Can I just check...? Effects of edit check questions on measurement error and survey estimates

Household income is difficult to measure, since it requires the collection of information about all potential income sources for each member of a household.Weassess the effects of two types of edit check questions on measurement error and survey estimates: within-wave edit checks use responses to questions earlier in the same interview to query apparent inconsistencies in responses; dependent interviewing uses responses from prior interviews to query apparent inconsistencies over time.Weuse data from three waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to assess the effects of edit checks on estimates, and data from an experimental study carried out in the context of the BHPS, where survey responses were linked to individual administrative records, to assess the effects on measurement error. The findings suggest that interviewing methods without edit checks underestimate non-labour household income in the lower tail of the income distribution. The effects on estimates derived from total household income, such as poverty rates or transition rates into and out of poverty, are small

The Role of Perceived Peer Norms in the Relationship Between Media Violence Exposure and Adolescents' Aggression

This study investigates the role of a social context variable, perceived peer norms, in the relationship between media violence exposure and adolescents' aggressive behavior. This was informed by a need to better understand whether, how, and for whom, media violence exposure may affect aggression. Three hypotheses were tested with peer norms as moderator, as mediator, and as both moderator and mediator in the relationship between media violence and aggression. A two-wave longitudinal survey measured media violence exposure, perceived descriptive and injunctive norms, and aggressive behavior among 943 adolescents (aged 10?14, 50.4% girls). Results provided support only for the moderated-mediation model. The indirect effect of media violence on aggression via perceived peer approval of aggression (i.e., injunctive norms) was moderated by perceived prevalence of peer aggression (i.e., descriptive norms). Specifically, media violence indirectly increased aggressive behavior for adolescents who perceived more peer aggression, but decreased aggression for adolescents who perceived less peer aggression. Implications for future research into media violence effects are discussed

Predicting Transitions in Low and High Levels of Risk Behavior from Early to Middle Adolescence: The TRAILS Study

The present study examined the joint development of substance use and externalizing problems in early and middle adolescence. First, it was tested whether the relevant groups found in previous studies i.e., those with an early onset, a late onset, and no onset or low levels of risk behavior could be identified, while using a developmental model of a single, underlying construct of risk behavior. Second, departing from Moffitt’s taxonomy of antisocial behavior, it was tested if early, but not late, onset risk behavior is predicted by a problematic risk profile in childhood. Data were used from TRAILS, a population based cohort study, starting at age 11 with two follow-ups at mean ages of 13.6 and 16.3 years. Latent transition analyses demonstrated that, both in early and middle adolescence, a single underlying construct of risk behavior, consisting of two classes (labeled as low and high risk behavior), adequately represented the data. Respondents could be clearly classified into four possible transition patterns from early to middle adolescence, with a transition from high to low being almost non-existent (2.5 %), low to low (39.4 %) and low to high (41.8 %) being the most prevalent, and high to high (16.2 %) substantial. As hypothesized, only the high-high group was characterized by a clear adverse predictor profile in late childhood, while the low-high group was not. This study demonstrates that the development of substance use is correlated with externalizing problems and underscores the theory that etiologies of early and later onset risk behavior are different

Reducing Underreports of Behaviors in Retrospective Surveys: The Effects of Three Different Strategies

Longitudinal social science surveys typically collect data at regular intervals. In most ongoing panel surveys, the time between two consecutive waves of measurement is 1 year. This interval is often chosen because year-to-year changes often suffice to answer the research questions of interest. This article focuses on the accuracy of data that are collected retrospectively on events that occur between two interviews: the use of the medical services of a Family Physician (FP). Surveys like the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (Börsch-Supan et al., 2013) and the Health and Retirement Survey (Wallace & Herzog, 1995) annually ask the survey question: ‘‘During the last 12 months, about how many times in total have you seen or talked to a medical doctor about your health?’’ Earlier studies on the quality of such survey reports have found substantial inac-curacies in retrospective reports of behavioral frequencies that were caused by under-reporting, overreporting, or a combination of the two. Respondents can follow different strategies to answer retrospective questions. One strategy is to try to recall every specific behavioral event along with details of suc

Differential effects of baseline drinking status: Effects of an alcohol prevention program targeting students and/or parents (PAS) among weekly drinking students

The effects of an intervention designed to prevent onset of weekly drinking in non drinking students (PAS) were investigated in the group of students that was already drinking at baseline. A cluster randomized trial was used including 3,490 Dutch early adolescents (M age = 12.66, SD = 0.49) randomized over four conditions; 1) parent intervention, 2) student intervention, 3) combined intervention and 4) control group. Outcome measures were amount and growth of weekly alcohol drinking measured 10, 22 and 34 months after baseline. The combined intervention significantly curbed the growth of drinking among both non-drinkers (the target group of the intervention) and drinkers at baseline. Overall, less strong increases of drinking over time are found among non-drinkers compared to drinkers at baseline. Thus, the combined PAS intervention is also effective in curbing adolescents' drinking behaviour in those who already were drinking at baseline. Broad implementation of the combined parent?student intervention is recommended

Adolescents' use of nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation: Predictors of compliance trajectories

Item does not contain fulltextPrevious research has shown limited efficacy of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) among adolescents and generally low compliance rates. As higher compliance rates are associated with improved abstinence rates, the present study examined predictors of NRT compliance. This study aims to test whether different NRT compliance trajectories can be distinguished among adolescents, to test whether these trajectories can be predicted by demographic, smoking-related, and personality factors, and to examine abstinence rates for each trajectory. Data were used from a randomized controlled trial that tested the efficacy of nicotine patches versus placebo patches among 265 Dutch adolescents. During NRT treatment, adolescents filled out six online questionnaires in which they reported on the number of days they used the patches. Predictors (i.e., demographic and smoking-related factors and personality characteristics) and end-of-treatment abstinence were also administered through these self-reports. Latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was used to analyze compliance data by classifying individuals into similar growth trajectories. Three compliance trajectories were found (i.e., "compliers" (n = 89), "moderate decreasers" (n = 41), and "strong decreasers" (n = 127)). The compliers can be characterized by higher levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness and lower levels of extraversion compared with the strong decreasers, and by higher levels of conscientiousness and education compared with the moderate decreasers. Among the compliers, a substantially higher percentage of adolescents achieved abstinence at end-of-treatment (10 %) compared with the moderate decreasers (3 %) and the strong decreasers (6 %). These findings could be the starting point for person-tailored interventions that aim to enhance NRT compliance rates among adolescents.10 p