Daily diaries in time use surveys. A solution to overcome measurement problems in single-activity events with long characteristic rhythms

Sociological Methodology

2020

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This article presents an innovative approach to improve the power of questionnaires by combining them with weekly diaries. The aim is to show how one can calibrate information collected from questionnaires, which provide a distribution that is in general biased, with diary data, which are more accurate but cannot provide a distribution across a range of frequencies. These problems become even more pronounced when the object of analysis is a specific issue, such as religious practice, the focus of this study. The suggested user-friendly model uses the more accurate diary data to adjust the distribution produced by the standard questions and enables researchers to obviate the problems of the two data collection methods. To present a practical application, the Time Budget Survey, conducted at five-year intervals between 1975 and 2005 in the Netherlands, is used.

Section: The Indicators: Presence and Frequencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibrating Questionnaires with Weekly Diaries: An Application in Religious Behavior, Netherlands 1975 to 2005

Sociological Methodology

2020

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“…This type of data collection is also affected by certain problems with measuring Mass attendance. The first of these is that the diary is daily, while the frequency of religious participation is typically weekly; the Catholic precept imposes compulsory Mass attendance on Sunday, or Saturday afternoon, for every week of the year (for questions linked to the use of daily and weekly diaries, see Scappini ). The problem is therefore that we need to combine the data from diaries completed on Saturday (only in the afternoon) and Sunday to measure density for the period established by the precept, which means that those who attend Mass on both days are counted twice.…”

Section: The Data: Census and Tusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamics of Religious Practice in Spain from the Mid‐19th Century to 2010

Rossi

Scientific Study of Religion

2016

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Like other Western countries, Spain is rapidly becoming more secularized. While there is almost unanimous agreement that this is happening, significant discord exists about the phases of the process and the speed of its development. This is mostly due to the use of partial and sometimes unreliable data. The aim of this study is to remedy these uncertainties. Our work is based on the data provided by time‐use surveys conducted in 2003 and 2010. Using some basic provisional but reasonable assumptions, we demonstrate that it is possible to identify a plausible dynamic of secularization in Spain starting in the second half of the 19th century. We also highlight the fact that the different indicators feature some significant time lags. Indeed, the dating of the start of the secularization process varies depending on whether reference is made to data on birth cohorts, the overall population, or the “visibility” of the phenomenon.

“…This study will also make comparisons between questionnaire-based surveys and diary-based surveys. As we have seen, the two types of data are completely different and presence measured from diaries cannot be used to infer any information about how frequently a population attends services (see also Scappini 2010). While it is impossible to move from presence to frequency, the reverse transition can be made by using the distribution of the frequency data to calculate the attendance density.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problems in Measuring Diachronic Religious Behavior, or Using Indicators to ‘Make a Virtue of Necessity’: The Case of the Netherlands (1975–2005)

Review of Religious Research

2018

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The aim of this study is to show the different advantages and drawbacks of the main quantitative indicators used in research on diachronic religious behavior. We will demonstrate that religious affiliation has to be used in long-term studies; although it is extremely imprecise, it is often available over long time periods. Instead, the best solution for medium-term studies is to use frequency of attendance at religious services. This indicator is more accurate than religious affiliation, but is only widely available from the 1960s-1970s onwards. Finally, the most suitable indicator for shortterm analysis is obtained from diary-based time-use studies. It is the most precise of the three indicators, but the source is less readily available, as these surveys have only been conducted in most countries in the last 30 years. This study is based on data from Time Use Surveys conducted in the Netherlands every five years from 1975 to 2005.