Doctoral Dissertation Research: Survey Measurement in Aging Societies

博士论文研究：老龄化社会的调查测量

• 批准号: 0648709
• 金额: $ 1.03万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-01 至 2008-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0648709&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Survey; Measurement

This research addresses the implications of an aging population for survey methodology. Psychological research into normal age-related changes in cognitive functioning has documented systematic declines across the lifespan in processing speed and working memory function. These age-related declines are likely to influence the cognitive and communicative processes involved in question answering; in fact, previous research highlighted the important role of cognitive abilities in the question-answering process. This project focuses on two specific aspects. First, psychological research indicates that older adults perform better on demanding cognitive tasks when tested in the morning rather than in the evening. If so, time of interview may interact with respondents' age in determining data quality. Secondary analyses of data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS) address this question. The key prediction is that older respondents provide higher quality data when interviewed in the morning than in the evening, whereas time of day does not affect data quality for younger respondents. Second, a randomized experiment examines likely age-related differences in how respondents answer behavioral frequency questions and addresses their implications for questionnaire design. Record checks are used to asses the accuracy of respondents' answers. Controlling for other variables known to influence the selection of response strategies, the key prediction holds that older adults are less likely to employ enumeration-based response strategies than younger adults, due to the high cognitive demand associated with enumeration. Because enumeration-based strategies usually foster underreporting, whereas estimation-based strategies foster overestimating, age-related differences in strategy selection are also expected to translate into differential response biases. Specifically, older adults are expected to over report behaviors, whereas younger adults are expected to underreport behaviors relative to records, distorting actual age-related differences in behavioral frequency. Older adults are a rapidly growing segment of the population and any meaningful analysis of societal developments will need to include valid data from older adults. A solid body of research in psychology and neuroscience documents profound age-related changes in cognitive functioning and these changes present a formidable challenge for survey research: How do we adapt research strategies to ensure the collection of high quality data from older adults? Social scientists will only be able to adapt their data collection procedures to the needs of a changing population when age-related differences in respondent behavior at all steps of the research process are sufficiently well understood. This project contributes to this understanding and facilitates the development of procedures that foster high data quality, thus providing sound information about societal developments. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

本研究探讨了人口老龄化对调查方法的影响。对认知功能与年龄相关的正常变化的心理学研究表明，在整个生命周期中，处理速度和工作记忆功能会系统性地下降。这些与年龄相关的衰退可能会影响回答问题所涉及的认知和沟通过程；事实上，之前的研究强调了认知能力在问答过程中的重要作用。本项目侧重于两个具体方面。首先，心理学研究表明，老年人在早晨测试时比在晚上测试时表现得更好。如果是这样，采访时间可能会与受访者的年龄相互作用，从而决定数据质量。对密歇根大学健康与退休研究（HRS）数据的二次分析解决了这个问题。关键的预测是，年龄较大的受访者在上午接受采访时提供的数据质量高于晚上，而一天中的时间不影响年轻受访者的数据质量。其次，一项随机实验检验了受访者在回答行为频率问题时可能存在的年龄相关差异，并阐述了这些差异对问卷设计的影响。记录检查用于评估应答者回答的准确性。控制已知影响反应策略选择的其他变量，关键预测认为，由于与枚举相关的高认知需求，老年人比年轻人更不可能采用基于枚举的反应策略。由于基于枚举的策略通常会导致低报，而基于估计的策略则会导致高估，因此策略选择中与年龄相关的差异也可能转化为差异反应偏差。具体来说，老年人被期望过度报告行为，而年轻人则被期望少报与记录相关的行为，扭曲了实际与年龄相关的行为频率差异。老年人是人口中快速增长的一部分，任何有意义的社会发展分析都需要包括来自老年人的有效数据。心理学和神经科学方面的大量研究记录了认知功能与年龄相关的深刻变化，这些变化对调查研究提出了一个艰巨的挑战：我们如何调整研究策略，以确保从老年人那里收集高质量的数据？社会科学家只有在充分了解调查过程中所有步骤中与年龄相关的被调查者行为差异时，才能使他们的数据收集程序适应不断变化的人口的需求。该项目有助于这种理解，并促进制定提高数据质量的程序，从而提供有关社会发展的可靠信息。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。