Elsevier

Social Science Research

Volume 11, Issue 3, September 1982, Pages 280-296
Social Science Research

The rescission of behaviors: Inconsistent responses in adolescent sexuality data

https://doi.org/10.1016/0049-089X(82)90012-6Get rights and content

Abstract

In longitudinal survey research, certain questions can be rescinded illogically. For instance, respondents who at Time 1 report having had sexual intercourse may at Time 2 report never having done so. This paper reports measurement techniques and analyses of these types of inconsistencies from an ongoing longitudinal adolescent sexuality project. Inconsistencies in intercourse, masturbation, and other sexual behaviors are reported and compared to rates from other studies and other less sensitive behaviors within the same study. Three conclusions are presented: (1) inconsistencies should be considered a natural part of any longitudinal survey process and should be incorporated into the response model; (2) inconsistency rates in these particular data support the contention that adolescent sexuality data of appropriate quality for analytical purposes can be obtained; and (3) inconsistency rates in fact contain substantive information concerning the processes under consideration.

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This paper was completed while the first author was a research analyst at the Carolina Population Center, and was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant 1-R01-HD12806-02.

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