PSID Event History Calendar Methods Study

1997年后，收入动态小组研究将转到两年一次的数据收集，下一次约谈定于1999年进行。这一举措将要求更改问卷设计，以便在面谈日期之前获得最多两年半以前发生的事件的回顾报告。该项目将直接测试通过问卷设计方法获得的数据质量，这些方法需要使用脚本问题而不是灵活的事件历史日历(EHC-F)。EHC-F方法利用顺序和平行的自传式记忆线索，这是脚本式问卷无法获得的，因为此类线索必须定制以满足受访者的特殊需求。作为第二个目标，本研究还评估了从脚本问卷列表(Q-LIST)设计获得报告的数据质量与包括事件历史日历组件作为访谈助手的脚本问卷(EHC-S)的数据质量。1997年访问了600名PSID受访者，以获得1996年的经济和人口指标，他们将被随机分配到不同的条件下。他们将在1998年(PSID全体小组的休息年)就1996年和1997年发生的事件接受采访。经济和人口结果指标将包括关于工作周数、每周工作时数、失业周数、年薪、领取食品券和农业发展中心的报告，以及职业、居住和家庭结构的变化。1997年和1998年关于1996年事件的报告之间的一致性将成为衡量数据质量的主要指标。通过对从脚本Q列表、脚本EHC和灵活的EHC获得的答复质量进行第一次直接比较测试，该项目将能够确定这些方法在提高在面谈日期之前两年半之前发生的事件的回顾报告质量方面的相对效用。

After 1997, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) will move to biennial data collection, with the next scheduled interviews to be conducted in 1999. This move will require questionnaire design changes so as to gain retrospective reports of events occurring up to two and a half years prior to the interview date. This project will directly test the data quality obtained by questionnaire design methodologies that require the use of scripted questions versus a flexible event history calendar (EHC-F). The EHC-F methodology utilizes sequential and parallel autobiographical memory cues that are unavailable to scripted questionnaires, as such cues must be customized to meet the idiosyncratic needs of respondents. As a secondary objective, the study also assesses the data quality of gaining reports from a scripted questionnaire list (Q-list) design versus a scripted questionnaire that includes an event history calendar component as an interviewing aide (EHC-S). A total of 600 PSID respondents who were interviewed in 1997 to obtain economic and demographic measures for 1996 will be randomly assigned to conditions. They will be interviewed in 1998 (an off-year for the full PSID panel) about events that occurred in both 1996 and 1997. The economic and demographic outcome measures will include reports on weeks worked, hours per week worked, weeks unemployed, annual salary, receipt of food stamps and AFDC, and changes in occupation, residence, and household composition. The consistency between the 1997 and 1998 reports on 1996 events will serve as the primary indicator of data quality. By providing the first direct comparative test of the quality of responses obtained from a scripted Q-list, a scripted EHC, and a flexible EHC, this project will be able to determine the relative utility of such methodologies in promoting the quality of retrospective reports obtained on events occurring up to two and a half years prior to the interview date.