Abstract
A computer interview was developed to collect information about drug use/abuse from high school students. Responses to this interview were compared with those obtained from an identical paper-and-pencil questionnaire given to the same students, in counterbalanced order. Results were comparable for the two methods, but missing data and logically inconsistent answers obtained with the paper-and-pencil questionnaire were not possible with the computer interview. The overwhelming majority of respondents preferred the computer interview as a means of data collection.
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This research was supported in part by a grant from NIDA (1 R01 DA 000903), by a Research Scientist’s Development Award (1-K1-MH-70 903, to Dr. Greist), and by the Wisconsin Psychiatric Research Institute. We wish to thank Lisa Loder and Sandra Bass for their help in carrying out the research and Jean Clatworthy for helping prepare this manuscript.
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Erdman, H., Klein, M.H. & Greist, J.H. The reliability of a computer interview for drug use/abuse information. Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation 15, 66–68 (1983). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203440
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203440