Sources of Interactional Problems in a Survey of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination

Timothy P Johnson; Salma Shariff-Marco; Gordon Willis; Young Ik Cho; Nancy Breen; Gilbert C Gee; Nancy Krieger; David Grant; Margarita Alegria; Vickie M Mays; David R Williams; Hope Landrine; Benmei Liu; Bryce B Reeve; David Takeuchi; Ninez A Ponce

doi:10.1093/ijpor/edu024

Sources of Interactional Problems in a Survey of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination

Int J Public Opin Res. 2015 Summer;27(2):244-263. doi: 10.1093/ijpor/edu024.

Authors

Timothy P Johnson¹, Salma Shariff-Marco², Gordon Willis³, Young Ik Cho⁴, Nancy Breen³, Gilbert C Gee⁵, Nancy Krieger⁶, David Grant⁷, Margarita Alegria⁸, Vickie M Mays⁹, David R Williams¹⁰, Hope Landrine¹¹, Benmei Liu¹², Bryce B Reeve¹³, David Takeuchi¹⁴, Ninez A Ponce⁵

Affiliations

¹ Survey Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
² Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, CA, USA ; Stanford University, School of Medicine.
³ National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA.
⁴ University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
⁵ University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ Harvard University, School of Public Health, Boston MA, USA.
⁷ UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁸ Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research, Somerville, MA, USA.
⁹ UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Society, Human Development and Health, School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
¹¹ Center for Health Disparities Research, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA.
¹² Stanford University, School of Medicine.
¹³ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹⁴ Boston College, MA, USA.

Abstract

Cross-cultural variability in respondent processing of survey questions may bias results from multiethnic samples. We analyzed behavior codes, which identify difficulties in the interactions of respondents and interviewers, from a discrimination module contained within a field test of the 2007 California Health Interview Survey. In all, 553 (English) telephone interviews yielded 13,999 interactions involving 22 items. Multilevel logistic regression modeling revealed that respondent age and several item characteristics (response format, customized questions, length, and first item with new response format), but not race/ethnicity, were associated with interactional problems. These findings suggest that item function within a multi-cultural, albeit English language, survey may be largely influenced by question features, as opposed to respondent characteristics such as race/ethnicity.

Grants and funding

P60 MD006923/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States