Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse, 1991-1996

The aim of this project was to examine the role the interviewer in professional survey organisations plays in the survey nonresponse process. The 18-month-long programme was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and was carried out in co-operation with the ESRC Centre on Micro-Social Change and NOP Research. It was divided into three sub-projects. The aim of the first sub-project was to tease out the interviewer effect on nonresponse from other effects, such as the effect of the area, and individual respondents, by using a specially designed experiment from an existing source - the &lt;i&gt;British Household Panel Study (BHPS)&lt;/i&gt;. The second sub-project investigated when people are likely to be home and how interviewers might develop efficient calling strategies using two large pre-existing datasets - the &lt;i&gt;Family Resources Survey (FRS)&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;British Social Attitudes (BSA)&lt;/i&gt;. The third sub-project focused on the initial doorstep interaction between interviewer and address residents, which can be crucial in determining whether or not the prospective respondent will agree to co-operate. The purpose was to gain a better understanding of what takes place during this interaction by collecting a small sample of such data using 32 interviewers from two different organisations - SCPR and NOP. Data collection for this sub-project covered addresses from NOP's &lt;i&gt;Political Tracking&lt;/i&gt; survey, and SCPR's random half of the &lt;i&gt;FRS&lt;/i&gt;.<br> A total of 11 datasets are included in this study, numbered a - k:<br> a. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : Household Level Doorstep Interactions, Political Tracking, 1996.<br> b. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : Household Level Doorstep Interactions, FRS (SCPR portion), March 1996.<br> c. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : Matched Contact Form/Tape Data at Call Level, Political Tracking, 1996.<br> d. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : Matched Contact Form/Tape Data at Call Level, FRS (SCPR portion), March 1996.<br> e. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : Interviewer Questionnaire on Survey Participation, 1996.<br> f. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : Individual Transcripts, Political Tracking, 1996.<br> g. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : Individual Transcripts, FRS (SCPR portion), March 1996.<br> h. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : BHPS Household Level Wave 1 Call Record Subset, 1991.<br> i. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : BHPS Household Level Wave 2 Call Record Subset, 1992.<br> j. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : FRS (SCPR portion) Address Level Call Records, 1995-1996.<br> k. Interviewers and Survey Nonresponse : BSA Address Level Call Records, 1994.