Errors in Recalling Childhood Socio-economic Status: The Role of Anchoring and Household Formation in South Africa

Abstract

In the absence of longitudinal data that track individuals over an extended period of time, information on childhood socioeconomic status can be provided by questions that ask adults to recall their parents' education or their economic status at childhood. The usefulness of these data, however, requires that people are willing to report this information, and that these reports do not vary systematically over time, for example in response to changes in current circumstances. In this paper, we evaluate recall data for South Africa, collected from the same adults in the first two waves of a national panel survey. We show that the data, particularly on father's education, are compromised by very low and selective response, reflecting the fragmented nature of many South African families. Among those who do provide information, parental education is reported more consistently over time than the subjective appraisals of childhood economic status. However, we find also that both sets of indicators are sensitive to changes in current income, which would be consistent with anchoring effects. Furthermore changes in subjective appraisals of the past are highly correlated with changes in subjective appraisals of the present.

Coloring of the past via respondent's current psychological state, mediation, and the association between childhood disadvantage and morbidity in adulthood

“…Although ours is not the first study to examine the indirect validity, recall bias, or mediation via mental health (Gerlsma et al, 1997;Hardt et al, 2010;Robins et al, 1985;Sheikh, 2018a;von Fintel and Posel, 2016) in the association between CD and morbidity, the present study offered two advantages. First, we assessed the independent associations in a large representative sample of adult men and women, which facilitated the stratification of results by tertile age groups (Lindsay et al, 2004).…”

“…Recent changes in psychopathology and symptomatology may provide a new anchor (Haas, 2007;von Fintel and Posel, 2016) for remembering and evaluating CD. For instance, people who have more problems in adulthood might report more problems when reflecting on their childhood (Susser and Widom, 2012, p. 674).…”

Modeling the effects of grade retention in high school

“…As the survey was conducted at age 23, there is a concern that the detailed schooling history (track choice, end of year evaluations, and timing of school dropout or graduation) is affected by recall bias (Beckett, Da Vanzo, Sastry, Panis, & Peterson, 2001;Sudman, Bradburn, & Schwarz, 1997;von Fintel & Posel, 2016). In order to minimize this bias, the survey contained a detailed calendar with a line for each school year, which the respondents were asked to complete line by line in a face-to-face interview.…”

A protective rung on the ladder? How past and current social status shaped changes in health during COVID-19

“…Prior research has addressed this concern to some extent. For instance, von Fintel and Posel (2016) analyzed reports of recalled childhood socioeconomic position from the same sample of adults, collected two years apart. They found that recall of past SSS was fairly consistent (63% agreement), a figure similar to retrospective recall of a more objective measure, parental education (72% agreement).…”