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It has been well documented that response rates to cross-sectional surveys have declined over the past few decades. It is less clear whether response rates to longitudinal surveys have experienced similar changes over time. This article examines trends in response rates in several major, national longitudinal surveys in the United States and abroad. The authors find that for most of these surveys, the wave-to-wave response rate has not declined. This article also describes the various approaches that these surveys use to minimize attrition.

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is the world’s longest running household panel survey. Since it began in 1968, it has collected data on the same families and their descendants, making it an essential part of America’s data infrastructure for empirically based social science research. The PSID arose from the War on Poverty as a tool for evaluating poverty dynamics, and this year (2018) marks 50 years of data collection. Because of its long history and distinctive design of following adult children as they form their own households, the PSID is uniquely positioned to address emerging social and behavioral research questions and related policy issues. This overview presents the design and structural aspects and its evolution over the past 50 years, the successes of the current survey, possible future directions, and the value of using the PSID to understand the challenges facing American families.

Since 1969, families participating in the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) have been sent a mailing asking them to update or verify their contact information in order to keep track of their whereabouts between waves. Having updated contact information prior to data collection is associated with fewer call attempts, less tracking, and lower attrition. Based on these advantages, two experiments were designed to increase response rates to the between wave contact mailing. The first experiment implemented a new protocol that increased the overall response rate by 7-10 percentage points compared to the protocol in place for decades on the PSID. This article provides results from the second experiment which examines the basic utility of the between-wave mailing, investigates how incentives affect article cooperation to the update request and field effort, and attempts to identify an optimal incentive amount. Recommendations for the use of contact update strategies in panel studies are made.

Split-ballot telephone survey data obtained in 1996 from 1,483 respondents in OR & from a 1996/97 national survey of consumer attitudes (N = 1,329) are used to evaluate the ability of an experimental voter-turnout question to reduce overreporting of voter turnout in surveys. Analysis indicates that the experimental version, which accounts for the influences of social desirability, memory failure, & source monitoring, reduced overreporting in comparison with a standard American National Election Studies question. 3 Tables, 2 Figures, 1 Appendix, 23 References. J. Ferrari

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of approximately 9,000 families and their descendants that has been ongoing since 1968. Since 1969, families have been sent a mailing asking them to update or verify their contact information to keep track of their whereabouts between waves. Having updated contact information prior to data collection is associated with fewer call attempts and refusal conversion efforts, less tracking, and lower attrition. Given these apparent advantages, a study was designed in advance of the 2009 PSID field effort to improve the response rate of the contact update mailing. Families were randomly assigned to the following conditions: mailing design (traditional versus new), $10 as a prepaid versus postpaid incentive, timing and frequency of the mailing (July 2008 versus October 2008 versus both times) and whether or not they were sent a study newsletter. This paper reports on findings with regards to response rates to the mailing and the effect on production outcomes including tracking rates and number of calls during 2009 by these different conditions, examines whether the treatment effects differ by key characteristics of panel members including likelihood of moving and anticipated difficulty in completing an interview, and provides some recommendations for the use of contact update strategies in panel studies.

Although life events continue to be the major focus of stress research, recent studies suggest that chronic stress should be a more central focus. An evaluation of this issue is presented using data from a large community survey of married men (n = 819) and women (n = 936). Results show that chronic stresses are more strongly related to depressive symptoms than acute stresses in all but one life domain. The interaction patterns exhibited by chronic and acute stresses are predominantly associated with lower levels of depression than those predicted by a main effects model. This pattern suggests that chronic stresses may reduce the emotional effects of acute stresses. Although the processes through which this effect occurs are not clear, it is suggested that anticipation and reappraisal reduce the stressfulness of an event by making its meaning more benign. Implications for future research on chronic and acute stress effects are discussed.

General population data are presented on the prevalence and correlates of comorbidity between DSM–III–R major depressive disorder (MDD) and other DSM–III–R disorders. The data come from the US National Comorbidity Survey, a large general population survey of persons aged 15–54 years in the non-institutionalised civilian population. Diagnoses are based on a modified version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). The analysis shows that most cases of lifetime MDD are secondary, in the sense that they occur in people with a prior history of another DSM–III–R disorder. Anxiety disorders are the most common primary disorders. The time-lagged effects of most primary disorders on the risk of subsequent MDD continue for many years without change in magnitude. Secondary MDD is, in general, more persistent and severe than pure or primary MDD. This has special public health significance because lifetime prevalence of secondary MDD has increased in recent cohorts, while the prevalence of pure and primary depression has remained unchanged.

A key issue for panel surveys is the relationship between changes in respondent burden and resistance or attrition in future waves. In this chapter, the authors use data from multiple waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1997 to 2015 to examine the effects on attrition and on various other measures of respondent cooperation of being invited to take part in a major supplemental study to PSID, namely the 1997 PSID Child Development Supplement (CDS). They describe their conceptual framework and previous research. The authors also describe the data and methods. The PSID is the world’s longest‐running household panel survey. PSID has a number of supplemental studies, which began in 1997 with the original CDS. To describe and analyse the effects of CDS on sample attrition in PSID, the authors also use survival curves and univariate and multivariate discrete time hazard models.

A theory of survey participation suggests that sample individuals engage in more thorough cognitive processing of the survey request when their concerns about the request are addressed by the interviewer. When the concerns are satisfactorily addressed, the interview becomes a more attractive option; when they are not, a refusal tends to occur. This theory has implications for the training of interviewers in recruiting sample individuals to be respondents. A training regimen was constructed that assembled concerns perceived by senior interviewers to be common, taught trainees to classify concerns (using the terminology of the respondents) into themes, taught trainees facts to communicate regarding those concerns, and drilled the trainees in rapid, natural delivery of those facts using terminology compatible with that of the sample person. Two experimental tests of the training regimen show increases in cooperation rates for interviewers who receive the training.