Race/Ethnic Variability in survey Question Processing and Response

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案旨在采用自我报告和辅助数据源，对被调查者的种族/民族和文化如何影响与调查相关的行为进行系统、全面的评估。虽然大多数人都承认文化在决定调查相关行为方面可以发挥重要作用，但许多现有的调查证据来自事后和二次分析，范围和普遍性有限。此外，大多数现有的调查研究侧重于调查对象的种族和民族分类，而未能考虑可能介导观察到的差异的潜在文化取向和价值观。为了解决这些局限性，本研究将收集代表美国四个不同文化群体的1200名成年人的样本数据：非裔美国人、韩裔美国人、墨西哥裔美国人和非西班牙裔白人。其中三个群体代表了美国最大的种族/民族人口，包括韩裔美国人，以代表该国迅速发展的东亚文化，并确保所评估的文化取向和价值观的最大可变性。抽样的成年人将根据性别、年龄、教育程度和语言偏好进一步分层。采访将被录音和录像。这些记录随后将被行为编码，以识别认知处理困难的言语和非言语标记，如问题理解、记忆检索、反应映射和社会期望反应方面的问题。与每个答案相关的响应延迟也将被电子记录。利用这些数据，将采用分层线性模型来调查以下研究问题：(i)种族/民族对被调查者的语言和非语言行为的影响，作为调查访谈中反应过程的指标；(2)种族/民族对调查反应方式的影响，如默认和极端反应行为、非分化反应、无意见反应和反应顺序效应；(3)种族/民族对认知加工的影响程度受题目、格式等问题设计特征的调节；(4)文化价值维度的个体差异对种族/民族效应的解释程度。本研究将提供机会，探索在各种常见调查问题特征的认知加工困难的种族/民族差异的大小。它还将通过检查这种差异在多大程度上可归因于文化价值取向的系统差异和其他个体差异，来解决为什么在认知和反应效果方面出现种族/民族差异。结果将导致关于设计调查问题的最佳实践的建议，以最大限度地减少认知加工困难的跨文化差异。这是一个重要的目标，因为健康调查是衡量公共卫生差距的关键标准之一。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal seeks to employ self-report and auxiliary data sources to conduct a systematic, comprehensive assessment of how respondent race/ethnicity and culture influence survey-related behaviors. Although most acknowledge the important role that culture can play in determining survey-related behaviors, much of the available survey evidence comes from post hoc and secondary analyses that have limited scope and generalizability. In addition, most available survey research focuses on racial and ethnic classifications of survey respondents and fails to consider underlying cultural orientations and values that may mediate observed variations. To address these limitations, this study will collect data from a sample of 1,200 adults representing four distinct cultural groups in the U.S.: African Americans, Korean Americans, Mexican Americans, and non-Hispanic Whites. Three of these groups represent the largest racial/ethnic populations in the U.S. Korean Americans are included to represent the country's rapidly growing East Asian culture and to insure maximum variability in the cultural orientations and values to be assessed. Sampled adults will be further stratified by gender, age, education, and language preference groups. Interviews will be audio- recorded and videotaped. These recordings subsequently will be behavior coded to identify verbal and nonverbal markers of cognitive processing difficulties, such as problems with question comprehension, memory retrieval, response mapping, and socially desirable responding. The response latencies associated with each answer also will be electronically recorded. Using these data, hierarchical linear modeling will be employed to investigate research questions concerned with (i) the effects of race/ethnicity on respondent verbal and nonverbal behaviors as indicators of the response process in survey interviews; (2) the effects of race/ethnicity on survey response styles, such as acquiescent and extreme responding behavior, non-differentiation, no-opinion responding, and response order effects; (3) the degree to which the effect of race/ethnicity on cognitive processing is moderated by question design features, such as topic and format; and (4) the degree to which race/ethnicity effects can be explained by individual differences in cultural value dimensions. This research will provide the opportunity to explore the magnitude of racial/ethnic variability in cognitive processing difficulties across a variety of common survey question features. It also will address why racial/ethnic differences in cognitive and response effects emerge by examining the extent to which such differences can be attributed to systematic variations in cultural value orientation and other individual differences. Results will lead to recommendations regarding best practices in the design of survey questions that minimize cross-cultural variability in cognitive processing difficulties. This is an important goal, as health surveys are one of the key yardsticks by which public health disparities are measured.