Chapman Survey of American Fears, Wave 2 (2015)

DOI

10.17605/OSF.IO/5ZM4E

Citation

Bader, C., Day, L. E., & Gordon, A. (2020, March 5). Chapman Survey of American Fears, Wave 2 (2015).

Summary

Collected in 2015, the Chapman Survey of American Fears, Wave 2 (CSAF) is the second wave of a planned annual survey. The survey includes core demographic items, and measures of religion and politics. However the survey's primary focus is asking questions designed to determine the extent to which Americans fear or worry about life events, governmental policy, crime and victimization, natural and man-made disasters, different spaces and other phenomena. Items related to beliefs about crime (has crime increased over the last 20 years, possible explanations for criminal behavior), media consumption and scientific attitudes are included in Waves 1 and 2.

The ARDA has added six additional variables to the original data set to enhance the users' experience on our site.

Data File

Cases: 1541
Variables: 246
Weight Variable: WEIGHT

Data Collection

2015

Original Survey (Instrument)

The Chapman University Survey on American Fears

Funded By

The Earl Babbie Research Center at Chapman University and the John Templeton Foundation

Collection Procedures

Self-administered questionnaire via the web.

Sampling Procedures

The data were collected by GFK (Knowledge Networks), a consumer research company with expertise in probability samples. GFK maintains a probability-based web panel, KnowledgePanel, designed to be representative of the general population of the United States. The initial panel was recruited using random-digit-dialing, but is maintained using the U.S. Postal Service's Delivery Sequence File that includes households without wired telephones. Selected households are invited to participate in a web-based panel study. Potential respondents who agree to participate but lack the necessary equipment or Internet connection are provided a laptop computer and/or Internet service connection by GFK. Once recruited for the panel study, participants receive unique log-in information for accessing online surveys.

The survey was fielded to an English-speaking sample in two stages. First, GFK conducted a pre-test of 35 respondents to ensure that respondents understood the questions and that the survey was not unduly time consuming, potentially leading to subject exhaustion. This pre-test did not raise concerns; therefore 2,500 panelists were recruited to take the survey via an email from GFK.

Principal Investigators

The CSAF, Wave 2 was collected with the help of a multi-disciplinary team of faculty and students. The three Principal Investigators are:

Dr. Christopher Bader, Professor of Sociology, Chapman University
Dr. L. Edward Day, Associate Professor of Sociology, Chapman University
Dr. Ann Gordon, Associate Professor of Political Science, Chapman University