How Do Mode Effects Impact the Measurement of Gender Equality in Household Tasks?

P. Linh Nguyen , INED
Guillaume Carette, French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED)
Paul Cochet, French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED)
Efi Markou, French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED)
Ruxandra Popa, French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED)
Laurent Toulemon, INED

Gender equality is a key concept in family demography and is of great societal concern in modern times. As its measurement mostly stems from survey data and nowadays surveys are often conducted as mixed-mode surveys, researchers interested in gender equality need to be aware of potential mode effects and their impact on data quality when relying on survey data from different modes. Mixed-mode surveys usually offer one self-administered mode in a cheaper mode, such as the Web, and one interviewer-administered mode to maximise response rates. Previous research demonstrated mode effects for sensitive, attitudinal questions, such as sexual attitudes, gender discrimination, as well as relationship quality. As much as mode effects vary by question type and content, mode differences can also be differential for men and women with men tending to give more socially desirable answers in interviewer-administered modes such as telephone or face-to-face interviews. Using the French Generations and Gender Survey whose first wave in 2024 was administered as a concurrent mixed-mode survey, we explore mode effects for questions measuring gender equality through the division of household tasks. Our study examines recency effects (tendency towards the last response option) in telephone interviews vs. primacy effects (tendency towards the first response option) in the Web questionnaire, as well as satisficing in form of acquiescence, nondifferentiation, and the choice of “don’t know” as response. A particular focus of this analysis is to investigate the potential role interviewers and social desirability bias in the telephone interviews played in mode effects.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 112. Survey Mode Effects and Measurement Challenges in Demographic Research