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This paper investigates the impact of including or omitting an explicit "don't know (DK)/no opinion (NO)" option in survey questionnaires. Three consecutive annual surveys were conducted using identical questionnaires, with variations in the inclusion of the DK/NO option. The study compares responses from the 2019 survey, which lacked a DK/NO option, to responses from the 2020 and 2021 surveys, which included this option. Utilizing a 7-point Likert scale, respondents were asked to indicate their opinions, with options ranging from extreme disagreement to extreme agreement, with a neutral midpoint. Statistical analysis, employing Two Sample Z-tests Between Proportions, assessed differences in the proportion of neutral responses between the surveys. Findings reveal that the inclusion of the DK/NO option did not significantly alter the proportion of neutral responses compared to surveys without this option. These results challenge the prevailing notion that explicit DK/NO options improve data quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good data on the size and composition of the independent contractor workforce are elusive. The authors carried out a series of focus groups to learn how independent contractors speak about their work. Based on those findings, they designed and fielded a telephone survey to elicit more accurate and complete information on independent contractors. Roughly 1 in 10 workers who initially reported working for an employer on one or more jobs (and thus were coded as employees) were independent contractors on at least one of those jobs. Incorporating these miscoded workers into estimates of main job work arrangements nearly doubles the share who are independent contractors to approximately 15% of all workers. Taking these workers into account substantively changes the demographic profile of the independent contractor workforce. Probing in household surveys to clarify a worker's employment arrangement and identify all low-hours work is critical for accurately measuring independent contractor work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractSound measurement is crucial for scientific advancement. Public opinion research suggests agree/disagree (A/D) questions, commonly used in criminology, are susceptible to response order effects and acquiescence bias, and increased cognitive burden and confusion. Previous criminological research on Americans’ seeming openness to both punitive and rehabilitative policies (i.e. pragmatism) has demonstrated the problematic nature of positively worded A/D questions. Still, the proposed solution of including negatively worded A/D questions can cause poor internal scale consistency. Using a split-ballot experiment, we compared an alternative to A/D formatting—item-specific (IS) questions—to assess the reliability and construct validity and to test hypotheses about American pragmatism. Two extant A/D scales demonstrated weak psychometric properties, while all assessed IS scales were psychometrically strong. Consistent with past research, we found evidence that the pragmatism thesis is a methodological artifact. Efforts to reduce acquiescence bias via IS formatting rendered results more supportive of attribution theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New agricultural technologies, such as stress‐tolerant rice varieties (STRVs), that reduce yield risk can modify farmers' production decisions. This article explores how STRV adoption affects farmer decision‐making and productivity in Nepal in a non‐drought year. STRVs are bred to be high‐yielding and tolerant to climate shocks such as drought. To assess the effect of input measurements on treatment effects, we collected information from 900 households on STRV adoption and input use. We also conducted a survey experiment in which half of sampled households were randomly assigned to answer additional, more detailed questions on agricultural inputs. Farmers apply more total chemical fertilizer, pesticides, early‐season chemical fertilizer, and land preparation labor to plots planted with STRVs compared to traditional varieties (TVs). Detailed input data enhances our understanding of how this "crowding‐in" effect of STRV adoption on input use compares with other high‐yielding varieties. While farmers increase application of a subset of these inputs on other improved variety types such as hybrids, results suggest that crowd‐in effects are most consistent for STRVs. In the absence of drought, STRVs also provide a similar yield boost and yield variance reduction over TVs compared to other, non‐stress tolerant improved varieties. Results suggest that improved varietal adoption, and STRV adoption in particular, can improve household productivity and modernization of agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Availability and utilization of residential parking locations remain a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of urban planning and policy making. Thus, this study investigates questions about residential parking within National Travel Surveys (NTS) across 49 OECD-affiliated countries. The study used a layered framework, differentiating parking locations by on/off-street, public/private access, proximity to dwellings, and infrastructure type to analyze questions and response options. A document review revealed significant variability in the inclusion of residential parking questions, with only 24 of 49 evaluated countries conducting NTS and only 15 explicitly addressing residential parking locations, often via one question. While questions are often similar, the response options are often ambiguous, sometimes misleading, and vary significantly. Based on the results, we identified the following recommendations: (1) adopt and rephrase parking-related questions in new and existing NTS, (2) provide guidance to users on how certain response options are defined, (3) for a more comprehensive understanding of residential parking dynamics, include a question on availability and actual usage, (4) add "National Travel Survey" as a keyword in applicable surveys, and (5) provide easy access to documentation to facilitate data retrieval and international comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the most relevant instruments for measuring customer loyalty in practice. The NPS has been repeatedly criticised in the scientific community, partly