Conferences

Event history calendars (EHC) have proven to be a useful tool for collecting retrospective autobiographic life course data. One problem is that they are only standardized to some extent. This limits their applicability in large-scale surveys. However, in such surveys a modularized retrospective CATI design can be combined with EHC as a data revision module by using insights from cognitive psychology. The data revision module stimulates the respondent’s memory retrieval by detecting temporal inconsistencies such as gaps as well as overlapping and parallel events. The interviewers are guided through the editing process with the help of an automated questioning routine. However, to guarantee flexibility probing for the purpose of correction is possible.
This approach has been followed in the ALWA study (Work and Learning in a Changing World) a large-scale representative telephone survey with 10,000 respondents conducted in Germany in 2007/2008. In this study, a data revision module was implemented which merged complete general and vocational education histories as well as (un)employment histories and times of parental leave. Then, appearing inconsistencies were resolved during the interview. We investigate to what extent this data revision module improves time consistency and dating accuracy of individual reports by comparing the uncorrected data with the final data after revision. Especially unemployment episodes were likely to be omitted without the inclusion of the data revision module. Concerning dating accuracy all types of episodes are corrected to a similar extent. Additionally, the time-lag of the episode to the interview data has an influence on completeness and dating accuracy. Also, individual characteristics matter: women have a lower chance to add events; the same is true for younger respondents. In sum, we can conclude that this module is a powerful tool to improve time consistency and dating accuracy in retrospective surveys.