Field Methods
Volume 18, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 223-244

An Exploratory Study about Inaccuracy and Invalidity in Adolescent Self-Report Surveys (Article)

Fan X. , Miller B.C. , Park K.-E. , Winward B.W. , Christensen M. , Grotevant H.D. , Tai R.H.
  • a University of Virginia, United States
  • b Utah State University, United States
  • c Gyeonggido Family and Women Development Institute, United States
  • d Utah State University, United States
  • e Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, United States
  • f University of Minnesota, United States
  • g University of Virginia, United States

Abstract

Using Add Health data, the authors provide evidence that some adolescents gave inaccurate and/or invalid responses on a self-administered questionnaire. Further analyses show that these adolescents were much more likely to report extreme levels on psychosocial and behavioral outcome variables. A distinction was made between inaccurate responders (e.g., inaccurate/false responses due to carelessness or confusion) and jokesters (e.g., intentional false responses). The findings show that the jokesters showed considerably more pronounced distorting effects on some psychosocial and behavioral outcome variables than the inaccurate responders did. The authors suggest that although this jokester effect may not seriously bias the results in studies that focus on large groups, for research focusing on some special subgroups (e.g., adoption groups, immigrant groups, disability groups), this effect could pose a serious challenge for the validity of research findings. © 2006, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords

self-administered questionnaires response validity Surveys Self-reports Adolescents

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-43249155303&doi=10.1177%2f152822X06289161&partnerID=40&md5=4b0518bb6c45ce5ba0940c5f0c9e2e1b
DOI: 10.1177/152822X06289161
ISSN: 1525822X
Cited by: 109
Original Language: English