because it is calculated based on a single question and the metric is therefore not very reliable. Against this background, the use of suggestive design elements in data collection poses a particular challenge. For the first time, this paper examines how the colouring of the scale in the style of a traffic light and the placement of an arrow on the scale like a speedometer affect the NPS. The results show that the use of suggestive design elements has a significant effect on the survey results. The paper provides important insights for marketing managers who use the NPS to measure customer loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined peer-reviewed publications analyzing data from the English GP Patient Survey (GPPS), U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) to explore how the health of sexual minority populations varies across settings and subgroups. We searched for English language articles published 2011–2022, screening abstracts (n = 112), reviewing full text (n = 97), and extracting data (n = 85). We conducted a content analysis to identify patterns across settings for sexual minority people compared with heterosexual counterparts and each other. Across all settings, sexual minority adults had poorer health care access, worse health outcomes and patient experiences, more detrimental health behaviors, and greater health care services utilization (reflecting risk awareness and need). When subgroup data were reported, differences were greater among women, except for HIV and related cancers, which were most prevalent among sexual minority men. Sexual minority people generally reported significantly worse health access, outcomes, and behaviors in all three settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding has emerged as a vital alternative financing mechanism. The increased economic activity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) due to crowdfunding has a ripple effect, stimulating broader growth for the sector. This research underscores the transformative potential of crowdfunding by examining how the increase in financial performance, innovation capabilities, and job creations of SMEs due to crowdfunding has impacted the growth of selected SMEs. The study uses survey design to gather data involving 50 owners of registered SMEs in Ibadan, Nigeria. The information gathered from the questionnaires were coded and used to complete a regression analysis to retain the study aims. The evidence identifies that only financial performance and improved innovation from the SMEs due to crowdfunding have positive and significant impacts on their growth. We suggest recommendations that would enhance the attractiveness of crowdfunding, such as government implementing policies that support crowdfunding as well as the creation of awareness and education for crowdfunding participants.

Poor diet quality is a key modifiable risk factor for hypertension and disproportionately impacts low-income women. Analyzing diet-driven hypertensive outcomes in this demographic is challenging due to the complexity of dietary data and selection bias when the data come from surveys, a main data source for understanding diet-disease relationships in understudied populations. Supervised Bayesian model-based clustering methods summarize dietary data into latent patterns that holistically capture relationships among foods and a known health outcome but do not sufficiently account for complex survey design. This leads to biased estimation and inference and lack of generalizability of the patterns. To address this, we propose a supervised weighted overfitted latent class analysis (SWOLCA) based on a Bayesian pseudo-likelihood approach that integrates sampling weights into an exposure-outcome model for discrete data. Our model adjusts for stratification, clustering, and informative sampling, and handles modifying effects via interaction terms within a Markov chain Monte Carlo Gibbs sampling algorithm. Simulation studies confirm that the SWOLCA model exhibits good performance in terms of bias, precision, and coverage. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2015–2018), we demonstrate the utility of our model by characterizing dietary patterns associated with hypertensive outcomes among low-income women in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives Age-friendly community initiatives (AFCIs) have gained recognition as essential responses to the needs of aging populations. Despite their growing significance, there is a notable lack of effective measurement tools to assess the planning, implementation, and sustainability of AFCIs. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a survey tool for evaluating AFCIs. Research Design and Methods A sequential exploratory mixed-method design was used in 2 phases. First, we identified key themes from interviews with AFCI leads to generate AFCI survey items and regional workshops. Then, we conducted a pilot of the survey and assessed its measurement properties. Results Thematic analysis of interviews with 68 key informants from 58 AFCIs revealed 4 main themes: AFCI priorities, enablers, challenges, and benefits. These themes, combined with feedback from AFCI stakeholders at the regional workshops and an AFCI conference, informed the development and refinement of a reliable and valid AFCI survey in 2019, supported by a high Cronbach's alpha value (α = 0.881). Steps were identified to maintain and sustain the AFCI survey over time. Discussion and Implications The survey accommodates AFCIs' diverse demographics, governance structures, and priorities with a standardized and flexible approach for effective measurement. This research contributes to the academic understanding of AFCIs and aids community leaders and policy-makers in planning, implementing, and evaluating AFCIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: POCD is a common complication among patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), it is linked to loss of independence and reduced quality of life. Aim: To examine the association between postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), postoperative delirium (POD) and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6). Design: A prospective cohort study. Methods: Patients who underwent elective isolated CABG were enrolled. POCD was assessed by a set of cognitive function tools. Delirium was assessed using the CAM‐ICU. The logistic regression analyses were used to identify the predictive value of POD or IL‐6 on POCD. The path analysis was used to analyse the relationship among POD, IL‐6 and POCD. Results: A total of 212 patients were enrolled, with 25.0% of patients developing POD and 32.5% developing POCD. The multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that patients with POD had a four‐fold increased hazard of POCD (OR = 3.655), and patients with IL‐6 ≥ 830.50 pg/mL at the 6th hours after surgery had a 5‐fold increased risk of experiencing POCD (OR = 5.042). However, the mediation effect of POD between IL‐6 and POCD was not statistically significant (β = 0.059, p =.392). Conclusions: POD and IL‐6 at the 6th hour after surgery (≥830.50 pg/mL) are two potent predictors for POCD, while POD did not play a mediation effect between IL‐6 and POCD. