Responses That May Indicate Nonattending Behaviors in Three Self-Administered Educational Surveys / J. Jackson Barnette.

When self-administered surveys or questionnaires are administered, there is often a question of whether respondents have attended to the items in a thoughtful manner. This paper examines the results of three different surveys to investigate the occurrence of nonattending behaviors such as missing items, patterns that indicate lack of attentiveness, and failure to respond to reverse worded items. Data were collected from the following samples: (1) 1,240 primary-grade students from 27 schools; (2) 3,541 students in grades 5 through 12; and (3) 2,688 teachers. Analysis of the three data sets indicated that the problem of missing items throughout or at the end of the survey was not very prevalent and that typical statistical methods were adequate for dealing with this problem. Response patterns that might be associated with nonattending behaviors were noted, with monotonic or checker extreme patterns most evident in the youngest sample. It also appeared that 10 to 20% of respondents might not be attending to reverse wording of survey items. Further research will be needed to verify these patterns and determine their impact. (Contains 7 tables, 1 figure, and 11 references.) (SLD)

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