PSID Event History Calendar Methods Study

1997年以后，收入动态小组研究将改为两年一次的数据收集，下一次预定的访谈将于1999年进行。 这一举措将需要改变调查表的设计，以便获得关于访谈日期前两年半内发生的事件的回顾性报告。 本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与灵活的事件历史日历（EHC-F）。 EHC-F方法利用顺序和平行自传体记忆线索，这是不可用的脚本问卷，因为这样的线索必须定制，以满足受访者的特殊需求。 作为次要目的，该研究还评估了从脚本问卷列表（Q列表）设计与包括事件历史日历组件作为访谈助手（EHC-S）的脚本问卷中获得报告的数据质量。 1997年为获得1996年的经济和人口统计数据而接受采访的600名PSID答复者将被随机分配到不同的条件下。 他们将在1998年（对整个PSID小组来说，这是一个休息年）就1996年和1997年发生的事件接受采访。 经济和人口结果措施将包括关于工作周数、每周工作小时数、失业周数、年薪、食品券和AFDC收据以及职业、居住地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。 通过提供第一个直接的比较测试的质量的反应，从脚本的Q-列表，脚本的EHC，和灵活的EHC，该项目将能够确定相对效用的方法，以提高质量的事件发生的回顾性报告的采访日期前两年半。

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.