Improving retrospective life course data by combining modularized self-reports and event history calendars : experiences from a large scale survey

"Event history calendars (EHC) have proven to be a useful tool to collect retrospective autobiographic life course data. One problem is that they are only standardized to some extent. This limits their applicability in large-scale surveys. However, in such surveys a modularized retrospective CATI design can be combined with EHC. This data revision module is directly integrated into the interview and used as a data revision module. Hereby insights from cognitive psychology are applied. The data revision module stimulates the respondent's memory retrieval by detecting both temporal inconsistencies, such as gaps, and overlapping or parallel events. This approach was implemented in the IAB-ALWA study (Work and Learning in a Changing World), a large-scale representative telephone survey with 10,000 respondents. By comparing the uncorrected data with the final data after revision, we investigate to what extent the application of this data revision module improves data quality or more precisely, time consistency and dating accuracy of individual reports." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))