American Time Use Survey: Report on Dress Rehearsal Diane Herz American Time Use Survey IATUR meetings in Lisbon, Portugal October

The ATUS Dress Rehearsal  Mimicked full-production conditions  2 months’ sample: from March and April household surveys (3,240)  CATI interview  8-week fielding period  1 designated person/household  Each assigned designated day  Average: 18-minute interview  x-day training provided

Telephone households: Response and refusal rates

Main reasons for refusal  Reluctance to do survey because they just did the household survey  Too busy/not enough time

Telephone households: Contact rates

Reasons for high noncontact rate  Calling protocol was not followed at call center  Case management system sent cases into “hold queues”  Many cases were left in “callback” status  Process improved in week 4 of April sample

No-telephone-number households: additional protocol  Sent $40 incentive with advance materials  Requested respondents call in to do interview

Response rates were low for “no- telephone-number” households

Demographics of respondents and refusals

Number of activities reported in diary

Representativeness of days

Overview of coding results Overview of coding results  Average number of codeable activities per case: 19  Average number pre-coded during interview: X  Average time to code case declined each month  Most errors were interviewing errors, not coding errors  Some problem areas; some easy areas

Coding efficiency increased during the field period Minutes to code case

Debriefing results  Operations –Fix the system –Add operations training  Training –Develop FAQs for specified populations –Provdie document on applications in other countries

Debriefing results  Questionnaire –Enjoyed conversational interviewing –Explain paid work questions –Provide “all-day” child care button  Respondents –Work to avert labor force survey refusals  Coding –Liked coding –Instrument worked well –Add some activities –Clarify some rules

Estimates by activity and sex

Secondary child care estimates

Changes resulting from dress rehearsal  Operations –Went to prefielding early to correct case management operations  Training –Added flow charts desk aids to coding training –Clarified paid work questions –Provided FAQs and applications job aids

Changes resulting from dress rehearsal  Coding –Added some categories & examples –See Tina Shelley’s presentation!  Data collection software –Added reason for refusal question –Added interviewer data quality question –Added “all-day” child care button –Showed “awake” time for child care questions

Next Steps  Early prefielding (Sept/Oct)  Prefielding (Nov/Dec)  Full production (January 2003)  Data release (mid-2004)