<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Self-reports in surveys are often influenced by the presented question format and question context. Much less is known about how these effects influence the answers of younger survey respondents. The present study investigated how variations in response format, answer scale frequency, and question order influence self-reports of two age groups: younger (11–13 years old) and older (16–18 years old) adolescents. In addition, the impact of the respondents’ level of familiarity with the question content was taken into account. Results indicated that younger adolescents are more strongly influenced by the presented question format and context than older adolescents. This, however, was dependent on the particular question content, implying that response effects are more pronounced when questions deal with issues that lie outside of the respondents’ field of experience. Implications of these findings in survey research with younger respondents are discussed.</p></abstract>

Self-reports in surveys are often influenced by the presented question format and question context. Much less is known about how these effects influence the answers of younger survey respondents. The present study investigated how variations in response format, answer scale frequency, and question order influence self-reports of two age groups: younger (11–13 years old) and older (16–18 years old) adolescents. In addition, the impact of the respondents’ level of familiarity with the question content was taken into account. Results indicated that younger adolescents are more strongly influenced by the presented question format and context than older adolescents. This, however, was dependent on the particular question content, implying that response effects are more pronounced when questions deal with issues that lie outside of the respondents’ field of experience. Implications of these findings in survey research with younger respondents are discussed.

The Impact of Question Format, Context, and Content on Survey Answers in Early and Late Adolescence

Aging & Cognition Research Group, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany, and Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany.

Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Universitätsring 15, 54296 Trier, Germany.

Journal of Official Statistics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Self-reports in surveys are often influenced by the presented question format and question context. Much less is known about how these effects influence the...

The Impact of Question Format, Context, and Content on Survey Answers in Early and Late Adolescence

Published Online: May 28, 2016

Page range: 307 - 328

Received: Apr 01, 2014

Accepted: Aug 01, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jos-2016-0018

Keywords
Attitude judgments, question order effects, social influence, survey methodology, younger survey respondents

© 2016 Nadine Diersch et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Impact of Question Format, Context, and Content on Survey Answers in Early and Late Adolescence

Published Online: May 28, 2016

Page range: 307 - 328

Received: Apr 01, 2014

Accepted: Aug 01, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jos-2016-0018

KeywordsAttitude judgments, question order effects, social influence, survey methodology, younger survey respondents

© 2016 Nadine Diersch et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Attitude judgments, question order effects, social influence, survey methodology, younger survey respondents