Developments in fieldwork procedures and monitoring in longitudinal surveys: case prioritisation and electronic contact sheets on the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Abstract

Maximising response is important in any survey and especially so in a longitudinal survey where non-response at a particular wave contributes to attrition. A key element of response maximisation in face-to-face surveys is the adoption and implementation of thorough fieldwork procedures. The introduction of electronic sample management systems has provided more timely and accurate para-data with which to monitor interviewers’ compliance with fieldwork procedures. One of the major advantages of longitudinal surveys is that they are able to make use of prior wave data in order to identify cases at highest risk of non-response and thereby target appropriate fieldwork interventions designed to minimise non-response. This paper examines two developments in the fieldwork procedures used on the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) designed to maximise response: case prioritisation for low-contact propensity cases and electronic contact sheets to help ensure adherence to contact protocols. We compare fieldwork procedures used in the fifth wave in 2012 (at age 11) with those used at the sixth wave in 2015 (at age 14), utilising wave-on-wave changes in procedures to compare the effectiveness of different approaches to response maximisation. In the first part of our paper, we compare our two different approaches to case prioritisation: response propensity models employed at wave 5 and a simpler approach using prior wave outcomes only used at waves 6. We conclude that the simpler approach to identifying cases which are likely to have low contact propensity, based on prior wave outcomes only, is more effective than a more complex approach based on response propensity models. The second part of our paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of using of electronic contact sheets (ECS) at wave 6 to improve compliance with fieldwork procedures, cost-effectiveness and reduce non-response. We show that at wave 6 interviewer compliance rates were higher and non-contact rates were lower than at wave 5, and argue that the introduction of the ECS has led to this improvement in fieldwork quality and reduction in nonresponse.