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Article
Open-Ended Survey Questions: Item Nonresponse Nightmare or Qualitative Data Dream?
Survey Practice
  • Angie L. Miller, Indiana University
  • Amber D. Lambert, Indiana University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-30-2014
Keywords
  • item nonresponse,
  • alumni survey,
  • open-ended items
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.29115/SP-2014-0024
Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore whether those with certain demographic and personal characteristics, including gender, age, cohort, number of children, marital status, citizenship, race, current employment status, income, and institutional satisfaction level, are more or less likely to respond to open-ended questions placed at the beginning, middle, and end of an online alumni survey. Using data from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a series of chi-squared and means comparisons analyses were done to compare whether or not respondents provided an answer to three different open-ended questions throughout the survey. Findings suggest that there are some group differences in likelihood of response, which could be explained by time burden, negativity bias, and self-identification as “other.”

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Survey Practice, v. 7, no. 5, p. 1-11

Citation Information
Angie L. Miller and Amber D. Lambert. "Open-Ended Survey Questions: Item Nonresponse Nightmare or Qualitative Data Dream?" Survey Practice Vol. 7 Iss. 5 (2014) p. 1 - 11
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/amber-dumford/14/