Spanish National Team and TYPSA May 2013
1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................... 2 2 METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................................................................. 2 2.1.‐ TARGET POPULATION ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 2.2.‐ SAMPLING FRAME ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 2.3.‐ SAMPLING DESIGN ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 2.4.‐ INTERVIEW TYPE .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4 2.5.‐DATES OF FIELDWORK ................................................................................................................................................................... 4 3 FIELDWORK ..................................................................................................................................................................... 4 3.1.‐ STAFF TRAINING AND PREPARATION OF STRUCTURES AND EQUIPMENT ................................................................................................... 4 3.1.1 Interviewers requirements ............................................................................................................................................ 6 3.1.2 Training ......................................................................................................................................................................... 6 3.1.2.1 3.1.2.2 Main training ........................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Attrition training ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7 3.2.‐ EQUIPMENT AND DATA COLLECTION ............................................................................................................................................... 7 3.3.‐ PROJECT’S SPECIFICATIONS ............................................................................................................................................................ 8 3.4.‐ CONTACT PROCEDURES ................................................................................................................................................................. 9 3.4.1 First phase ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 3.4.2 Second phase .............................................................................................................................................................. 10 3.5.‐NON CONTACT AND REFUSALS ....................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.5.1 Non contacts ............................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.5.2 Refusals ....................................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.6.‐ SURVEY PROJECTIONS AND PROGRESS REPORT ................................................................................................................................ 12 3.7.‐ PRODUCTIVITY .......................................................................................................................................................................... 12 3.8.‐INCENTIVES ............................................................................................................................................................................... 15 4.‐ SUPERVISION ................................................................................................................................................................... 16 4.1.‐NON CONTACT AND REFUSALS ....................................................................................................................................................... 16 4.2.‐COMPLETED INTERVIEWS ............................................................................................................................................................. 17 4.3.‐ DATA QUALITY .......................................................................................................................................................................... 18 4.3.1 Interviewers’ work ....................................................................................................................................................... 18 4.3.2 Data quality ................................................................................................................................................................. 18 5 FINAL RESULTS ................................................................................................................................................................... 18 ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage1 1 INTRODUCTION
The European Social Survey (ESS) is a European study funded by the European Science
Foundation and the European Commission. The ESS has been carried out every two years since
2002. Nearly 30 countries have participated in ESS Round 6. The R6 fieldwork in Spain has been
funded by the “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” (MINECO), and it has also been
supported by the “Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas” (CIS).
The ESS main goal is to map the changes in the political attitudes and values of the citizens of the
participating countries.
The ESS is representative of all individuals aged 15 and over living in Spanish households
regardless of their citizenship, language or legal status.
The ESS is a survey with very high fieldwork standards. In order to guarantee that these high
standards are fulfilled, the National Coordinator, Mariano Torcal, and his team have closely
monitored the ESS R6 fieldwork. Close cooperation between TYPSA and the ESS Spanish Team
has been decisive to guarantee the quality of the fieldwork.
The ESS R6 sample size consists of 2868 sample units.
2 METHODOLOGY
The 6th Round of the ESS has been carried out through face to face computer assisted interviews.
2.1.‐TargetPopulation
The population consists of Spanish residents aged 15 and over living in private households in all
Spanish regions including Ceuta and Melilla; regardless of their citizenship, language and legal
status.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage2 2.2.‐SamplingFrame
The sampling frame for the ESS R6 is the Spanish population census structured in sections taken
from the Continuous Census (Padrón Continuo) updated in December 2011 by the “Instituto
Nacional de Estadística” (INE, National Statistics Institute in Spain).
2.3.‐SamplingDesign
The ESS R6 sample design is stratified in two stages.
The strata were obtained by crossing two classification criteria of the population. The first criterion
is the region of residence (17 regions plus the North-African autonomous cities of Ceuta and
Melilla).
The second criterion distinguishes among four types of habitat according to their size:
1) The first bracket: cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants aged 15 and over.
2) The second bracket: cities between 50,001 and 100,000 inhabitants aged 15 and over.
3) The third bracket: municipalities between 10,001 and 50,000 inhabitants aged 15 and over.
4) The fourth bracket: municipalities with less than 10,001 inhabitants aged 15 and over.
