British Household Panel Survey

1. British Household Panel Survey Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004

2. BHPS outline • Began in 1991 with a sample of 5,000 households /10,000 individuals in Great Britain • All adults in the household aged 16 and over interviewed annually • Face to face interview • Sample members are followed as they move address and new members joining sample households become eligible for interview • Since 1994, children aged 11-15 also interviewed Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004

3. In 1999, extension samples of 1,500 households added in each of Scotland and Wales • In 2001, sample of 2,000 households added in Northern Ireland • Twelve waves of data currently available • Wave 14 fieldwork currently underway • Multi-topic questionnaire with core questions repeated every year and variable questions repeated less frequently • Collection of continuous records of employment and income a key area for the BHPS • Collection of employment and income subject to recall error, seam effects, coding variability and random ‘noise’ Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004

4. Use of fed forward data • BHPS collected using paper questionnaires from Wave 1 to Wave 8 • Since Wave 9, collected using CAPI • BHPS has always used some fed forward information • Extensive use of fed forward data during the interview not possible in PAPI mode • CAPI increased possibility of using more fed forward data during the interview • But raises issues of longitudinal comparability of measures Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004

5. Fed forward data on BHPS primarily used for • sample management and correct identification of individuals • routing respondents correctly through the main questionnaire • Fed forward data includes: • Address details • Name • Unique personal ID (PID) • Sex • Date of Birth • Interview outcome at previous wave • Type of interview eligible for at current wave • Sample status (Permanent or Temporary sample member) • Details of contact persons collected at previous wave (for tracking during field) Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004

6. Fed forward data are used to: • Check and confirm individuals details (name, sex, date of birth) • Route respondents through the main questionnaire depending on whether they were • Interviewed at the previous wave • Were not interviewed at the previous wave but have been interviewed previously • Or have never been interviewed before • Use sex and date of birth for routing in the interview • Provide interviewers with the details they need to • Determine whether a sample member should be followed • Trace people who have moved to a new address • Confirm current contact person details or collect new details at the current wave Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004

7. Use of substantive fed forward data • Details of e.g. occupation, employment status or income receipt details are not fed forward for use during the interview • Occupation, industry, income etc are re-asked at each year of the survey • Partly due to history of PAPI data collection • Concerns about introducing a break in the longitudinal measures through using dependent interviewing • No evidence to date of what effect this might have in the context of a long running panel Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004

8. Competing views of effects of dependent interviewing vs repeated measures • Is it too easy for respondents to simply agree with whatever they are presented with? • Will it lead to an underestimate of ‘true’ change? • Does respondent agreement with the fed forward data mean we have data with less error or is it just more consistent over time? • What do we do with previously collected data when respondents tell us it is not correct at the next wave? • Is recall error associated with agreement or disagreement with the fed forward data? • Does dependent interviewing reduce respondent burden? • Does re-asking questions at each year lead to greater levels of error – reporting and coding? • Does re-asking questions at each year over-estimate change? • Does re-asking questions at each year increase respondent burden? Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004

9. Interviewers, on the whole, like dependent interviewing • Makes the interview flow • Reduces their workload • Lessens the feeling that respondents keep on being asked the same old questions year in, year out • It may reduce respondent burden • But what is the right balance between DI and re-asking questions • An interview which says ‘Last year you said you were…. Is that still the case’? too often is also monotonous and burdensome • Concerns that respondents may not like having too much of their personal information given back to them a year later • data confidentiality issues Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004

10. Resources • Finally, technical issues involved in feeding forward data accurately should not be underestimated • Time and resources are required to check and re-check CAPI scripts to make sure that the data being presented to respondents is correct • The script needs to cater for the possibility that the respondent may disagree with the fed forward data • In a panel such as the BHPS, the fed forward data may not come from the previous wave only but from two or more waves previously Essex Dependent Interviewing Workshop 17/09/2004