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Early identification of risk factors (e.g., delirium assessment and testing for serum IL‐6 levels) by clinical nurses for POCD may contribute to the clinical practice for the targeted prevention nursing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing focus on collecting more diverse demographic data from research participants but standard methodological approaches still hinder such efforts. This paper addresses the need for methodological improvements by advocating for the inclusion of self-written diversity statements in demographic surveys as a form of epistemic justice. Using examples from a large qualitative research study, I demonstrate the depth and richness of data that can be obtained through self-written diversity statements. In particular, I highlight the benefits of combining open-ended demographic questions and self-written diversity statements into holistic introductory stories to help capture the complexity of participants' intersectional identities. Therefore, I argue that using such an approach gives participants the agency to choose how they are represented in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of 3D seismic surveys continues to develop, but there have been few innovations in the design of 2D seismic surveys, despite their continued widespread use. In particular, the development of an approach to handling obstacles that may occur along the line, either requiring the line direction to be reoriented or small deviations applied. In this paper, I develop both an approach for determining the bend radius required when 2D lines require curves and compare strategies for dealing with small deviations. For the latter, the best approach is to move the source and receiver positions as close to the edge of the obstacle as possible with them placed on the same side. Irrespective of the approach employed, given the variation in the results shown here, the interpretation of 2D lines should always incorporate the acquisition geometry to ensure that misinterpretations are avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Delivery of consistent patient-centred care at end-of-life care continues to challenge healthcare providers and research continues to suggest that peoples' needs are not being reliably met. Consequently, healthcare services are looking to innovate how support is provided, such as commissioning doulas to support dying people and those close to them. Objective: Within the United Kingdom, there is little existing research about peoples' experience of receiving end-of-life doula support. This paper outlines the design of a survey for the family or friends of a person who received end-of-life doula support. Design: To evaluate the role of an end-of-life doula in supporting the dying person and those who care for them, we designed a post-bereavement survey as part of a wider evaluation strategy of doula services. Following multiple literature reviews and an iterative process of consulting with the professional organisation and previous service users, a questionnaire was developed to collect this data. This survey is hosted online, with paper copies available to widen accessibility. Conclusion: End-of-life doula support is a relatively new area of provision for dying people and those important to them, such as family and friends. It is even more innovative to have doula support commissioned as part of a locality's healthcare service. There is a dire need for empirical research to understand the impact of this further. The process of researching the area and designing the evaluation survey for this service revealed the complexity of the role and the difficulty of capturing what was found to be helpful for the dying person and those around them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women form a large part of the voting public in India. In the 2009 Indian National Election post-election survey, 82% of all adult women surveyed reported voting, but only 32% said that they were interested in politics. The paradox between high female turnout but low levels of interest has been noted in multiple developing country contexts, but the phenomenon is under-theorized. We suggest the reason is that women's ideas (interest in politics) are discouraged and suppressed by societal patriarchal norms enforced in the household, but women's bodies (their votes) are valued in competitive elections. We illustrate our argument using matched samples from two rounds (2009 and 2014) of the Indian National Election Survey and an original post-election survey in 2019. We find that women are consistently less likely to report either an interest in politics, or an opinion on political issues, if their spouse or an adult family member observes the interview. Our findings suggest that women's political agency is systematically under-estimated by researchers, and that women are more likely to assert themselves politically in survey contexts, if given the privacy to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Measuring attitudes of farmers to safe farming practices using quantitative causal relationship approaches is central to improving understanding of (un)safe practices. This knowledge is important in the development of effective farm safety interventions. However, the accuracy of quantitative attitudinal studies in explaining farmers' decision-making faces a potential measurement challenge, i.e. a high level of optimism bias. In this paper, we present research that develops and tests farm safety attitudinal questions