Investigating people’s lifetime history of suicide attempts: a roadmap for studying interviewer-related error

Merijn Eikelenboom (), Melany Horsfall, Stasja Draisma and Jan H Smit
Additional contact information
Merijn Eikelenboom: Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit
Melany Horsfall: Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit
Stasja Draisma: Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit
Jan H Smit: Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, 2023, vol. 57, issue 4, No 12, 3183-3197

Abstract: Abstract It is critically important to correctly identify persons with a lifetime history (LTH) of suicide attempts (SA) from both a clinical and research perspective. Face-to-face interviews are often the best available method for researchers to collect data about a complex phenomenon like a LTH of SA. However, extensive survey methodology research has shown that probing sensitive topics like a LTH of SA are sensitive for interviewer-related errors or interviewer effects. Studies investigating these interviewer effects are scarce in the field of suicide studies. This study presents a possible roadmap for study of interviewerrelated measurement error and an exploration of role-dependent behaviour of interviewers by assessing the LTH of SA through an epidemiological design. Data from the baseline assessment of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (N = 2981) was used to illustrate the proposed roadmap to study interviewer effects. Results show: : (1) that it was possible to identify the existence of interviewer effects in assessing a LTH of SA; (2) that interviewer effects occurred by probing and clarification activities of the interviewer but not with inadequate formulation of the original question and so give a possible explanation for these effects; and (3) that it was possible to study the impact of these effects on the association between a well-known risk factor and LTH of SA. Applying the Measurement Error framework for systematically examining errors in data collection on suicidality seems a promising method.

Keywords: Interviewer effects; Data collection; Measurement errors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-022-01432-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:57:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11135-022-01432-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11135-022-01432-7

Access Statistics for this article

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology is currently edited by Vittorio Capecchi

More articles in Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().