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Handbook of Recommended Practices for Questionnaire Development and Testing in the European Statistical System

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Handbook of Recommended Practices for Questionnaire Development and Testing in the European Statistical System Handbook of Recommended Practices for Questionnaire Development and Testing in the European Statistical System Release year: 2006 Authors: G. Brancato, S. Macchia, M. Murgia, M. Signore, G. Simeoni - Italian National Institute of Statistics, ISTAT K. Blanke, T. Körner, A. Nimmergut - Federal Statistical Office Germany, FSO P. Lima, R. Paulino - National Statistical Institute of Portugal, INE J.H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik - German Center for Survey Research and Methodology, ZUMA Version 1 Acknowledgements We are grateful to the experts from the network countries who supported us in all relevant stages of the work: Anja Ahola, Dirkjan Beukenhorst, Trine Dale, Gustav Haraldsen. We also thank all colleagues from European and overseas NSIs who helped us in understanding the current practices and in the review of the draft version of the handbook. Executive summary Executive Summary Questionnaires constitute the basis of every survey-based statistical measurement. They are by far the most important measurement instruments statisticians use to grasp the phenomena to be measured. Errors due to an insufficient questionnaire can hardly be compensated at later stages of the data collection process. Therefore, having systematic questionnaire design and testing procedures in place is vital for data quality, particularly for a minimisation of the measurement error. Against this background, the Directors General of the members of the European Statistical System (ESS) stressed the importance of questionnaire design and testing in the European Statistics Code of Practice, endorsed in February 2005. Principle 8 of the Code states that “appropriate statistical procedures, implemented from data collection to data validation, must underpin quality statistics.” One of the indicators referring to this principle requires that “questionnaires are systematically tested prior to the data collection.” Taking the Code of Practice as a starting point, this Recommended Practice Manual aims at further specifying the requirements of the Code of Practice. The Recommended Practice Manual is structured into two parts. 1) The present Executive Summary of the Recommended Practices for Questionnaire Development and Testing in the European Statistical System summarises the requirements for questionnaire design and testing in the European Statistical System (ESS). At the same time it briefly presents tools and methods considered as appropriate. It finally contains recommendations on how to develop strategies towards questionnaire design and testing tailored to the requirements of specific statistics. 2) The Handbook of Recommended Practices for Questionnaire Development and Testing in the European Statistical System describes the methods and tools in detail and gives practical hints and recommendations for their application. Furthermore, it presents the theoretical background of the question-answer process and contains suggestions for further readings. The Recommended Practices were developed with the financial support of Eurostat. 1. Scope of the Recommended Practices The European Statistics Code of Practice determines the requirements for questionnaire design and testing on a very general level. The Recommended Practices presented here further specify these requirements. In analogy to the Code of Practice, the Recommended Practices apply to all “Community statistics as defined in Council regulation (EC) No 322/97 […], produced and disseminated by national statistical authorities and the Community’s statistical authority (Eurostat).” All data collection instruments in these statistics have to provide valid and reliable results, i.e. make sure that survey questions • are understood and answered correctly by the respondents, • can be administered properly by interviewers (if relevant) and • do not adversely affect survey cooperation. However, it is recommended to apply the Recommended Practices also in all further data collections carried out by National Statistical Institutes at the national and regional levels. Questionnaire design, according to the Code of Practice, has to make sure that European Statistics “accurately and reliably portray reality” (Principle 12). Hence, the wording, structure and layout of all questionnaires must lead to valid and reliable results. The accuracy of the measurement clearly is the key requirement of the code. Nevertheless, the Code of Practice names a number of further requirements which have some impact on questionnaire design. These requirements include the limitation of the response burden (necessitating e.g. a respondent-friendly design), the automatisation of routine clerical operations like data capture (necessitating a computer-assisted or OCR-ready questionnaire) as well as the use of the full productivity potential of information and communications technology in data collection and processing (like in questionnaires using CAPI, CATI, and CASI technology). Taking all these requirements into account makes questionnaire design a complex scientific task. I The process of questionnaire design includes various successive steps: the development of a conceptual framework, writing and sequencing the questions, making proper use of visual design elements as well as implementing electronic questionnaires technically. In order to achieve cross-national comparability in European or international surveys, two further tasks are necessary. The translations of the questions or questionnaires have to be functionally equivalent, i.e. the respondents in different countries must have the same understanding of the questions. The demographic as well as socio-economic variables have to be harmonised through commonly accepted instruments. Therefore, possible approaches towards the translation of questions and a number of tested and accepted measurement instruments for demographic and socio- economic variables are briefly outlined in the following paragraphs. Regarding questionnaire testing, two basic requirements of the Code of Practice have to be distinguished. In all surveys of European statistics, questionnaires have to be tested 1) in a systematic way and 2) prior to the data collection. This relates to both paper-and-pencil as well as computer-assisted modes of data collection, carried out either in a self-administered or interviewer-assisted way. When surveys are conducted using multiple modes of data collection, all questionnaire versions should be tested. 1) The first requirement indicates that, in any European Statistics, questionnaire testing has to be carried out using systematic methods. This means that the methodology used has to be sound, needs to be applied in a specific order, and needs to be appropriate for the specific requirements of each individual survey. A choice has to be made from a wide range of methods used under field conditions (field testing) as well as under laboratory conditions (pre-field testing). For example, testing a questionnaire by using only informal methods, or by using respondent debriefings as the only method, would clearly not meet the requirement of carrying out the test in a systematic way. In any case, a consistent testing strategy has to be developed individually for each new and ongoing survey. 2) The second requirement states that every questionnaire has to be (systematically) tested prior to being used for collecting data for European statistics. This requirement covers all existing questionnaires (given that a systematic test did not yet take place or it is evident that some questions need improvement) as well as new questionnaires. It implies that a questionnaire should undergo systematic testing if one or more of the following circumstances apply: • legislative changes mandate a new survey, • new questions, which were formerly not tested by the statistical institute, have to be asked, • questions in existing surveys are being modified, even if apparently minor changes are made, • the data collection instrument has to be changed (e.g. use of computer-assisted interviewing) or an additional data collection mode is introduced (e.g. web surveys in parallel to mail surveys), or • poor data quality has been indicated by a review of nonresponse rates and biases, validations against other surveys or re-interview studies, deficiencies in internal consistency or other evidence. If the necessary tests are not conducted, or if sufficient evidence from existing research is not presented, the Code of Practice implies that European statistics must not include the questions in the survey. If the tests are conducted and the results show that a question performs poorly or adversely affects responses to other survey questions or survey response rates, European statistics must not use the survey question without modifying and testing it further. 2. Recommended Practices for Questionnaire Design The questionnaire in the first instance is a measurement instrument. Its main purpose is to operationalise the user’s information demand into a format which allows a statistical measurement. The concepts of “reality” must be operationalised in a way that enables the subject-matter specialists and users to carry out the necessary analyses, that the questionnaire designer can implement into the questionnaire, and that the respondents can understand and answer properly. Hence, the design of questionnaires must primarily take into account the statistical requirements of data users. In order to provide a valid and reliable measurement, the wording, structure, and layout must make allowance for the nature and characteristics of
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