Open AccessSelf-protecting responses in randomized response designs: A survey on intimate partner violence during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic
Author(s) -
Fabiola Reiber,
Donna Bryce,
Rolf Ulrich
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
sociological methods and research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.468
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1552-8294
pISSN - 0049-1241
DOI - 10.1177/00491241211043138
Subject(s) - domestic violence , pandemic , psychology , anonymity , covid-19 , social psychology , cheating , computer security , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , medicine , disease , environmental health , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology
Randomized response techniques (RRTs) are applied to reduce response biases in self-report surveys on sensitive research questions (e.g., on socially undesirable characteristics). However, there is evidence that they cannot completely eliminate self-protecting response strategies. To address this problem, there are RRTs specifically designed to measure the extent of such strategies. Here we assessed the recently devised unrelated question model—cheating extension (UQMC) in a preregistered online survey on intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and perpetration during the first contact restrictions as containment measures for the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Germany in early 2020. The UQMC accounting for self-protecting responses described the data better than its predecessor model which assumes instruction adherence. The resulting three-month prevalence estimates were about 10% and we found a high proportion of self-protecting responses in the group of female participants queried about IPV victimization. However, unexpected results concerning the differences in prevalence estimates across the groups queried about victimization and perpetration highlight the difficulty of investigating sensitive research questions even using methods that guarantee anonymity and the importance of interpreting the respective estimates with caution.