The effectiveness of between-wave mailings and tailored material incentives on response rates: results from a young adolescent longitudinal survey

ABSTRACT

Mailing campaigns are a way to keep longitudinal survey respondents engaged. While mailings usually include a survey answer request, sometimes respondents are contacted between-waves to update contact information or simply to keep respondent contact. Research on the actual impact of these between-wave contacts on response rates is scarce. This paper addresses three research questions: (1) Do between-wave campaigns impact response rate? (2) Does the addition of non-monetary incentives to between-wave campaigns further impact response rates? (3) Do between-wave campaigns also affect other members of the household? Following a one-year break between survey waves, we design a randomized survey experiment assigning respondents to five treatment conditions. Results show that keeping-in-touch mailings did not significantly increase the likelihood of an interview in the National Educational Panel Study for either children or their parents in general. However, when we focus on specific characteristics of the targets, significant differences are found.

KEYWORDS:

• Response rate
• between-wave
• mail surveys
• longitudinal survey
• panel attrition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2024.2303031.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roman Auriga

Roman Auriga is head of the research unit Survey Coordination in the Center for Study Management at LIfBi

André Pirralha

André Pirralha is a research specialist at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the German Federal Employment Agency. His main research interests are survey data and survey methods.

Friederike Schlücker

Friederike Schlücker works in the Research Data Centre and Methods Development Department at LIfBi and currently coordinates the Committee for Data Access within KonsortSWD and the NFDI. Her research focuses on higher education and social inequality. She is interested in quantitative data collection and data access.

Götz Lechner

Götz Lechner works in the field of visualisation of scientific findings at LIfBi.

Anna Passmann

Anna Passmann is head of the research unit Study Communications in the Center for Study Management at LIfBi