that are framed around "real-life" farming practices with the objective of reducing optimism bias. Methods: We apply construal level theory (CLT) to support the design of vignettes that reflect common risk scenarios faced by farmers. Applying qualitative analysis of 274 fatal farm incidents that occurred in Ireland between 2004 and 2018 we identify the occupational behaviors (what farmers do), social (who are farmers), spatial (where farming takes place), and temporal (when farming happens) dimensions of risks resulting in most deaths. The results informed subsequent co-design activities with farm safety experts and farm advisors to develop "real-life" scenarios, attitudinal questions, and response options. The questionnaire was piloted and subsequently implemented to collect data from a sample of 381 farmers with either tractors or livestock. The results of the survey were compared to previous attitudinal research on farmer's attitudes to safety in Ireland to establish if there was as follows: i) increased variance in the responses, and ii) a statistically significant difference in the attitudes of respondents compared to the results reported in previous studies. Results: The findings established that when farmers were provided with real-life scenarios, their responses were less optimistic and more varied, i.e. there was a greater range of responses, compared to previous studies. Conclusion: Applying CTL to the development of attitudinal survey instruments anchors attitudinal questions within farming specific occupational, social, spatial, and temporal contexts. The use of vignettes that draw on real-life scenarios offers the potential for improved design of surveys that seek to understand farmer/worker practices. The results suggest that this approach can improve the measurement of attitudes to farm safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the dental hygiene discipline, evidence-based practice serves as a cornerstone for delivering high quality patient care and moving professional standards forward. As practitioners delve deeper into research to inform clinical decision making, the integration of robust survey methodologies becomes imperative. However, the complexities of survey design, implementation, and analysis pose notable challenges, particularly in ensuring the reliability and validity of research outcomes. This short report provides brief practical guidance about the basics of survey research methodologies for dental hygiene professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the new linked employee-employer study of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP-LEE2), which offers new research opportunities for various academic fields. In particular, the study contains two waves of an employer survey for persons in dependent work that is also linkable to the SOEP, a large representative German annual household panel (SOEP-LEE2-Core). Moreover, SOEP-LEE2 includes two waves of self-employed surveys based on self-employed in the SOEP-Core (SOEP-LEE2-Self-employed) and three additional representative employer surveys, independent of the SOEP in terms of sampling employers (SOEP-LEE2-Compare). Survey topics include digitalisation and cybersecurity, human capital formation, COVID-19, and human resource management. Here, we describe the content, survey design, and comparability of the different datasets in the SOEP-LEE2 to potential users in different disciplines of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) was in a unique position to respond to the need for high quality survey data on people's changing living situations. Implemented as two telephone interviews in the summer of 2020 and 2021 in 27 European countries and Israel, the SHARE Corona Surveys present a great advantage by their integration into the longitudinal, multidisciplinary and ex-ante harmonised design of the SHARE study. This allows researchers to trace changes from the pre-pandemic period, through the different stages of the pandemic, and the postpandemic situation. This article lays out the research aims and how the two Corona Surveys fit in the general design of SHARE. It presents the main design features of the SHARE Corona Surveys following the survey life cycle. It starts with information on procurement, contracting, funding, ethics, and data protection and sampling, followed by information on instrument design, translations, questionnaire content and interviewer training. Last, fieldwork, panel care and data processing are described. Focused on topics of health behaviour, health care, economics and social relationships, the balanced panel sample of the two SHARE Corona Surveys comprises more than 48,000 interviews and provides valuable information on how the 50+ population coped with the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience of implementing the SHARE Corona Surveys also offers insights into use of agile project management methods for large survey infrastructures and moving towards a multi-mode design in an ongoing panel data collection project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Traditional ecological monitoring employs fixed designs, which do not vary over the survey duration. Adaptive sampling, whereby the data already collected informs a sampling design which changes over the course of the study, can provide a more optimal and flexible survey design but is little used in ecology. We aim to provide an introduction to adaptive sampling for ecologists. We review previous literature and highlight examples of both empirical adaptive approaches, such as adaptive cluster sampling, and more novel model‐based adaptive methods. To conceptualise the process of adaptive sampling we identify four key stages: choice of data, definition of a criterion, selection of new sampling occasions and sampling activity. We discuss each stage in turn and focus on the decisions ecologists need to consider in order to successfully implement an adaptive sampling strategy. We include a full walkthrough of an adaptive sampling example with code provided to demonstrate each step. Adaptive sampling has potential advantages to ecologists but so far has had limited uptake. We review key challenges and barriers to uptake and suggest potential ways forward. We hope our paper will both increase awareness of adaptive sampling methods and provide a useful resource for ecologists considering an adaptive survey design.

