The Influence of Survey Format on Reports about Fathers and Mothers

Similarities or differences in parenting between reports about mothers and fathers may be associated with the format of the questionnaire. The purpose of this study was to examine three questionnaire formats for collecting the same data about fathers and mothers from adolescents and emerging adults. Study 1 used secondary data analyses from three cross-sectional studies with 820 Latino adolescents using the three survey formats. Study 2 used data from a blind experimental design with 472 emerging adults where the three survey formats were randomly assigned to participants. The analyses from studies with adolescents and emerging adults demonstrated that when the items are asked in the Top Bottom and Left Right formats there are significantly higher correlations between responses about mothers and fathers than when the items are asked in the Separate Pages format.