Houston Area Survey, 2010

DOI

10.17605/OSF.IO/PHY8D

Citation

Klineberg, S. L. (2020, November 6). Houston Area Survey, 2010.

Summary

For the past 28 years, these countywide, random-digit-dialed, computer-assisted telephone surveys systematically measured the continuities and changes in demographic patterns, life experiences, attitudes and beliefs among successive representative samples of Harris County residents. Using identical items across the years, with new questions added periodically, the annual Houston Area Survey (HAS) has tracked America's fourth largest city in the process of fundamental transformation.

Survey items on religion inquire about service attendance, religious preference, the racial composition of the respondent's place of worship, and the importance of religion to the respondent.

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

Data File

Cases: 750
Variables: 142
Weight Variable: None

Data Collection

February and March 2010

Funded By

AT&T Foundation, Gallery Furniture, Greater Houston Community Foundation, Houston Chronicle, Houston Endowment Inc., Swalm Foundation, United Way of Greater Houston, Vinson & Elkins L.L.P., Amegy Bank, Bank of America, CenterPoint Energy, Fiesta Mart, H-E-B Company, Jain & Jain CPAs, JPMorgan Chase-Houston, KHOU-TV Channel 11, Memorial Hermann Hospital System, Palmetto Partners Ltd., Pinto America Growth Fund L.P., Sterling Bank, Wachovia Foundation, Wells Fargo, American Leadership Forum, Houston/Gulf Coast Chapter, BMC Software Inc., Center for, Houston's Future, Compass Bank, CRC Foundation, Deloitte & Touche, Everett Family Fund, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., Group 1 Automotive Inc., Hines Interests Limited Partnership, Houston Rockets, Indo-American Charity Foundation, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation, KTRK-TV Channel 13, Leadership Houston, Linbeck Group L.P., Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell L.L.P, Lovett Homes Inc., Management Leadership for, Tomorrow-Houston, Marek Brothers Systems Inc, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw L.L.P., Merrill Lynch, MetroNational,, Reliant Energy, Shell Oil Company Foundation, Stanford and Joan Alexander Foundation, State Farm Insurance, Companies, Texas Children's Hospital, Waste Management Inc., Whitney National Bank, Wulfe and Co., F. J. Hank, Coleman, Jr., Janice M. Crawford, John Walsh, The Honorable Bob Lanier, Linda L. S. Moroney, Eugene Vaughan

Collection Procedures

In order to ensure that every Harris County adult living in a household with a telephone will have an equal probability of being interviewed, survey respondents are selected annually through a two-stage procedure. In each household reached by randomly generated telephone numbers, the designated respondent is selected randomly from all household members aged 18 or older. Using "back translation" and the reconciliation of discrepancies, each year's questionnaire is translated into Spanish, and bilingual interviewers are assigned to the project at all times.

Sampling Procedures

In the early years, the sample sizes ranged from 412 to 550; since 1990, they have been set at around 650, and more recently at 700 (see the Ns by year, p. 53). Response rates (the number of completed interviews in relation to all potentially eligible phone numbers) averaged 75 percent during the 1980s; but in this new age of "caller ID's," answering machines and cell phones, the response rates have fallen in recent years to around 30 percent. Cooperation rates (the ratio of completions to interviews plus refusals) remained for many years at around 80 percent; they too have declined, to about 45 percent, more recently.

In 16 of the past 17 surveys (1994 through 2010, except for 1996), the surveys have been expanded with "oversample" interviews in Houston's ethnic communities. Using identical random-selection procedures, and terminating after the first few questions if the respondent is not of the ethnic background required, additional interviews have been conducted in each of the years to enlarge and equalize the samples of Anglo, African American, and Hispanic respondents at about 500 each. In 1995 and 2002, the research included large representative samples (N=500) from Houston's Asian communities, with one-fourth of the interviews being conducted in Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Korean - the only such surveys in the country.

Principal Investigators

Professor Stephen L. Klineberg, Department of Sociology, Rice University