Biodiversity monitoring programmes should be designed with sufficient statistical power to detect population change. Here we evaluated the statistical power of monitoring to detect declines in the occupancy of forest birds on Christmas Island, Australia. We fitted zero-inflated binomial models to 3 years of repeat detection data (2011, 2013 and 2015) to estimate single-visit detection probabilities for four species of concern: the Christmas Island imperial pigeon Ducula whartoni, Christmas Island white-eye Zosterops natalis, Christmas Island thrush Turdus poliocephalus erythropleurus and Christmas Island emerald dove Chalcophaps indica natalis. We combined detection probabilities with maps of occupancy to simulate data collected over the next 10 years for alternative monitoring designs and for different declines in occupancy (10–50%). Specifically, we explored how the number of sites (60, 128, 300, 500), the interval between surveys (1–5 years), the number of repeat visits (2–4 visits) and the location of sites influenced power. Power was high (> 80%) for the imperial pigeon, white-eye and thrush for most scenarios, except for when only 60 sites were surveyed or a 10% decline in occupancy was simulated over 10 years. For the emerald dove, which is the rarest of the four species and has a patchy distribution, power was low in almost all scenarios tested. Prioritizing monitoring towards core habitat for this species only slightly improved power to detect declines. Our study demonstrates how data collected during the early stages of monitoring can be analysed in simulation tools to fine-tune future survey design decisions.

The standard approach for detecting and preventing bots from doing harm online involves CAPTCHAs. However, recent AI research, including our own in this manuscript, suggests that bots can complete many common CAPTCHAs with ease. The most effective methodology for identifying potential bots involves completing image-processing, causal-reasoning based, free-response questions that are hand coded by human analysts. However, this approach is labor intensive, slow, and inefficient. Moreover, with the advent of Generative AI such as GPT and Bard, it may soon be obsolete. Here, we develop and test various automated, bot-screening questions, grounded in psychological research, to serve as a proactive screen against bots. Utilizing hand coded free-response questions in the naturalistic domain of MTurkers recruited for a Qualtrics survey, we identify 18.9% of our sample to be potential bots, whereas Google's reCAPTCHA V3 identified only 1.7% to be potential bots. We then look at the performance of these potential bots on our novel bot-screeners, each of which has different strengths and weaknesses but all of which outperform CAPTCHAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When planning abundance surveys, the impact of search intensity on the quality of the density estimates is rarely considered. We constructed a time‐budget modeling framework for abundance surveys using principles from optimal foraging theory. We link search intensity to the number of sample units surveyed, searcher detection probability, the number of detections made, and the precision of the estimated population density. This framework allowed us to determine how a searcher should behave to produce optimized density estimates. Using data collected from quadrat and removal surveys of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) in central Minnesota, we applied this framework to evaluate potential improvements. We found that by tuning searcher behavior, density estimates from removal surveys of zebra mussels could be improved by up to 60% in some cases, without changing the overall survey time. Our framework also predicts a critical population density where the best survey method switches from removal surveys at low densities to quadrat surveys at high densities, consistent with past empirical work. In addition, we provide simulation tools to apply this form of analysis to a number of other commonly used survey designs. Our results provide insights into how to improve the performance of many survey methods in high‐density environments by either tuning searcher behavior or decoupling the estimation of population density and detection probability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recall biases in retrospective self-reported survey data have important implications for empirical research. We leverage the survey design literature and test three strategies to attenuate mental anchoring in retrospective data collection: question ordering, retrieval cues and aggregate (community) anchoring. We focus on maize production and happiness reports among smallholder farmers in Malawi. Asking for retrospective before concurrent data on average reduces recall bias (i.e. the deviation of the recalled versus the concurrent outcome reported in the previous period) by 34 per cent for maize production, a meaningful improvement with no increase in data collection costs. Retrieval cues are less successful and community anchors can exacerbate the bias. None of the strategies help to ease the recall bias for happiness reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional ecological monitoring employs fixed designs, which do not vary over the survey duration. Adaptive sampling, whereby the data already collected informs a sampling design which changes over the course of the study, can provide a more optimal and flexible survey design but is little used in ecology.We aim to provide an introduction to adaptive sampling for ecologists. We review previous literature and highlight examples of both empirical adaptive approaches, such as adaptive cluster sampling, and more novel model‐based adaptive methods.To conceptualise the process of adaptive sampling we identify four key stages: choice of data, definition of a criterion, selection of new sampling occasions and sampling activity. We discuss each stage in turn and focus on the decisions ecologists need to consider in order to successfully implement an adaptive sampling strategy. We include a full walkthrough of an adaptive sampling example with code provided to demonstrate each step.Adaptive sampling has potential advantages to ecologists but so far has had limited uptake. We