The Productivity of the Three-Step Test-Interview (TSTI) Compared to an Expert Review of a Self-administered Questionnaire on Alcohol Consumption

The three-step test interview (TSTI) is a recently developed observation-based procedure for the identification of response problems in self-administered survey questionnaires. The TSTI was applied in field test interviews to a quantity-frequency-variability questionnaire on alcohol consumption. For an assessment of its productivity the results are compared to a previously performed expert review. Most response problems that were identified in the expert review were confirmed in the field test interviews. Additionally, the TSTI identified many unexpected problems, mostly stemming from unanticipated “deviant” drinking patterns and from local normative connotations attached to drinking alcohol. From these findings we conclude that the TSTI is a powerful test tool with a high ecological validity

The Three-Step Test-Interview (TSTI): An observational instrument for pretesting self-completion questionnaires

The Three-Step Test-Interview (TSTI) is an instrument for pretesting a self-completion questionnaire by observing actual instances of interaction between the instrument and respondents (the response process). Because this process mainly consists of cognitive processing (‘thinking’) and is therefore hidden from the observer, (concurrent) think aloud is used as a technique for making the thought process observable. The productivity of the TSTI in identifying problems in questionnaires was assessed in three consecutive pilot studies. A manual for the application of the TSTI is appended

Estimating non-response bias in a survey on alcohol consumption: comparison of response waves

AIMS: According to 'the continuum of resistance model' late respondents can be used as a proxy for non-respondents in estimating non-response bias. In the present study, the validity of this model was explored and tested in three surveys on alcohol consumption. METHODS: The three studies collected their data by means of mailed questionnaires on alcohol consumption whereby two studies also performed a non-response follow-up. RESULTS: Comparisons of early respondents, late respondents and non-respondents in one study showed some support for 'the continuum of resistance model', although another study could not confirm this result. Comparison of alcohol consumption between three time response groups showed no significant linear pattern of differences between response waves. CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesis that late respondents are more similar to non-respondents than early respondents, could not be confirmed or rejected. Repeated mailings are effective in obtaining a greater sample size, but seem ineffective in improving the representativeness of alcohol consumption surveys