Dataset Information

Controlling social desirability bias: An experimental investigation of the extended crosswise model.

ABSTRACT: Indirect questioning techniques such as the crosswise model aim to control for socially desirable responding in surveys on sensitive personal attributes. Recently, the extended crosswise model has been proposed as an improvement over the original crosswise model. It offers all of the advantages of the original crosswise model while also enabling the detection of systematic response biases. We applied the extended crosswise model to a new sensitive attribute, campus islamophobia, and present the first experimental investigation including an extended crosswise model, and a direct questioning control condition, respectively. In a paper-pencil questionnaire, we surveyed 1,361 German university students using either a direct question or the extended crosswise model. We found that the extended crosswise model provided a good model fit, indicating no systematic response bias and allowing for a pooling of the data of both groups of the extended crosswise model. Moreover, the extended crosswise model yielded significantly higher estimates of campus Islamophobia than a direct question. This result could either indicate that the extended crosswise model was successful in controlling for social desirability, or that response biases such as false positives or careless responding have inflated the estimate, which cannot be decided on the basis of the available data. Our findings highlight the importance of detecting response biases in surveys implementing indirect questioning techniques.

SUBMITTER: Meisters J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7721152 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Controlling social desirability bias: An experimental investigation of the extended crosswise model.

Meisters Julia J Hoffmann Adrian A Musch Jochen J

PloS one 20201207 12

Indirect questioning techniques such as the crosswise model aim to control for socially desirable responding in surveys on sensitive personal attributes. Recently, the extended crosswise model has been proposed as an improvement over the original crosswise model. It offers all of the advantages of the original crosswise model while also enabling the detection of systematic response biases. We applied the extended crosswise model to a new sensitive attribute, campus islamophobia, and present the ...[more]

PMID: 33284820

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Project description:ObjectivesSocial desirability bias is often speculated to influence survey responses but seldom studied in healthcare. The objective was to explore whether social desirability scores (SDS) or the presence of interview observers is associated with inaccurate recall and overestimation of antenatal care (ANC) services.DesignLongitudinal validation study comparing recalled receipt of ANC services and nutrition components of ANC against direct observations of care. An adapted short form Marlowe-Crowne questionnaire was used to generate an SDS, and the presence of interview observers was treated as a separate exposure. We assessed accuracy and overestimation of recalled receipt of ANC services against observed receipt using log-binomial regression, adjusting for age, education, first-pregnancy and socioeconomic status.SettingRural Southern Nepal with recruitment from five government health posts.Participants401 pregnant women.ResultsSocial desirability scores did not significantly predict accuracy or overestimation of most types of ANC care except counselling on nausea. Higher SDS was associated with more accurate recall (adjusted RR, aRR 1.08 (95% CI 1.03, 1.12)) and less overestimation (aRR 0.85 (0.80, 0.91)). The presence of mothers-in-law or husbands during interviews was associated with greater overestimation of the number of ANC visits received by more than three visits (aRR 2.07 (1.11, 3.84)) and (aRR 4.19 (2.17, 8.10)), respectively. Those interviewed with friends present tended to overestimate the receipt of counselling on nausea, avoiding alcohol and not smoking.ConclusionThe presence of observers can lead to overestimation of the receipt of ANC care and support the conduct of interviews in private settings despite challenges of doing so in village contexts. Findings that the SDS did not predict the accuracy of most types of ANC care might reflect a reality that such questions may not be sensitive from a social-norms perspective. Additional local adaptation of SDS is recommended.

Dataset Information

Controlling social desirability bias: An experimental investigation of the extended crosswise model.

Publications

Controlling social desirability bias: An experimental investigation of the extended crosswise model.

Similar Datasets

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