Jen Dykema

Survey Methodologist/Associate Research Scientist

Dr. Jennifer Dykema is the Survey Methodologist and an Associate Research Scientist at the University of Wisconsin Survey Center. Dr. Dykema assists Survey Center researchers and staff on issues related to the collection of original data including question development, instrument design, and other survey-based design components. She has taught research methods at the UW-Madison and at the Summer Institute of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. Before receiving her doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, she worked in the Interview Methodology Program at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Dykema has extensive experience and expertise in the field of survey research methodology including: wording questions and designing survey instruments across all modes of administration; developing protocols for, conducting, and analyzing the data from cognitive interviews, in-depth interviews, and focus groups; developing and implementing systems to code interviewer-respondent interaction; designing and implementing experiments to improve survey items and increase response rates; and conducting statistical analyses of response errors using multiple data sets. She has worked directly on developing or providing expert evaluation of several national and state-based surveys including the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement, National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), the Youth Behavior Survey (YBS), the Schools and Staffing Survey, the Parent Survey 3, and the California Survey of Birth Defects.

Phone: (608) 262-8385

Email: dykema@ssc.wisc.edu

Selected Publications by Jen Dykema

Dykema, Jennifer, Kerryann DiLoreto, Jessica Price, Eric White, and Nora Cate Schaeffer. 2012 (forthcoming). "ACASI Gender-of-Interviewer Voice Effects on Reports to Questions about Sensitive Behaviors among Young Adults." Public Opinion Quarterly.

Dykema, Jennifer, John Stevenson, Brendan Day, Sherrill Sellers, and Vence Bonham. 2011. "Effects of Incentives and Prenotification on Response Rates and Costs in a National Web Survey of Physicians." Evaluation and the Health Professions 34(4):434-447. (doi:10.1177/0163278711406113).

Dykema, Jennifer, John Stevenson, Chad Kniss, Katherine Kvale, Kim Gonzalez, and Eleanor Cautley. 2011. "Use of Monetary and Nonmonetary Incentives to Increase Response Rates among African Americans in the Wisconsin Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System." Maternal and Child Health Journal (doi: 10.1007/s10995-011-0780-2).

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Jennifer Dykema. 2011. "Are Interactional Behaviors Exhibited When the Self-Reported Health Question is Asked Associated with Health Status?" Social Science Research 40(4):1025-1036. (doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2011.04.002).

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, and Jennifer Dykema. 2011. "Questions for Surveys: Current Trends and Future Directions." Public Opinion Quarterly 75(5):909-961.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, and Jennifer Dykema. 2011. "Response 1 to Fowler's Chapter: Coding the Behavior of Interviewers and Respondents to Evaluate Survey Questions." Pp. 23-39 in Question Evaluation Methods: Contributing to the Science of Data Quality, edited by Jennifer Madans, Kristen Miller, Aaron Maitland , and Gordon Willis. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, Jennifer Dykema, and Douglas W. Maynard. 2010. "Interviewers and Interviewing." Pp. 437-470 in Handbook of Survey Research, Second Edition, edited by James D. Wright and Peter V. Marsden. United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Dykema, Jennifer, Danna Basson, and Nora Cate Schaeffer. 2007. "Face-To-Face Surveys." Pp. 240-248 in The SAGE Handbook of Public Opinion Research, edited by Wolfgang Donsbach and Michael W. Traugott. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, and Jennifer Dykema. 2004. "A Multiple-Method Approach to Improving the Clarity of Closely Related Concepts: Distinguishing Legal and Physical Custody of Children." Pp. 475-502 in Methods for Testing and Evaluating Survey Questionnaires, edited by Stanley Presser, Jennifer M. Rothgeb, Mick P. Couper, Judith T. Lessler, Elizabeth Martin, Jean Martin, and Eleanor Singer. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Dykema, Jennifer, and Nora Cate Schaeffer. 2000. "Events, Instruments and Reporting Errors." American Sociological Review 65(4):619-629.

Bischoping, Katherine, and Jennifer Dykema. 1999. "Toward a Social Psychological Programme for Improving Focus Group Methods of Developing Questionnaires." Journal of Official Statistics 15(4):495-516.

Dykema, Jennifer, James M. Lepkowski, and Steven Blixt. 1997. "The Effect of Interviewer and Respondent Behavior on Data Quality: Analysis of Interaction Coding in a Validation Study." Pp. 287-310 in Survey Measurement and Process Quality, edited by Lars Lyberg, Paul Biemer, Martin Collins, Edith De Leeuw, Cathryn Dippo, Norbert Schwarz, and Dennis Trewin. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.