The cross-tabulation of the two criteria provides a total of 72 theoretical strata (18x4), only 64 of
them being effective. In each stratum the two sampling stages are as follows:
1) In the first stage, a fixed number of census sections are drawn with probability proportional
to the number 15 years old and over inhabitants in each section. Thus, census sections are
the primary sampling units (PSUs).
2) In the second stage, for each PSU selected in the previous stage, 6 or 7 individuals aged 15
years old and over per unit will be randomly drawn: 7 cases in the sections belonging to the
first three brackets and 6 in the others.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage3 2.4.‐InterviewType
Face to face interviews were carried out in the sample units’ households. ESS R6 Interviewers
used laptops. A structured and pre-codified questionnaire was programmed in each laptop.
The duration of the interview ranged from 20 minutes to one hour and 50 minutes.
2.5.‐DatesofFieldwork
Fieldwork took place between January 23rd and May 12th, 2013.
3 FIELDWORK
3.1.‐Stafftrainingandpreparationofstructuresandequipment
The team assigned by TYPSA for the fieldwork is structured according to a hierarchical
organization, which consisted of:
FIELD TEAM General coordinator
1
Field coordinator
1
National coordinators
5
Regional coordinators
13
Interviewers
73
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage4 The main functions of the Field Coordinator has been: 1)
Monitoring and control of all the processes for collecting and recording field surveys
and their incidents.
2)
Supervision and control of data processing.
3)
Organization of all staff assigned to field work, through the application of field
situation.
4)
Training support, provide training courses to national and regional coordinators
5)
Check the content and editing of handbooks and their distribution through national
coordinators.
6)
Supervise the sample, to design the field equipment for the fieldwork areas.
The main functions of National Coordinators have been:
1)
Organize and control the fieldwork collection activities.
2)
Organize and control the distribution of laptops and survey material and their
subsequent return.
3)
Weekly assignment of work on field sections.
4)
Supervise and organize the work of regional coordinators.
5)
Check daily the status and performance of field work in their areas.
6)
Answer enquiries from regional coordinators in relation to fieldwork.
The main functions of Regional Coordinators have been:
1)
Coordination of interviewers assigned to him/her in the execution of work and for
achieving the goals set.
2)
Ensure delivery of material to the interviewers and its return at the end of the project.
3)
Answer the questions coming from interviewers and respondents.
Prior to the training course, some documentation explaining the ESS project was sent to
prospective field agents, for them to familiarize themselves with it.
This documentation was not only a reading exercise, but had a practical side to confirm their
understanding.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage5 Thanks to this documentation all interviewers began with initial basic knowledge regarding the
content and objectives of the study.
Before the training, the officers returned a duly completed exercise, demonstrating their
involvement with this project.
3.1.1 Interviewerrequirements
Coordinators were requested to hire interviewers for the project responding to a specific profile:
1) Able to work with CAPI, and familiar with computers
2) Experienced interviewers, whenever possible.
3) Available at weekends and late-hours during working days so as to comply with the project
specifications regarding visits during “special hours”.
4) Specific knowledge of the Catalan language for the regions of Catalonia, Valencia and the
Balearic Islands.
All interviewers were informed of the project requirements concerning times and days of visits per
case.
3.1.2 Training
The main targets in the training processes organized for this project were:
a. Explaining the goals of the Survey.
b. How to fill it in contact forms.
c. Neighborhood characteristics training.
d. Procedures for data retrieval training.
e. CAPI applications training.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage6 During the briefings, a guided review of the questionnaire took place. Interviewers were training in
how to deal with each questionnaire item and with different situations.
3.1.2.1 Maintraining
Main training took place in three days:
1) Madrid, January the 22nd (33 persons).
2) Barcelona, January the 24th (17 persons).
3) Madrid, January the 29th (39 persons).
A total number of 89 persons attended these trainings.
The briefings were conducted by two members of the National Team (Mª José Hierro and Toni
Rodón) and by TYPSA technical and field staff (Alberto Otero and Eduardo Abad).
3.1.2.2 Attritiontraining
Only one interviewer left the project before completing their fieldwork, and did it during his second
week of work, for failing to meet Survey quality standards.
One interviewer started after the first training session. She had participated in previous field studies
and was trained for the ESS by the TYPSA project manager.
