Abstract
The sampling frame in most social science surveys misses members of certain groups, such as the homeless or individuals living with HIV. These groups are known as hard-to-reach groups. One strategy for learning about these groups, or subpopulations, involves reaching hard-to-reach group members through their social network. In this paper we compare the efficiency of two common methods for subpopulation size estimation using data from standard surveys. These designs are examples of mental link tracing designs. These designs begin with a randomly sampled set of network members (nodes) and then reach other nodes indirectly through questions asked to the sampled nodes. Mental link tracing designs cost significantly less than traditional link tracing designs, yet introduce additional sources of potential bias. We examine the influence of one such source of bias using simulation studies. We then demonstrate our findings using data from the General Social Survey collected in 2004 and 2006. Additionally, we provide survey design suggestions for future surveys incorporating such designs.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the SAMSI Complex Networks Program.
Tyler McCormick is partially supported by NIAID grant R01 HD54511. This work was partially completed while McCormick was supported by a Google PhD Fellowship in Statistics. The research of Tian Zheng is, in parts, supported by NSF grants DMS-0714669 and SES-1023176, NIH grant R01 GM070789, and a 2010 Google research award. Eric Kolaczyk is supported by ONR award N000140910654.
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McCormick, T.H., He, R., Kolaczyk, E. et al. Surveying Hard-to-Reach Groups Through Sampled Respondents in a Social Network. Stat Biosci 4, 177–195 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12561-012-9059-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12561-012-9059-4