Hard-to-Survey Populations

Cambridge University Press, 8/28/2014
EAN 9781107031357, ISBN10: 1107031354

Hardcover, 676 pages, 24.7 x 17.4 x 3.7 cm
Language: English

Surveys are used extensively in psychology, sociology and business, as well as many other areas, but they are becoming increasingly difficult to conduct. Some segments of the population are hard to sample, some are hard to find, others are hard to persuade to participate in surveys, and still others are hard to interview. This book offers the first systematic look at the populations and settings that make surveys hard to conduct and at the methods researchers use to meet these challenges. It covers a wide range of populations (immigrants, persons with intellectual difficulties, and political extremists) and settings (war zones, homeless shelters) that offer special problems or present unusual challenges for surveys. The team of international contributors also addresses sampling strategies including methods such as respondent-driven sampling and examines data collection strategies including advertising and other methods for engaging otherwise difficult populations.

Part I. Introduction
1. Defining hard-to-survey populations
2. Hard-to-survey populations in comparative perspective
3. Measuring undercounts for hard-to-survey groups
4. Counting and estimating hard-to-survey populations in the 2011 Census
5. A review of quality issues associated with studying hard-to-survey populations
Part II. Conducting Surveys in Difficult Settings
6. Disaster research
surveying displaced populations
7. Conducting surveys in areas of armed conflict
8. Interviewing in disaster-affected areas
lessons learned from post-Katrina surveys of New Orleans residents
9. Reaching and enumerating homeless populations
10. 'Where are our costumes?'
The All Ireland Traveller Health Study - our Geels 2007–11
Part III. Conducting Surveys with Special Populations
11. Representing the populations
what general social surveys can learn from surveys among specific groups
12. Surveying cultural and linguistic minorities
13. Challenges to surveying immigrants
14. Ethnographic evaluations on coverage of hard-to-count minorities in US decennial censuses
15. Methodological and ethical issues arising in carrying out research with children and young people
16. Challenges in the first ever national survey of people with intellectual disabilities
17. Conducting research on vulnerable and stigmatized populations
18. Surveying political extremists
Part IV. Sampling Strategies for the Hard to Survey
19. Probability sampling methods for hard-to-sample populations
20. Recent developments of sampling hard-to-survey populations
an assessment
21. Indirect sampling for hard-to-reach populations
22. Sampling the Māori population using proxy screening, the Electoral Roll, and disproportionate sampling in the New Zealand Health Survey
23. Network-based methods for accessing hard-to-survey populations using standard surveys
24. Link-tracing and respondent-driven sampling
Part V. Data Collection Strategies for the Hard to Survey
25. Use of paid media to encourage 2010 Census participation among the hard to count
26. The hard to reach among the poor in Europe
lessons from Eurostat's EU-SILC survey in Belgium
27. Tailored and targeted designs for hard-to-survey populations
28. Standardization and meaning in the survey of linguistically diversified populations
insights from the ethnographic observation of linguistic minorities in 2010 Census interviews
29. Mobilizing hard-to-survey populations to participate fully in censuses and surveys
30. Finding the hard to reach and keeping them engaged in research.