On the Effects of Presence of Others during Interview in a Large Scale National Family Health Survey in India

Krishna Mohan P.V.T., Surat NHL Municipal Medical College

In order to improve measurement in social science research, one must look into the interview process that will allow us to investigate the principal sources of response effects in interviews. Different types of interview situations allow interviewers and respondents different degrees of freedom to vary their behaviour. How the interview conducted has important implications on responses obtained. If a respondent is asked, in the presence of other persons, to give answers to questions that are highly related to the personal life of women such as use of family planning and experience of physical mistreatment, she may feel hesitant and may bias the responses. This paper examines the effects of presence of others on the responses pertaining to family planning use and domestic violence in the national family health survey conducted in India. The results obtained are interesting and throws a light on future research implications in such surveys.