The Impact of Survey Mode Design and Questionnaire Length on Measurement Quality

Abstract

Mixed-mode surveys are popular as they can save costs and maintain (or improve) response rates relative to single-mode surveys. Nevertheless, it is not yet clear how design decisions like survey mode or questionnaire length impact measurement quality. In this study, we compare measurement quality in an experiment of three distinct survey designs implemented in the German sample of the European Values Study: a single-mode face-to-face design, a mixed-mode mail/web design, and a shorter (matrix) questionnaire in the mixed-mode design. We compare measurement quality in different ways, including differences in distributions across several data quality indicators as well as equivalence testing over 140 items in 25 attitudinal scales. We find similar data quality across the survey designs, although the mixed-mode survey shows more item nonresponse compared to the single-mode survey. Using equivalence testing we find that most scales achieve metric equivalence and, to a lesser extent, scalar equivalence across the designs.