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Public Opinion Quarterly 59:547-567 (1995)
© 1995 American Association for Public Opinion Research

DIAGNOSTICS FOR REDESIGNING SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES

MEASURING WORK IN THE CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY

ELIZABETH MARTIN and ANNE E. POLIVKA

ELIZABETH MARTIN is chief of the Center for Survey Methods Research in the Statistical Research Division of the Bureau of the Census. ANNE E. POLIVKA is a research economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Office of Research and Longitudinal Program Development. This article reports the results of research undertaken by Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics staff. The views expressed are attributable to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Census Bureau or the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The authors thank Paul Siegel, this journal's referees, and the editor for very helpful comments.

Between 1986 and 1993, a program of questionnaire design and cognitive research was conducted by the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics, to improve labor force measurements in the Current Population Survey (CPS). As part of the research program, diagnostic measures for systematically testing and evaluating alternative questionnaire versions were developed and applied. This article reports results of applying two methods, special follow-up probes and hypothetical vignettes, to the measurement of "work" in the CPS. These measures provided both direct and indirect information about problems of respondent comprehension and reporting errors. In this article, we analyze results using these diagnostic measures to evaluate the effect of questionnaire revisions on reporting of work activities, and we assess the consistency and usefulness of the information provided by alternative diagnostic measures for pretesting and selecting questions.


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