2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

Sample Response RatesTable A- 4 presents the number of mothers who have completed each phase of the longitudinal studyinterviews to date. A total of 444 mothers, or 84 percent of the baseline sample of 531, completed thesecond in-person interview; and 399 (75%) completed the third-year in-person interview. A total of 390(73%) of the mothers participated in all three waves of in-person interviews; 355 (67%) completed thefourth-year in-person interview; and a total of 335 (63%) completed all four waves of in-personinterviews. The final in-person interview was completed by a total of 353 (66%) and 310 (58%)completed all five in-person interviews. As shown in Table A- 5, the most frequent reason for sampleattrition is mothers moving out of the study area or being unable to contact. Only a small percentage ofmothers have declined to participate in follow-up interviews or left the study for other reasons.A regression analysis of the mothers who completed the fifth-year interview indicates that this attrition isalmost random. The analysis included the following as explanatory variables: living in the Glades, beinghigh risk, having been born in the U.S., being married, being black, being Hispanic, having a high schooldiploma, yearly income, mother’s age at the first interview, and scoring high on the depression scale. Inyear 5, the only significant variables were ethnicity and education level at the baseline interview. In year5, black mothers were almost 3 times more likely than mothers of white or other ethnic backgrounds to beinterviewed in the fifth year. Additionally, mothers who, at the time of the first the baseline interview, hada high school diploma were almost twice as likely to be interviewed at year 5 as compared to those whodid not have a high school diploma at the baseline interview.Table A- 4. Sample and Response Rates for Longitudinal Study over TimeInterview Wave Data Collection Period Sample RetainedN% a1. Baseline In-person Interview July 2004–Nov. 2005 5312. First 6-Month Telephone Jan. 2005–May 2006 484 913. Second In-person Interview July 2005–Nov. 2006 444 844. Second 6-Month Telephone Jan. 2006–May 2007 432 815. Third In-person Interview July 2006–Dec. 2007 399 756. Third 6-Month Telephone Jan. 2007–May 2008 387 737. Fourth In-person Interview July 2007–Dec. 2008 355 678. Fourth 6-Month Telephone Jan. 2008–May 2009 357 679. Fifth In-Person Interview July 2008–Dec 2009 353 6610. Fifth 6-Month Telephone b Jan 2009–Sept 2009 181 34aA total of 702 mothers were recruited for the study, and 589 were selected for the original sample. Response rate is based on therate for all eligible cases, which excludes mothers who no longer live in the study area, whose children were too old for thesample, who had lost custody of their children, or who were ineligible for another reason. Attempts are made to contactrespondents for two consecutive time periods before they are dropped from the study sample pool.bThe study was terminated on September 30, 2009, before all of the fifth-year 6-month telephone surveys could be completed.Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 162