Understanding Society Survey Methods

The shift from single mode survey designs to mixed mode, which involves a combination of Web, face-to-face, mail and telephone modes mixed either concurrently or sequentially (De Leeuw, 2005), is one of the key challenges of contemporary longitudinal studies. The decision about what modes to use and how to implement them can have a big impact, influencing costs, field-work procedures, non-response and measurement error. This project analysed one of the key characteristics of a mixed mode design: how people transition from one mode of survey response to another with time. This is essential for three reasons. The shift can inform targeting strategies, it can be used in models for dealing with non-response after data collection, such as weighting models, and, lastly, it can be used to explain measurement error that appears due to the mode design.

This paper investigated the process of changing modes by looking at waves 5-10 of the UKHLS Innovation Panel. Latent class analysis was used to find the underlying patterns of change in time of modes. The clusters found were used both as dependent variables, to understand who are the types of respondents in each, and as independent variables, to predict future wave non-response and mode selection.