TY  - JOUR
A1  - Poulin, Michelle
T1  - Reporting on first sexual experience: The importance of interviewer-respondent interaction
Y1  - 2010/03/03
JF  - Demographic Research
JO  - Demographic Research
SN  - 1435-9871
SP  - 237
EP  - 288
DO  - 10.4054/DemRes.2010.22.11
VL  - 22
IS  - 11
UR  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol22/11/
L1  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol22/11/22-11.pdf
L2  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol22/11/22-11.pdf
N2  - Survey methodologists typically seek to improve data on sensitive topics by standardizing surveys and avoiding the use of human interviewers. This study uses data collected from 90 never-married young adults in rural Malawi to compare reports on first sexual encounters between a standard survey and an in-depth interview. A significant fraction of young women who claimed in the survey to have never been sexually active affirmed sexual experience during the in-depth interview, fielded shortly thereafter. Two elements of the in-depth interview, flexibility and reciprocal exchange, foster trust and more truthful reporting. The findings contradict the long-standing presumption that face-to-face interviews are inherently threatening when the topic is sex.

ER  -