review key challenges and barriers to uptake and suggest potential ways forward. We hope our paper will both increase awareness of adaptive sampling methods and provide a useful resource for ecologists considering an adaptive survey design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research examining mentoring programs has explained the benefits that student mentees received from having an adult as a mentor. For the mentee, studies indicate that mentoring relationships positively influence academic performance, social attitudes, communication abilities, and career aspirations. However, there has been very little research from the perspective of the mentor regarding their experiences of being in a mentoring relationship. This study builds upon Berning's (2013) research that extracted the thoughts and opinions of retiree and teen mentors who worked with elementary students. The Berning report recommended that further research study adults involved in the workplace who spent their off time serving as mentors. This study addresses this gap by surveying 69 adult business professionals mentoring high school students in San Antonio, Texas. The survey revealed four central themes: 1) both mentors and mentees require high motivation for a successful relationship, with mentors often motivated by personal fulfillment; 2) mentors are driven by a commitment to give back to the community despite most lacking prior mentoring experience; 3) there is significant interest in mentor training to enhance program effectiveness; and 4) mentors generally enjoy the program, showing high willingness to continue, inclination to recommend it, and satisfaction with a monthly meeting schedule. Successful mentors are active listeners who engage their mentees by setting clear, aligned goals, while gaining the added benefits of enhanced communication and leadership skills through their mentoring roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community reaction to refugees and asylum-seekers is often gauged by attitude surveys that are not designed to overcome built-in bias. Questionnaires that do not account for context and background consequently yield results that misrepresent community attitudes and offer predictably negative responses to immigrant groups. Such surveys can alter public perception, fuel anti-refugee sentiment, and affect policy simply because of how they are constructed. This model survey among humanitarian aid-workers from nine Greek non-governmental organizations uses specific techniques designed to overcome these challenges by applying sample familiarity, non-inflammatory hypothesis-testing, educational question stems, intentional ordering of questions, and direct questioning rather than surrogate measures like statistical approximation. Respondents working in the refugee crisis in Greece demonstrate how empathy, education, and exposure to refugees serve to overcome the harmful stereotypes of outsiders as contributors to crime, terror, and social burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Methods in Ecology & Evolution is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A government's decision to communicate in a native tongue rather than a commonly used and understood but non-native language can prompt perception through an ethnically-tinted lens. While native-language communication is commonplace and typically benign, we argue that conveying a threat posed by an outgroup in a native tongue can trigger dehumanizing attitudes. We conducted a pre-registered survey experiment focusing on attitudes toward Muslim and Chinese people in India to test our expectations. In our two-stage design, we randomly assigned respondents to a survey language (Hindi or English) and, after that, to threat-provoking or control conditions. While Muslims and China are associated with recent violence against India, the government has routinely portrayed only the former as threatening. Likely due to this divergence, Hindi language assignment alone triggers Muslim dehumanization. Indians' more innocuous views of Chinese are responsive to exogenously-induced threat, particularly when conveyed in Hindi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the propensity of responding "don't know" (DK) to a set of financial literacy questions provided by the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), a nationally representative U.S. data set. When given the opportunity to respond correctly, incorrectly, or DK, the inclusion of a DK response item uniquely encompasses facets of financial literacy, which are often overlooked. While researchers utilizing the NFCS have historically treated these responses as incorrect in financial literacy assessments or excluded/dropped DK responses in empirical analyses, this study's findings suggest that the interpretation of DK responses may be better viewed as an amalgamation of survey participants' uncertainty, response confidence, ambiguity regarding the question, or unwillingness to respond, rather than an outright lack of financial literacy. The empirical results suggest that females and those without financially independent children tend to respond DK more frequently to the financial literacy questions examined and that those who are older, married, highly educated, retired, have higher incomes, and current and former military personnel tend to select DK less frequently. Compared to Whites, Blacks are more likely and Asian/Pacific Islanders are less likely to answer DK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying the cost‐effectiveness of alternative sampling methods is crucial for efficient biodiversity monitoring and detection of population trends. In this study, we compared the cost‐effectiveness of three novel sampling methods for detecting changes in koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) occupancy: thermal drones, passive acoustic recorders and camera trapping. Specifically, we fitted single‐season occupancy‐detection models to data recorded from 46 sites in eight bioregions of New South Wales, Australia, between 2018 and 2022. We explored the effect of weather variables on daily detection probability for each method and, using these estimates, calculated the statistical power to detect 30%, 50% and 80% declines in koala occupancy. We calculated