The British Household Panel Survey Began in September 1991 National sample of England, Scotland and Wales 5,000 households/10,000 interviewed adults 16+ (approx.) Annual face-to-face interview carried out by NOP Wave 9 (1999) first CAPI wave Wave 10 now in the field

The British Household Panel Survey 1997 –added sub-sample of 950 low income households from former UK European Community Household Panel 1999 –two new samples added in Scotland and Wales in response to devolution –1500 interviewed households in each sample

Main areas of coverage Household and demographic change Housing, consumption Training and education Health and caring Labour market behaviour Labour and non-labour income Values and opinions Household finances

Questionnaire documents Coversheet Household questionnaire Individual questionnaire (all aged 16+) Self completion questionnaire Proxy questionnaire Youth interview (all aged 11-15, since Wave 4)

Reasons for CAPI transition Potential for improvements in data quality –reduction in missing data –consistency checks within the interview –plausibility checks at the point of data collection Potential improvement in speed of data turn-around Savings in fieldwork costs

Main concerns mode effects response rates and respondent reactions interviewer training potential for technical problems data processing and data release delays

Requirements of CAPI system  minimise potential mode effects  ensure a positive reaction to CAPI from interviewers and respondents  ensure adequate interviewer training  maintain high response rates  choose software which had the capability to handle a lengthy and complex questionnaire design

Requirements of CAPI system  maintain a secure sample management system  have adequate debugging and code checking facilities within the software  develop a CAPI system compatible with existing data processing procedures at ISER  have sufficient hardware capabilities  ensure data security at all times

Questionnaire design Limited CAPI conversion to two main survey schedules –Household Questionnaire –Individual Questionnaire Retained paper for –Coversheet –Self-Completion –Proxy –Youth interviews

CAPI Software In2itive –owned and supported by SPSS MR –used by SOEP for piloting CAPI –used by our fieldwork agency, NOP Interviewers used touch screen lap-tops –light to carry and robust –good screen resolution –easy to use –interviews dialled in via modem

Minimising mode effects maintain comparability with paper schedules as far as possible (and sensible) maintain standard fieldwork procedures in all other respects ensure good training for interviewers introduce the lap-top to respondents without fuss

The human/machine interface Established clear conventions for interviewers –standard fonts, colours, message types used throughout kept the screens uncluttered provided navigation through complex sections of the questionnaire –e.g. annual job history collecting events over the past year

Conclusions transition to CAPI successful but not easy response rates remained high no evidence of significant mode effects some technical problems with software data processing required new systems to be built for matching paper and CAPI data streams interviewers are human and will make errors W10 improvements based on W9 experience