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ABSTRACT
Event history calendar (EHC) methods have received increasing attention from the life-course surveys that have been used in recent years. According to the literature, the EHC provides high-quality data in retrospective surveys because it replicates the autobiographical memory retrieval processes. EHC interviewing is processed through the visual display of individual life events, phases and transitions on a chronological calendar grid, which allows respondents to effectively link events as well as to identify and correct possible dating errors. Moreover, interactive interviewing facilitates the retrieval mechanism. In this study, we test whether the absence of an interviewer and/or interactive interviewing are associated with a reduction in data quality. This aspect is particularly relevant for surveys, as the absence of the interviewer would allow the implementation of EHC methods in self-administered questionnaires. In Study 1, an experimental design compared the results of self-administered paper-and-pencil EHCs in the presence and absence of an interviewer. In Study 2, a quasi-experimental approach compared the results of an interactive EHC interview with those of a self-administered paper-and-pencil EHC. Neither of these studies showed systematic differences between self-administered and interviewer-administered EHCs. The self-administered mode performs better when the instructions and layout design of the questionnaire are clear and detailed. Our findings suggest that the visual properties of the EHC could be a sufficient condition for collecting good retrospective data in the self-administered mode once the initial burden of the task is overcome.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation for its financial assistance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Davide Morselli is Senior Lecturer at the Life Course and Inequality Research Center of the University of Lausanne and Senior Researcher at the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives. Alongside substantive research on the psycho-social dynamics of social change and the effects of context on individual world-views and attitudes, he has been involved in the implementation of retrospective methods in survey designs to collect biographical data. His focus is mainly on the self-administered use of event-history calendars in large surveys, by means of different interviewing modes.
Jean-Marie Le Goff has got his PhD in demography at the University of Paris-Panthéon Sorbonne. He is currently Senior Lecturer at the Life Course and Inequality Research Center of the University of Lausanne and Senior Researcher at the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives. His research interests focus on the analysis of transitions during the life course and in methodology for social sciences.
Jacques-Antoine Gauthier is a Senior Lecturer at the Life Course and Inequality Research Center of the University of Lausanne and Senior Researcher at the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research LIVES: Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives. Using a configurational perspective, his current research projects focus on modelling and analyzing longitudinal life course data. Central to this analysis is the time-related construction of individual life trajectories and their interdependencies - especially when individuals experience major life transitions, such as the entry into the labour market, parenthood or retirement.
Notes
1 Swiss National Science Foundation, no 100017_130343/1