Effects of Interviewer Gender, Interviewer Choice, and Item Wording on Responses to Questions Concerning Sexual Behavior

Abstract

We examined factors influencing responses to questions on sexual behavior among adult respondents 18–49 years old (unweighted N = 2,030) obtained through a random-digit dialing survey. Based on self-disclosure and perceived control the ory, we hypothesized that giving people a choice in selecting the gender of their interviewer rather than being assigned an inter viewer, and using questions that are “supportive” of what may be perceived of as nonnormative behavior (enhanced items), would increase data quality relative to, respectively, matched-or opposite-gender interviewer conditions and standard worded items. The enhanced items facilitated responding to a number of sensitive topics. However, the effects of item wording on item response are often mediated by interviewer conditions. The “choice” results suggest that giving respondents greater control decreases question threat. However, the overall findings argue for matching respondents and interviewers on gender over opposite-gender interviewers or allowing respondents to select their interviewer's gender. Wording and interviewer manipulations reduced the discrepancies between men's and women's self-reports of sexual behavior, but they did not eliminate them, and in some cases they had no effect. The present findings suggest that males tend to be influenced by variations in item wording, interviewer gender, and respondent control across a somewhat wider range of sexual topics. In general, the findings recommend matching respondents and interviewers on gender and the use of more supportive wording in sexual behavior questions. However, for assessment of some topics (e.g., sexual violence) in particular segments of the population (e.g., men), other procedures, such as increasing respondent control, may be a better choice. Overall, the data support the view that in terms of preferred procedures, not all sexual topics are created equal.