TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2019//
TI  - Comprehension context and sponsor effects in a hospital mental health study
JO  - Sociological methods and research
A1  - Gibson, C. Ben
A1  - Mayhall, Timothy B.
SP  - 677
EP  - 697
VL  - 48
IS  - 3
N2  - Although a wealth of literature exists studying the effect of sponsor characteristics on self-reports of mental health, little work assesses a related but potentially powerful effect: a context comprehension effect, that is, a change in the respondent's interpretation of a survey question, given the concept elicited by the interviewer. Further, most studies of sponsor effects assess mean differences in responses according to sponsor type; no work has studied how these effects can affect the reliability of a psychometric instrument, which are of general importance to sociological studies of health. Here, using a study of 169 recently discharged hospital patients, we find that both effects are likely to have affected responses and, together, negated the reliability of a psychometric instrument. Future studies should consider the effect of not only sponsor characteristics upon responses but also consider how questions might be interpreted given in an interview context.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0049-1241
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0049124117729706
ID  - ref1
ER  -