Too Costly to Screen for Children? How Variables Appended to Address-based Frames Could Help

Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center 

Household surveys of children typically require large address samples because identifying eligible children relies on household-level screening, which can substantially increase data collection costs. Prior research has shown that the presence-of-children flag appended to the address-based sampling (ABS) frames lacks sufficient accuracy to meaningfully reduce screening costs. Using data from a large national study that screened for children via a mail push-to-web mode, this paper evaluates the feasibility of combining multiple ABS-appended variables to more efficiently identify households with children. Results show that a stratified sampling design can improve screening efficiency and reduce costs, but that effective sample size-accounting for differential sampling rates across strata-is a more appropriate metric than nominal sample size. In addition, the predictive performance of ABS-appended variables varies across children's age groups. The findings also highlight the need to assess the quality of the ABS-appended variables, as improvements over time can directly affect the efficiency gains achievable under a stratified design.

surveys of children

screening efficiency

data collection cost

stratification

data quality 

Survey Research Methods Section