%0 Journal Article
%T Comprehension Context and Sponsor Effects in a Hospital Mental Health Study
%A C. Ben Gibson
%A Timothy B. Mayhall
%J Sociological Methods & Research
%@ 1552-8294
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0049124117729706
%X 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
%K comprehension context
%K interviewer effects
%K survey research
%K mental health
%K self-reports
%K sponsor effects
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0049124117729706