All 73 interviewers who participated in this Survey received adequate training.
3.2.‐EquipmentandDataCollection
TYPSA has collected data for the ESS by CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing).
A total amount of 75 devices were used for fieldwork: LENOVO ThinkPad SL510.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage7 Both the questionnaire and the Contact Forms were programmed in CAPI, using software which
allowed us a thorough and daily control of fieldwork processes. Information of visits and
questionnaires were available daily at TYPSA central offices. This allowed us:
1) To keep a closer control of the daily results being produced, providing us with the tools to
change strategies and relocate teams in order to adapt them as the fieldwork evolved.
2) To know the type of incentive given to the respondents.
3) To reassign cases to be covered by more experienced interviewers.
4) To supervise interviews almost at the same time as they were being completed, allowing
us to control quality very effectively.
3.3.‐Project’sspecifications
Several restrictions had to be taken into consideration in order to comply with the project’s
specifications about the interviewers:
1) The target (70% response rate) and timings: Approximately 1912 interviews from a
nominal sample of 2868 households, to be completed in 16 weeks.
2) The project’s limitation in the number of cases completed by each interviewer (48).
3) The optimal initial number of interviewers which would assist the main training, taking into
consideration:
a) Sample dispersion.
b) Availability of laptops.
c) Sufficient number of cases per interviewer so as to motivate them in terms of
expected remuneration.
Thus, fieldwork started with a total number of 73 interviewers, divided into different groups which
depended on 13 regional coordinators and 5 national coordinators.
Initially, no more than 48 cases were assigned to each interviewer, and the workload was
proportionally divided between the different regions and interviewers.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage8 At the end of the field process, a total of 74 interviewers had participated in this project due to the
need to replace one of them.
3.4.‐Contactprocedures
ESS’s technical clauses clearly specify the contact requirements for each case. These clauses,
define two different phases (weeks 1-9 and 10-16) with different targets to meet:
3.4.1 Firstphase
Letters
In order to fulfill the Survey’s requirements, letters have been sent over fieldwork, up to a number of
three letters in some cases. The first delivery from CIS was for 2868 letters to the whole sample
units in the month of January.
A second round was also sent to all households (2868 letters). This second round contained the
bilingual letters for Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, Galicia, Navarra and the Basque
Country. For these cases, the delivery was done by TYPSA central office about a week before
visits started to each of the interviewer’s assigned addresses, so this delivery was not
simultaneous; it lasted for two months.
Further mailings were sent later, targeting non contacts and refusals. A total of 405 letters were
sent during the months of February and March.
Visit Attempts
The First phase’s main priority was production. The TYPSA team went out in the field with a vast
virgin sample of 2868 cases and a goal to bring back as many completed questionnaires as
possible. The interviewers knew when we would consider a case as exhausted, but they had to
prioritize on production.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage9 The rhythm of completed interviews was quicker than expected during the first nine weeks.
When we started collecting data, achieving completed cases was easier than expected, but when
the sample had several visits, productivity was lower than expected before starting field work
3.4.2 Secondphase
The second phase required more effort by interviewers for tracking and conversion.
Visit Attempts
TYPSA´s experience in the field enabled coordinators to prioritize where there were more chances
of success for the survey:
1) Cases with few visits, less than 3 visits.
2) Cases which resulted in “Not contacted”.
3) Special attention for cases in which we do not locate the selected person, but someone else
talks to us over the holiday period.
4) Cases not visited during “special hours” (weekends and working days after 20:00).
Interviewers with better results were displaced to regions with lower response rates. See section
3.5.2 for more detailed information.
In addition to the minimum criteria of the ESS, TYPSA made greater effort in terms of visits and in
giving greater importance to the quality of the data.
By the end of the production period, priority was given to regions with lower response rates, which
resulted in the achievement of the initial goal (70% response rate).
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage10 3.5.‐Noncontactandrefusals
In the first phase all cases were visited without exception. However, in the second phase there was
a further analysis of the visit results for each case, on the part of national and regional coordinators
in order to improve the response rate of their field areas.
3.5.1 Noncontacts
Using a TYPSA application created by the fieldwork organizers, both central office staff as well as
area offices were able to analyze each unit sample situation in real time both nationally and by
province, section, case and interviewer.
By the end of the data collection only 0.5% (14 cases) had never been contacted*.