power for different combinations of sites (1–200) and repeat surveys (2–40) and developed a cost model that found the cheapest survey design that achieved 80% power to detect change. On average, detectability of koalas was highest with one 24‐h period of acoustic surveys (0.32, 95% CI's: 0.26, 0.39) compared to a 25‐ha flight of drone surveys (0.28, 95% 0.15, 0.48) or a 24‐h period of camera trapping consisting of six cameras (0.019, 95% CI's: 0.014, 0.025). We found a negative quadratic relationship between detection probability and air temperature for all three methods. Our power and cost analysis suggested that 148 sites surveyed with acoustic recorders deployed for 14 days would be the cheapest method to sufficiently detect a 30% decline in occupancy with 80% power. We recommend passive acoustic recorders as the most efficient sampling method for monitoring koala occupancy compared to cameras or drones. Further comparative studies are needed to compare the relative effectiveness of these methods and others when the monitoring objective is to detect change in koala abundance over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While survey data identifies that most members of Gen Z and Millennial generations are anxious about climate change, supportive of climate activists, and agree that climate change is anthropogenic, that same data fails to nuance these generations' intersectional and relational environmental beliefs. The problem is both methodological and rhetorical, because assumptions built into closed-question public opinion surveys can fail to match younger generations' perceptions on the environment. Additional research methods concerned with capturing these relations, including the cognitive interviews that survey designers already employ, could illuminate these environmental perspectives. We see models for this approach in the preliminary interviews used in large-scale surveys, in the field of climate psychology, and in arguments for ecological rhetoric in communication studies. Building from these fields, we provide example questions that are emblematic of these relational environmental and argue for increasing numbers of smaller, qualitative studies which investigate the many relations that younger generations already experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity monitoring programmes should be designed with sufficient statistical power to detect population change. Here we evaluated the statistical power of monitoring to detect declines in the occupancy of forest birds on Christmas Island, Australia. We fitted zero-inflated binomial models to 3 years of repeat detection data (2011, 2013 and 2015) to estimate single-visit detection probabilities for four species of concern: the Christmas Island imperial pigeon Ducula whartoni , Christmas Island white-eye Zosterops natalis , Christmas Island thrush Turdus poliocephalus erythropleurus and Christmas Island emerald dove Chalcophaps indica natalis. We combined detection probabilities with maps of occupancy to simulate data collected over the next 10 years for alternative monitoring designs and for different declines in occupancy (10–50%). Specifically, we explored how the number of sites (60, 128, 300, 500), the interval between surveys (1–5 years), the number of repeat visits (2–4 visits) and the location of sites influenced power. Power was high (> 80%) for the imperial pigeon, white-eye and thrush for most scenarios, except for when only 60 sites were surveyed or a 10% decline in occupancy was simulated over 10 years. For the emerald dove, which is the rarest of the four species and has a patchy distribution, power was low in almost all scenarios tested. Prioritizing monitoring towards core habitat for this species only slightly improved power to detect declines. Our study demonstrates how data collected during the early stages of monitoring can be analysed in simulation tools to fine-tune future survey design decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I review the literature on item nonresponse in surveys. Based on this review, I extend the satisficing model with respondents' privacy concerns to incorporate all relevant aspects of the response process for item nonresponse. I review proposed strategies to reduce item nonresponse and test selected strategies. Results suggest that boosting respondents' use of showcards and interviewing in the respondents' primary language might be promising ways to reduce item nonresponse. Other people present during the interview have only a small association with the number of refusals. Matching the age and gender of respondents and interviewers appears not to be a worthwhile strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes mental health and psychosocial screening processes, access to care and interventions provided to children with upper limb musculoskeletal conditions. A cross-sectional e-survey study was conducted of 107 healthcare professionals who work with children with congenital hand and upper limb differences and brachial plexus birth injuries. Of them, 41 (38%) reported that they routinely screen for mental health and psychosocial concerns. Few (12%) reported the use of standardized outcome measures. In total, 51 (48%) healthcare professionals reported that there was a waiting list for mental health services at their institution. Collectively, healthcare professionals were unsatisfied with the staffing, access to care and types of interventions available. Reported barriers to care included the growing need for mental health support, lack of resources and poor continuity of care after referrals. Future research should focus on identifying and validating a mental health screening tool and investigating the processes affecting access to mental health care. Level of evidence: IV [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the number of brackets and the choice of upper cutoffs in grouped data affect the metric approximation of income and wealth. The literature currently lacks a definition of what should be considered too few brackets or too-low cut-offs. Using German survey data, we show that more than six (eight) brackets and an upper cut-off at the 95th (97th) percentile are sufficient to provide an adequate approximation of the income (wealth) distribution.

