Doctoral Dissertation Research: Language of Administration as a Source of Measurement Error: Implications for Survys of Immigrants and Cross-cultural Survey Research

美国对少数族裔和移民的调查允许受访者用他们选择的语言回答。心理学和语言学研究表明，行政语言可能通过其对各种认知过程的影响以及通过语言给会话语境带来的文化框架来影响回应。然而，目前尚不清楚调查管理语言对调查答复的影响程度。本项目的目的是考察行政语言在多大程度上影响双语双文化受访者对调查问题的回答，并调查哪些类型的问题最容易受到语言影响。这些目标将通过对观测数据的二次分析和一项实验来实现。新移民调查的二次分析将比较以英语和西班牙语接受采访的人在回答上的差异，并确定这些差异特别明显的问题类型。通过使用倾向评分方法，可以克服对一种语言缺乏随机分配的问题。此外，将启动对底特律地区约300名成年阿拉伯裔美国移民的试验性网络调查，随机分配英语或阿拉伯语版本的问卷。这项实验将包括在美国和阿拉伯文化中具有不同程度的敏感性和社会合意性的问题，以评估行政语言是否会影响对文化规范的遵守。它还将包括自传性问题，以评估由于初始编码时所说的语言与召回时的语言之间的匹配而导致的回忆差异。该项目将基本的心理学和语言学研究应用于对双语双文化受访者的调查，对他们来说，调查管理的语言可能会引起不同的文化框架。它将说明调查管理的语言如何影响受访者的回答，并将突出对移民人口调查的方法影响。这项工作的更广泛的社会影响源于收集移民准确数据的相关性。如果语言影响社会期望的反应和自传体回忆的准确性，那么语言的选择可能是为政策决策收集准确数据的重要因素。目前，尽管在移民人口调查方面投入了大量资源，但人们对这些可能性知之甚少。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。

U.S. surveys of minorities and immigrants allow respondents to answer in the language of their choice. Psychological and linguistic research suggests that the language of administration may influence responses through its impact on various cognitive processes and through the cultural frame that a language brings to the conversational context. However, the extent to which the language of survey administration affects survey responding is currently unknown. The objectives of this project are to examine the extent to which language of administration influences bilingual bicultural respondents' answers to survey questions and to investigate which types of questions are most susceptible to language effects. These objectives will be addressed through secondary analyses of observational data and an experiment. Secondary analyses of the New Immigrant Survey will compare differences in responses among those interviewed in English and those interviewed in Spanish and identify the types of questions for which these differences are particularly pronounced. The lack of random assignment to a language will be overcome by using propensity score methods. In addition, an experimental web survey of about 300 adult Arab-American immigrants from the Detroit area, randomly assigned to an English or Arabic version of the questionnaire, will be launched. The experiment will include questions with varying degrees of sensitivity and social desirability across the American and Arab cultures to assess if the language of administration affects conformity with cultural norms. It also will include autobiographical questions to assess differences in recall as a function of the match between the language spoken at the time of the initial encoding and the language at the time of recall. This project brings basic psychological and linguistic research to bear on surveys of bilingual bicultural respondents, for whom the language of survey administration may evoke different cultural frames. It will illuminate how the language of survey administration affects respondents' answers and will highlight the methodological implications for surveys of immigrant populations. The broader societal impact of this work derives from the relevance of collecting accurate data from immigrants. If language affects socially desirable responding and the accuracy of autobiographical recall, the choice of language may be an important factor in collecting accurate data for policy decisions. At present, little is known about these possibilities, despite the considerable resources invested in surveys of immigrant populations. 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.