 Early and Late Participation during the Field Period: Response Timing in a Mixed-Mode Probability-Based Panel SurveyTobias Gummer and Bella Struminskaya Sociological Methods & Research, 2023, vol. 52, issue 2, 909-932 Abstract: Reluctance of respondents to participate in surveys has long drawn the attention of survey researchers. Yet, little is known about what drives a respondent’s decision to answer the survey invitation early or late during the field period. Moreover, we still lack evidence on response timing in longitudinal surveys. That is, the questions on whether response timing is a rather stable respondent characteristic and what—if anything—affects change in response timing across different interviews remain open. We relied on data from a mixed-mode general population panel survey collected between 2014 and 2016 to study the stability of response timing across 18 panel waves and factors that influence the decision to participate early or late in the field period. Our results suggest that the factors which had effects on response timing are different in the mail and web modes. Moreover, we found that experience with prior panel waves affected the respondent’s decision to participate early or late. Overall, the present study advocates understanding response timing as a metric variable and, consequently, the need to reflect this in modeling strategies. Keywords: response timing; participation; field period; reluctant respondents; mixed-mode; panel surveys (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:somere:v:52:y:2023:i:2:p:909-932 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Sociological Methods & Research |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.