The General Social Survey (GSS) is a nationally representative survey conducted face-to-face in the United States every two years. The objective is to collect data on attitudes and opinions of the general public.
Also, the GSS is used in the United States to gather data for the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP).
In 2020, the GSS had to implement major revisions to the mode of data collection in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The GSS was adapted from a face-to-face and CAPI study to two separate studies: (i) a panel of former GSS respondents from 2016 and 2018 and (ii) a cross-sectional study based on an address-based sampling methodology.
Both studies used a web-based instrument as the main mode of data collection, supplemented by an instrument designed to work on the telephone.
René Bautista (NORC at the University of Chicago) will present an overview of the methodological and operational adjustments made to shift the General Social Survey mode from face-to-face to mixed-mode web and telephone, such as the adaptation of the questionnaire to web self-administration as well as the redesign of respondent materials and mailings to be based on mail, email, and phone outreach.
The presentation will also cover expected methodological adaptations for 2022.
About the speaker
René Bautista is a principal research scientist in the Statistics and Methodology department at NORC and director of the General Social Survey.
His academic training in Survey Methodology and work on sources of measurement error in surveys provides him with a solid theoretical and scientific approach to conduct applied survey research.
Bautista has substantial experience developing and implementing major surveys and conducting leading methodological.
His research focuses on nonresponse, measurement error, interviewer effects, mixed modes, and data collection methods.
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