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Surveying Sexualities: Minimizing Survey Error in Study of Sexuality

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Handbook of the Sociology of Sexualities

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of survey error in the study of sexualities. I focus on survey error in terms of coverage, nonresponse, measurement, and coding issues. In addition to examining survey research issues in the study of sexualities, I also review nonprobability sampling approaches, including time-location sampling, respondent-driven sampling, and internet surveys. I then examine different forms of survey error in three probability surveys: the Chicago Health and Social Life Survey (CHSLS), the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), and the New Family Structures Study (NFSS). Although some type of survey error is an issue in each survey, the NFSS appears to be impacted substantially by all four forms of survey error. These examples highlight the need for continuing attention to survey methodology when asking questions about sex.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Unlike “sexualities,” the search term “sexual behavior” has been used continuously from 1970 to 2014. I also employed this term because it is likely to have fewer false positives in comparison to “sexuality.”

  2. 2.

    Sampling error is another type of survey error that I do not focus in this chapter. It is worth noting, however, that convenience samples suffer from substantial sampling error.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 01003, Amherst, MA, USA

    Anthony Paik

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  1. Anthony Paik
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Correspondence to Anthony Paik .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    John DeLamater

  2. Department of Sociology, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Rebecca F. Plante

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Paik, A. (2015). Surveying Sexualities: Minimizing Survey Error in Study of Sexuality. In: DeLamater, J., Plante, R. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Sexualities. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17341-2_6

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