PSID Event History Calendar Methods Study

1997年以后，收入动态小组研究将改为每两年收集一次数据，下一次访谈将于1999年进行。这一举措将需要改变问卷设计，以便获得在访谈日期前两年半发生的事件的回顾性报告。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和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，这些线索在脚本调查问卷中是不可用的，因为这些线索必须定制以满足受访者的特殊需求。作为次要目标，该研究还评估了从脚本调查问卷列表（Q-list）设计中获得报告的数据质量，以及包括事件历史日历组件作为访谈助手的脚本调查问卷（EHC-S）。为获得1996年的经济和人口统计措施，在1997年访问了600名PSID受访者，他们将被随机分配到不同的条件下。他们将在1998年（整个PSID小组的非年度）接受关于1996年和1997年发生的事件的采访。经济和人口统计结果指标将包括有关工作周数、每周工作小时数、失业周数、年薪、食品券和AFDC收据以及职业、住所和家庭组成变化的报告。1997年和1998年关于1996年事件的报告之间的一致性将作为数据质量的主要指标。通过提供从脚本q列表、脚本EHC和灵活EHC中获得的回答质量的第一次直接比较测试，该项目将能够确定这些方法在提高对访谈日期前两年半发生的事件获得的回顾性报告的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.