The impact of respondents and interviewers on interview speed in face-to-face interviews

• Effects of interviewers and respondent characteristics on interview speed.
• Data from the fifth round of the European Social Survey (ESS) are used.
• A three level random coefficient model is used in the analysis.
• Mostly the variance in speed at the interviewer level is larger than at the respondent level.

In surveys carried out by interviewers trained according to the key principle of standardized interviewing it is assumed that the interviewer has only limited impact on the time a respondent needs to answer questions. In the paper the effects of interviewers and respondent characteristics on interview speed are analyzed simultaneously by means of a three-level random coefficient model. Data from the fifth round of the European Social Survey (ESS) are used. In twelve participating countries (CAPI) timers were implemented at several places in the questionnaire. Based on this time information the interview speed (number of questions asked per minute) was measured for each respondent during five modules of the questionnaire. The results support most of the expectations concerning the effects of the respondent characteristics. However, the results also indicate that, for all countries, interviewers strongly determine the interview speed and that interview length is not a simple linear function of the number of questions in a questionnaire.