全球智库信息集成服务系统

The Low Response Pattern Appears Across Several U.S. Department of Defense Surveys

• Lower response rates for younger and more-junior members appear across several online surveys despite differences in survey topics, survey sponsors, sampling strategies, recruitment methods, and survey administration.
• The Air Force is already attempting to reduce the number of surveys it administers and limit their overlap.

Low Response Does Not Necessarily Yield Biased Results

• Survey administrators commonly aim to reduce the risk of nonresponse bias by working to increase response rates, but higher response rates do not rule out nonresponse bias. Extra recruiting measures might succeed only in engaging more participants with similar experiences and views. Studies have found similar or statistically identical findings between surveys with higher and lower response rates. No minimum response rate has ever been established as a scientific threshold for minimizing nonresponse bias.

Because both scholars and policymakers draw from military personnel survey results, survey participants need to be representative of the population. This research examined response rates for several major online U.S. Department of Defense military personnel surveys and found that younger service members, particularly younger enlisted personnel, tend to have very low response rates, even when surveys that are only 50 percent complete are defined as completed. The authors identify possible explanations, including military- and nonmilitary-specific situational and technological barriers and motivational factors.

Low response rates do not necessarily yield results with bias. No minimum response rate has ever been established as a scientific threshold for minimizing nonresponse bias. Strategies to increase response rates can be costly, and previous research shows that they might not necessarily change the results in any perceptible or practically significant way. Thus, the authors propose ways to first understand how well surveys are capturing a representative sample of service members. Weighting the data along demographic characteristics might correct for some biases, but significant gaps in attitudes and experiences could remain. If nonresponse biases are present, the authors recommend reporting the limitations along with the results and identifying the factors that contribute to the bias (e.g., lack of access, trust) so that the survey researchers and sponsors invest only in recruitment strategies that would actually target the source of the problem and not just exacerbate it.

• Chapter One

  Response Rates on the 2012 RAND Survey of Airmen on Information and Communication Technologies and Well-Being

• Chapter Two

  Response Patterns by Age or Rank Group in Other Large Recent Surveys of U.S. Military Personnel

• Chapter Three

  Low Response Rates in Survey Research and Their Implications

• Chapter Four

  Conclusion and Recommendations for Future Air Force and Other Military Surveys

• Appendix A

  Strategies Used to Promote Participation in the 2012 RAND Survey of Airmen on Information and Communication Technologies and Well-Being

• Appendix B

  Survey Invitation for the 2012 RAND Survey of Airmen on Information and Communication Technologies and Well-Being