Completion of self‐administered questionnaires in a sex survey

Abstract

This paper examines completion of four self‐administered questionnaires (SAQs) in the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS), a large national personal‐visit survey on sexual behaviors and attitudes in the United States. Based on interviewer reports, only 66% of respondents self‐administered all four SAQs, while 15% self‐administered none of them, and 20% did some of the SAQs themselves. Three factors that may effect the decision to self‐administer the SAQs were explored: (a) capacity, (b) motivation, and (c) question sensitivity. Support was found for the capacity hypothesis, suggesting that literacy is a factor in the self‐completion decision. Stronger support for the motivation hypothesis was found, with reluctant respondents being less likely to complete the SAQs themselves. Regarding the sensitivity hypothesis, the decision to self‐administer does not appear to be affected by the behaviors engaged in by respondents, or by the perceived sensitivity of these behaviors. However, the responses to the SAQ items themselves differ systematically by whether the SAQ was self‐completed or done with the assistance of the interviewer. These findings suggest it is important to measure who completes the SAQ, and to attempt to maximize the self‐completion of SAQs in surveys.