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Using surname‐based telephone survey methodology in Asian‐American communities: Practical issues and caveats
Author(s) -
Sasao Toshiaki
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(199410)22:4<283::aid-jcop2290220402>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - respondent , interview , vietnamese , phone , telephone interview , landline , psychology , telephone survey , applied psychology , family medicine , medicine , advertising , business , political science , sociology , philosophy , linguistics , social science , law
This study examined the feasibility of using surname‐based telephone survey methodology in Asian‐American (AA) communities by highlighting some practical issues, caveats, and research directions in implementing telephone surveys in AA communities. These issues were: (a) identifying and sampling AA respondents; (b) obtaining respondent cooperation; (c) designing bilingual interview protocols; (d) dealing with possible biases due to interviewer gender, language, and topical sensitivity; and (e) cost of phone survey. In a recent statewide telephone survey involving Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Pilipino, and Vietnamese residents in California ( n = 1,764), we found low‐to moderate‐level response rates with varying levels of refusal rates in telephone interviewing on substance abuse and health‐related issues. The results suggested that despite general reluctance to use telephone survey methodology in AA communities, personal information may be reliably collected by telephone to the extent that phone‐number lists contained Asian surnames that were clearly unique to a particular AA group. Certain aspects of telephone surveying must be exploited for unraveling important social and mental health issues in a timely and cost‐efficient manner.