* In the ESS progress reports, each sample unit is considered according to the outcome of the last
visit received. However, non-contact cases with a previous refusal are considered refusals. In order
to track no contacts properly, TYPSA carried out separated analyses and carefully studied the
cases that had not received any contact. Cases in which only the last visit was a non-contact were
studied taking into account the results of previous visits.
3.5.2 Refusals
During the field period, all cases, except those deceased, remained in the field. This decision was
made to avoid circumstances in which an informant other than the targeted person provided us
wrong or inaccurate information about the respondent. In some of these circumstances, the
targeted person was reached at the address on subsequent visits and the interview could finally be
conducted.
In the Round 6, Catalonia has have the highest number of refusal cases at the end of fieldwork.
Fieldwork finished with 59 refusal cases, which mean 18.6% of refusal cases in Spain.
In other areas there was also an attempt to convert negative cases. This attempt implied the
displacement of interviewers to areas with lower response rate.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage11 In order to convert the negative cases, six experienced interviewers were reassigned to the regions
with a high number of refusals.
Barcelona Mallorca Barcelona Alicante Madrid Guadalajara
Madrid Toledo Madrid Segovia Cádiz Ceuta Zaragoza Navarra Murcia Alicante 3.6.‐SurveyProjectionsandProgressReport
One month before fieldwork started, TYPSA provided a forecast with the number of completed
interviews by week.
The production target in the ESS was to achieve a 70% response rate with a nominal sample of
2868 cases.
During the fieldwork period, TYPSA and the Spanish National Team produced a set of weekly
reports in order to control and manage fieldwork responding to the ESS special requirements. A
key aim of this task was to produce a very detailed projection plan for the whole of the field period,
producing targets per week for completed interviews. An exhaustive control of these initial
projections allowed TYPSA Field Managers together with the Spanish team to readapt strategies in
order to ensure the capability of complying with the targets.
3.7.‐Productivity
Productivity in ESS round six was high during the first 9 weeks of data collection, the first week had
the highest peak with 314 interviews and the average was 185 interviews per week.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage12 Due to the productivity being higher than expected during the first 9 weeks, from week 10, the
productivity was lower than projected at the beginning of the fieldwork.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage13 Productivity was affected by:
1) Decrease of sample availability for surveying
As the field survey period progressed, the available sample reduction made it more difficult to
obtain interviews.
In the first phase, our results, in weeks 1-9, (1,661 completed) exceeded our projections (1,643
completed). We obtained 60.8% ”true” response rate, and a 71.1% ”field” response rate.
For the second phase, we had to work with a sample where all cases had received at least one visit
attempt. This made it far more difficult to complete new interviews.
2) Geographical spread of cases
The sample was distributed throughout the regions in Spain, and this meant having interviewers
throughout Spain. As fieldwork progressed, the sample survey got smaller and the difficulties
increase in some of the areas surveyed.
Towards the middle of the fieldwork period, the geographical spread of the sample became a
bigger issue as it became more difficult to re-visit certain non completed cases, both in terms of
cost and time.
Regional differences meant that we had to relocate teams on several occasions, this also affected
production during some weeks.
3) Different response rates by regions in Spain
Different regional characteristics in Spain (spread, less cooperative population, second homes in
coastal areas) caused different results in the response rate.
This meant having to reinforce some areas that had lower response rates and the displacement of
interviewers with better percentages of collaboration.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage14 4) Real ineligibles
Fieldwork ended with a final “true” response rate of 70.3%. This meant taking into consideration 6%
ineligibles (180 cases*).
*There were 14 cases of respondents who had moved to an institution which according to the ESS
instructions has not been included in this figure.
3.8.‐Incentives
Incentives were offered to respondents in ESS survey.
There was a high donation to charities, while the incentive most requested by informants was
Carrefour.
CÁRITAS CARREFOUR CEPSA INTERMON‐OXFAM TOTAL NUMBER OF CARDS 610 961
37
280 1888
% 32,3 50,9
2,0
14,8 100,0
* There was a selected person who refused to receive any kind of card or declined to grant.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage15 4.- SUPERVISION
Supervision was performed in cases resulting in either no contact, a refusal or complete interviews.
Supervision was also performed on the quality of the data collected.
