in terms of both self-administration, which can reduce social desirability bias, and timeliness. We developed and tested a web application enabling the calendar-based measurement of contraceptive method use histories. These measures provide valuable information for researchers studying family planning and fertility behaviors. This study describes the development of the web application and presents a comparison of data collected from online panels using the application with data from a benchmark face-to-face survey collecting similar measures (the National Survey of Family Growth).

Objective Background Method Results Conclusion This work investigates the potential associations between maternal major depressive disorder (MDD) and daughters' family formation behaviors, specifically the timing of marriage and first birth.Family and life course research has established the importance of intergenerational ties and linked lives for children's health, education, social life, and transition to adulthood more broadly. However, mothers' MDD has remained a relatively understudied factor shaping young people's family formation behaviors.The analyses used a sample of 1127 linked mother–father–daughter triads from the Chitwan Valley Family Study (CVFS) in Nepal. Discrete‐time event‐history models at the month level were run to assess whether daughters' differential exposure to maternal MDD was prospectively associated with entry into marital unions and parenthood.Although there was no relationship between maternal lifetime MDD and daughters' family formation, results showed that being first exposed to maternal MDD during childhood, specifically between the ages of 0 and 10, increased the monthly odds of transitioning to parenthood by more than 80%. Additional findings showed that an increased pace of getting married was a primary determinant of accelerated childbearing.Daughters' exposure to mothers' depression was associated with daughters' family formation transitions. The timing of exposure, however, was a particularly important driver of that association. We argue that the study of parents' mental ill‐health provides untapped opportunity for future intergenerational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American Family Health Study (AFHS) collected family health and fertility data from a national probability sample of persons aged 18–49 between September 2021 and May 2022, using web and mail exclusively. In July 2022, we surveyed AFHS respondents and gauged their willingness to become part of a national web panel that would create novel longitudinal data on these topics. We focus on predictors of willingness to participate, identifying the potential selection bias that this type of approach may introduce. We found that efforts of this type to create a national web panel may introduce potential selection bias in estimates based on the panel respondents, with individuals having higher socioeconomic status being more cooperative. Thus, alternative recruitment strategies and re-weighting of the subsample may be needed to further reduce selection bias. We present methodological implications of our results, limitations of our approach, and suggestions for further research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To measure the independent consequences of community‐level armed conflict beatings on alcohol use disorders (AUD) among males in Nepal during and after the 2000–2006 conflict. Design: A population‐representative panel study from Nepal, with precise measures of community‐level violent events and subsequent individual‐level AUD in males. Females were not included because of low AUD prevalence. Setting: Chitwan, Nepal. Participants: Four thousand eight hundred seventy‐six males from 151 neighborhoods, systematically selected and representative of Western Chitwan. All residents aged 15–59 were eligible (response rate 93%). Measurements Measures of beatings in the community during the conflict (2000–2006), including the date and distance away, were gathered through neighborhood reports, geo‐location and official resources, then linked to respondents' life histories of AUD (collected in 2016–2018) using the Nepal‐specific Composite International Diagnostic Interview with life history calendar. Beatings nearby predict the subsequent onset of AUD during and after the armed conflict. Data were analyzed in 2021–2022. Findings Cohort‐specific, discrete‐time models revealed that within the youngest cohort (born 1992–2001), those living in neighborhoods where armed conflict beatings occurred were more likely to develop AUD compared with those in other neighborhoods (odds ratio = 1.66; 95% confidence interval = 1.02–2.71). In this cohort, a multilevel matching analysis designed to simulate a randomized trial showed the post‐conflict incidence of AUD for those living in neighborhoods with any armed conflict beatings was 9.5% compared with 5.3% in the matched sample with no beatings. Conclusions: Among male children living in Chitwan, Nepal during the 2000–2006 armed conflict, living in a neighborhood where armed conflict beatings occurred is associated with increased odds of developing subsequent alcohol use disorder. This association was independent of personal exposure to beatings and other mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In push-to-web surveys that use postal mail to contact sampled cases, participation is contingent on the mail being opened and the survey invitations being delivered. The design of the mailings is crucial to the success of the survey. We address the question of how to design invitation mailings that can grab potential respondents' attention and sway them to be interested in the survey in a short window of time. In the household screening stage of a national survey, the American Family Health Study, we experimentally tested three mailing design techniques for recruiting respondents: (1) a visible cash incentive in the initial mailing, (2) a second incentive for initial nonrespondents, and (3) use of Priority Mail in the nonresponse follow-up mailing. We evaluated the three techniques' overall effects on response rates as well as how they differentially attracted respondents with different characteristics. We found that all three techniques were useful in increasing the screening response rates, but there was little evidence that they had differential effects on sample subgroups that could help to reduce nonresponse biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of family stability and change, demographic processes, and social psychological influences on behavior all posit that parental attitudes and beliefs are a key influence on their children's behavior. We have evidence of these effects in Western populations, but little information regarding this social mechanism in non-Western contexts. Furthermore, comparisons of mothers' and fathers' independent roles in these crucial intergenerational mechanisms are rare. This article uses measures from a 10-year family panel study featuring independent interviews with mothers and fathers in rural Nepal to investigate these issues. We test the association of specific attitudes, rather than broad ideational domains, about childbearing and old-age care with sons' subsequent marriage behavior. Our results indicate that both mothers' and fathers' attitudes have important and independent influences on sons' marriage behavior. Simultaneous study of both parents' attitudes reveals that gender-specific parenting contexts can shape the relationship between parental attitudes and children's behaviors. This crucial mechanism of intergenerational continuity and change is strong in this non-Western setting, with substantial implications for studies of intergenerational influences on behavior in all settings. (Contains 12 notes, 3 tables and 1 figure.)