The purpose of this research is to test the validity of commonly used measures of exposure to and production of online extremism. Specifically, we investigate if a definition of hate influences survey responses about the production of and exposure to online hate. To explore the effects of a definition, we used a split experimental design on a sample of 18 to 25-year-old Americans where half of the respondents were exposed to the European Union's definition of hate speech and the other half were not. Then, all respondents completed a survey with commonly used items measuring exposure to and perpetration of online hate. The results reveal that providing a definition affects self-reported levels of exposure and perpetration, but the effects are dependent on race. The findings provide evidence that survey responses about online hate may be conditioned by social desirability and framing biases. The findings that group differences exist in how questions about hate are interpreted when definitions of it are not provided mean we must be careful when using measures that try to capture exposure to and the production of hate. While more research is needed, we recommend providing a clear, unambiguous definition when using surveys to measure online hate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An employer's attitude is essential in the workplace. It is often associated with hiring behaviors, in addition to their required awareness and knowledge of providing reasonable assistive technology (AT) and workplace accommodations (WA) for persons with disabilities (PwDs). Objective: The study aimed to draw out knowledge and feedback from hiring managers, human resources management professionals, and recruitment specialists for PwDs, in addition to assessing the awareness and knowledge of AT and WA (AT-WA). Methods: Researchers conducted a focus group to gain an insight for developing a survey that assesses the awareness and knowledge of AT-WA's best practices used by hiring managers and human resources management professionals for employing PwDs. Findings and Conclusions: Results from the focus group participants were all in agreeance that training improvements are needed to help diversify the workforce for PwDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the high cost to corporations of in-person data collection attributable to focus group facility rental costs, recruitment costs, and honoraria, the corporate market researcher working with finite budget must weigh the pros and cons of in-person versus online research for tangible goods. The purpose of the study was to establish a practitioner accessible approach to maximizing information gain per dollar spent collecting sample. In phase one, a repeated-measures sample was obtained from in-person respondents who also completed the research online. Using the phase one covariance of online/in-person ratings, phase two online-only data were collected, transformed, and blended with phase one data to create a weighted purchase intent metric reflecting both online and in-person evaluations. By blending in-person (expensive) and online (cheap) data collection modes, cost-savings were realized without expanding the confidence internal around purchase intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introductory undergraduate statistics courses widely focus on statistical concepts or software-based data analysis. Despite the fact that the analysis of real data has shown to enhance students' engagement, the step of data collection is often neglected. Once students know the challenges of data collection, they are more aware of potential imperfections, such as a lack of representativeness, during data analysis. In this paper, we present a course that closes the gap allowing Business and Economics students to conduct a full survey under realistic conditions including questionnaire design, sampling, and data analysis. It entangles theory and application by combining course-based research experiences with cooperative learning and a flipped classroom approach. Students do not only obtain competences in the field of statistics, they also gain experiences and self-confidence for future research projects because the lecturer acts as a mentor guiding the students throughout the project. Although statistics is usually an unpopular field for Business and Economics students, their motivation was high throughout the semester as they acted as researchers who analysed a specific research question. This is in agreement with student feedback, which highlights the promotion of research-related competences and self-efficacy within the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing the value of experiential education in social/behavioral science research training, we designed and offered a simulation of a survey research project for doctoral students in education. Through three phases of the project, from instrument design through scale investigation and quantitative analyses, students are developed as researchers in a realistic and authentic way. In this paper, we highlight the advantages, challenges, and outcomes from applying simulation methods within graduate research methods courses, with a specific focus on survey methodology and quantitative skill development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]