Retention and Reasons for Non-Interview

This section provides information on Retention Rates in the NLSY97 and Reasons for Non-Interview.

Retention Rates in the NLSY97

The overall retention rate for round 20 is 74.7 percent. Table 1 shows the retention rates by sample type for rounds 2-20 of the NLSY97.

Table 1. Retention Rates by Sample Type and Gender

Factors used to help bolster NLSY97 retention rates:

• Locating efforts: Because transiency is a common characteristic of the age cohort interviewed in the NLSY97, locating the respondent is a major component of the fielding process each time. At the end of each interview, respondents are asked to provide names and phone numbers of close contacts that might know of their whereabouts if they were to move before the next survey round. Advance letters are mailed to the last known address of a respondent with a request to the post office for forwarding information if the respondent is no longer at that address. Other standard locating services are employed for respondents who cannot be found through contacts or the post office.
• Regular respondent mailings: Respondents receive an advance letter mailed before each fielding effort. The letter reiterates the importance of their participation in the NLSY97 and includes a survey fact sheet. Additional marketing materials are available throughout the field period so that interviewers will have information to share with respondents about the importance of the study.
• Multiple contact attempts: Interviewers try multiple times to contact a respondent, varying the time or date of contact to maximize success.
• Additional incentives offered: In some rounds, a sub-sample of respondents were offered different levels of incentives to see if higher incentives affected survey participation. The most successful incentive approaches are then implemented survey-wide.
• Interviewer consistency: Where possible, an interviewer who completed a successful interview with a respondent in a previous round is assigned that respondent in the next round.