4.1.‐Noncontactandrefusals
In the ESS, the nominal sample requires as many interviews as possible. Moreover, it is crucial to
closely monitor both the starting address and the new address, so that we can locate targeted
respondents. .
From the beginning of the fieldwork period, we organized our teams so each respondent could be
visited by a second and even a third interviewer, whenever the targeted person could not be
selected. These attempts were carried out in all cases, even the ineligible ones (moved to
institutions or moved abroad), except for cases where the person was deceased.
Also, extensive research was conducted in the TYPSA offices in order to find new addresses and
contact numbers. This was even done for the ineligible cases (again, discounting the deceased
cases).
Refusal cases were contacted by phone in order to reconvert them. These were the cases that had
initially been contacted in person but could not be interviewed. If the respondent was successfully
contacted by phone, an appointment was made to visit them.
This approach helped increased the response rate of the study and, ultimately, to achieve the
objective of the ESS.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage16 4.2.‐Completedinterviews
The procedure used by TYPSA for selecting completed interviews to be validated was:
1) At first, inspect the units that have been selected from among respondents for each
interviewer, for example a quality control of the initial work done by each of them.
2) Units were also inspected for those interviewers who had done more surveys than average,
to verify that their work was correct.
3) Finally, the third factor considered for inspection were the interviews that had lasted 30
minutes or less, paying particular attention to those cases where the respondent lived with a
partner and/or he or she worked (as these interviews should take longer).
These households received a call from TYPSA central offices and were asked the following
questions:
Validations forms
1.- Can you remember being interviewed for a survey for the University Pompeu
Fabra?:
2.- On this date (yyyy/mm/dd) were you living in: (address specified in the contact
form).
3.- Do you remember what kind of questions (items) were asked in the survey:?
4.- Did you receive a letter at home and an information leaflet:?
YES/NO YES/NO YES/NO YES/NO 5.- Would you mind telling me how many people live at the same address?
6.- Would you please tell me what level of educational qualifications you have to
confirm that our information is correct?
7.- What is your occupation?
8.-Can you tell me, when you turned 14 years old, did you father work as an
employee? Was he employed or unemployed?:
9.- The day of the interview, how long did the interviewer spent at your home with
you? (In minutes):
10.- Did the interviewer record their responses on a laptop?
YES/NO 11.- To respond to the questionnaire, did you provide your own answer, or did the
interviewer read the responses?
12.- After the interview, were you given a card or gift voucher or offered the
opportunity to make a donation?
13.- Could you tell me what you chose? (only in cases where the interviewer has
indicated that they were offered an incentive):
14.- How would you rate the interviewer?:
CÁRITAS,
CARREFOUR,
CEPSA,
INTERMON-OXFAM
FRIENDLY,
VERY FRIENDLY,
UNFRIENDLY,
UNKIND
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage17 4.3.‐Dataquality
Quality control was conducted during fieldwork. This was made possible by having the interview
data at the time of collection.
4.3.1 Interviewers’work
The first interviews of each interviewer and at least 15% of his / her cases were automatically
selected for supervision. The information obtained during this supervision process was used for the
refresher training of interviewers during the fieldwork period.
4.3.2 Dataquality
Qualified staff analyzed the automatically selected interviews to detect issues. Those respondents
with weird answer patterns were contact for supervision. Subsequently interviewers were trained to
avoid future mistakes.
Quality has been a very important goal in this survey. By the end of the project, more than a 15% of
the total completed cases had been supervised.
5 FINAL RESULTS
The Sixth Round of the ESS has been completed with very satisfactory results.
FINAL SUMMARY
Units Contact Attempted
Achieved Complete Interviews
Incomplete interviews
Refusals
Non-Contacts
Unavailables-Not traceable
“True” Ineligibles
Appointments Pending
2868
1889
0
318
324
148
180
9
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage18 The use of the CAPI application has allowed us to keep a much closer control of the fieldwork
evolution, especially since the contact forms were also programmed with CAPI. Fieldwork
management took place with detailed information that allowed the coordinators (Field, National and
Regional coordinators) to make quick decisions and adapt their strategies to each situation. TYPSA
has given great importance to the staff selection process and the monitoring of the survey status
via the application. This has resulted in high quality results.
ESS‐6.FinalFieldReportPage19