title: Sources of Interactional Problems in a Survey of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination.
abstract: Cross-cultural variability in respondent processing of survey questions may bias results from multiethnic samples. We analyzed behavior codes, which identify difficulties in the interactions of respondents and interviewers, from a discrimination module contained within a field test of the 2007 California Health Interview Survey. In all, 553 (English) telephone interviews yielded 13,999 interactions involving 22 items. Multilevel logistic regression modeling revealed that respondent age and several item characteristics (response format, customized questions, length, and first item with new response format), but not race/ethnicity, were associated with interactional problems. These findings suggest that item function within a multi-cultural, albeit English language, survey may be largely influenced by question features, as opposed to respondent characteristics such as race/ethnicity.
authors.affiliation: Survey Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, CA, USA ; Stanford University, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Salma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shariff-Marco
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Willis
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Young Ik
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Breen
authors.affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Gilbert C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Gee
authors.affiliation: Harvard University, School of Public Health, Boston MA, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Krieger
authors.affiliation: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.affiliation: Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research, Somerville, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alegria
authors.affiliation: UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Vickie M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Mays
authors.affiliation: Department of Society, Human Development and Health, School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Disparities Research, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Hope
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Landrine
authors.affiliation: Stanford University, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Benmei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Bryce B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Reeve
authors.affiliation: Boston College, MA, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Ninez A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Ponce