title: Questions for Surveys: Current Trends and Future Directions.
abstract: We begin with a look back at the field to identify themes of recent research that we expect to continue to occupy researchers in the future. As part of this overview, we characterize the themes and topics examined in research about measurement and survey questions published inPublic Opinion Quarterlyin the past decade. We then characterize the field more broadly by highlighting topics that we expect to continue or to grow in importance, including the relationship between survey questions and the total survey error perspective, cognitive versus interactional approaches, interviewing practices, mode and technology, visual aspects of question design, and culture. Considering avenues for future research, we advocate for a decision-oriented framework for thinking about survey questions and their characteristics. The approach we propose distinguishes among various aspects of question characteristics, including question topic, question type and response dimension, conceptualization and operationalization of the target object, question structure, question form, response categories, question implementation, and question wording. Thinking about question characteristics more systematically would allow study designs to take into account relationships among these characteristics and identify gaps in current knowledge.
authors: N ORA C ATE S CHAEFFER is the Sewell Bascom Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Faculty Director of the University of Wisconsin Survey Center, Madison, WI, USA. J ENNIFER D YKEMA is an Associate Research Scientist and Survey Methodologist at the University of Wisconsin Survey Center, Madison, WI, USA. We wish to thank Barbara Forsyth, Eleanor Singer, Roger Tourangeau, Gordon Willis, and the POQ editors for various helpful contributions and comments, and Jeremy Beach for research assistance. The research reported here was supported in part by the Wisconsin Center for Demography and Ecology (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Center Grant [R24 HD047873 to James R. Walker]); by the Wisconsin Center for Demography of Health and Aging (National Institute on Aging Center Grant [P30 AG017266 to Robert M. Hauser]); and by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center (UWSC), which receives support from the College of Letters and Science.
authors: Nora Cate
authors: NC
authors: Schaeffer
authors: N ORA C ATE S CHAEFFER is the Sewell Bascom Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Faculty Director of the University of Wisconsin Survey Center, Madison, WI, USA. J ENNIFER D YKEMA is an Associate Research Scientist and Survey Methodologist at the University of Wisconsin Survey Center, Madison, WI, USA. We wish to thank Barbara Forsyth, Eleanor Singer, Roger Tourangeau, Gordon Willis, and the POQ editors for various helpful contributions and comments, and Jeremy Beach for research assistance. The research reported here was supported in part by the Wisconsin Center for Demography and Ecology (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Center Grant [R24 HD047873 to James R. Walker]); by the Wisconsin Center for Demography of Health and Aging (National Institute on Aging Center Grant [P30 AG017266 to Robert M. Hauser]); and by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center (UWSC), which receives support from the College of Letters and Science.
authors: Jennifer
authors: J
authors: Dykema