Surveying Human Vulnerabilities across the Life Course

242 Pages·2016·3.54 MB·English

by  Michel Oris

Life Course Research and Social Policies 3
Michel Oris
Caroline Roberts
Dominique Joye
Michèle Ernst Stähli Editors
Surveying
Human
Vulnerabilities
across the Life
Course
Life Course Research and Social Policies
Volume 3
Serieseditors
LauraBernardi
DarioSpini
MichelOris
Life course research has been developing quickly these last decades for good
reasons. Life course approaches focus on essential questions about individuals’
trajectories, longitudinal analyses, cross-fertilization across disciplines like life-
span psychology, developmental social psychology, sociology of the life course,
social demography, socio-economics, social history. Life course is also at the
crossroads of several fields of specialization like family and social relationships,
migration,education,professionaltrainingandemployment,andhealth.ThisSeries
invites academic scholars to present theoretical, methodological, and empirical
advancesintheanalysisofthelifecourse,andtoelaborateonpossibleimplications
forsocietyandsocialpoliciesapplications.
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/10158
Michel Oris (cid:129) Caroline Roberts (cid:129) Dominique Joye
Michèle Ernst Stähli
Editors
Surveying Human
Vulnerabilities across
the Life Course
Editors
MichelOris CarolineRoberts
CIGEV SocialSciencesInstitute
UniversityofGeneva UniversityofLausanne
Geneva,Switzerland Lausanne,Switzerland
DominiqueJoye MichèleErnstStähli
SocialSciencesInstitute FORS(SwissFoundationforthe
UniversityofLausanne ResearchinSocialSciences)
Lausanne,Switzerland UniversityofLausanne
Lausanne,Switzerland
ISSN2211-7776 ISSN2211-7784 (electronic)
LifeCourseResearchandSocialPolicies
ISBN978-3-319-24155-5 ISBN978-3-319-24157-9 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-24157-9
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016931328
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Contents
SurveyingHumanVulnerabilitiesAcrossthe Life Course:
BalancingSubstantiveandMethodologicalChallenges ..................... 1
Michel Oris, Caroline Roberts, Dominique Joye,
andMichèleErnstStähli
Representationof Vulnerability andthe Elderly. A Total
SurveyErrorPerspectiveontheVLVSurvey ................................ 27
Michel Oris, Eduardo Guichard, Marthe Nicolet, Rainer
Gabriel,AudeTholomier,ChristopheMonnot,DelphineFagot,
andDominiqueJoye
Adapting QuantitativeSurvey Procedures:The Price for
AssessingVulnerability?LessonsfromaLarge-ScaleSurvey
onAgingandMigrationinSwitzerland....................................... 65
LaureKaeser
VulnerabilityFollowinga CriticalLife Event: Temporary
Crisis or ChronicDistress? A PsychologicalControversy,
MethodologicalConsiderations,andEmpiricalEvidence................... 87
PasqualinaPerrig-Chiello,SaraHutchison,andBinaKnöpfli
ASurveyofCouplesFacingBreastCancerinWomen ...................... 113
Linda Charvoz, Nicolas Favez, Sarah Cairo Notari,
BénédictePanes-Ruedin,andJean-FrançoisDelaloye
CareerPathwaysandProfessionalTransitions:Preliminary
ResultsfromtheFirstWaveofa7-YearLongitudinalStudy............... 131
Christian Maggiori, Jérôme Rossier, Franciska Krings,
ClaireS.Johnston,andKooroshMassoudi
How to Survey Displaced Workersin Switzerland: Ways
ofAddressingSourcesofBias................................................... 159
Isabel Baumann, Oliver Lipps, Daniel Oesch,
andCarolineVandenplas
v
vi Contents
UsingLifeHistoryCalendarstoSurveyVulnerability....................... 177
Davide Morselli, Nora Dasoki, Rainer Gabriel,
Jacques-Antoine Gauthier, Julia Henke,
andJean-MarieLeGoff
StudyingYouthTransitionsThroughaSocialNetwork:
FirstImpressions................................................................. 201
Véronique Eicher, Mouna Bakouri, Christian Staerklé,
MarleneCarvalhosaBarbosa,andAlainClémence
Attritionin the Swiss Household Panel: Are Vulnerable
GroupsmoreAffectedthanOthers?........................................... 221
MartinaRothenbühlerandMariekeVoorpostel
Surveying Human Vulnerabilities Across
the Life Course: Balancing Substantive
and Methodological Challenges
MichelOris,CarolineRoberts,DominiqueJoye,andMichèleErnstStähli
1 Introduction
This book matches two concepts, one substantive, and the other methodological:
‘vulnerability’and‘surveyquality’.Itconcernsthechallengesinvolvedinconduct-
inghighqualitysocialresearchusingsurveymethodsinnon-standardcontexts,to
learn about vulnerable people and their experiences of vulnerability. The volume
bringstogether nine contributionsto a major Swiss research infrastructurenamed
‘LIVES – Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives’, each of which
toucheson the tension betweenthe pursuitof elaborate,oftendelicate substantive
researchaims,andthedemandformethodologicalrigour.TheLIVESresearchpro-
grammehasbeenfundedbytheSwissConfederationthroughtheNationalScience
Foundation’sNationalCentresofCompetenceinResearch(NCCR)scheme,which
This chapter and this volume as a whole have been made possible by the support of the
NationalCentre ofCompetences inResearch “LIVES –Overcoming Vulnerability:Lifecourse
perspectives,”financedbytheSwissScienceFoundation(SNF).Theauthorsexpresstheirgratitude
totheSNF.
M.Oris((cid:2))
NCCRLIVES,IPs213&214,Geneva,Switzerland
CentrefortheInterdisciplinaryStudyofGerontologyandVulnerability,UniversityofGeneva,
Geneva,Switzerland
e-mail:[email protected]
C.Roberts(cid:129)D.Joye(cid:129)M.ErnstStähli
NCCRLIVES,IP214,Lausanne,Switzerland
SocialSciencesInstitute,UniversityofLausanne,Lausanne,Switzerland
FORS(SwissFoundationfortheResearchinSocialSciences),UniversityofLausanne,
Lausanne,Switzerland
©TheAuthor(s)2016 1
M.Orisetal.(eds.),SurveyingHumanVulnerabilitiesacrosstheLifeCourse,
LifeCourseResearchandSocialPolicies3,DOI10.1007/978-3-319-24157-9_1
2 M.Orisetal.
isdesignedtopromotelong-termresearchnetworksinareasofstrategicimportance
for Swiss science, the Swiss economy and Swiss society. As the name ‘LIVES’
suggests,thismultifacetedprojectaimstoaddresshumanvulnerabilitiesacrosslife
trajectories,fromthecradletothegrave.YetwhileLIVES’sdefiningfeatureandits
raisond’êtreisitsambitioussubstantivefocus,muchoftheresearchbeingcarried
outbytheNCCRisequallydrivenandcharacterisedbytwospecificepistemological
features: the multidisciplinary nature of the work being undertaken, and a strong
emphasisonquantitativemethodsandsurveydatacollection.Thesefeatures,along
withthethematicfocusoftheresearch,presentadoublechallengetotheresearchers
involved,the first of which is simply how best to obtain “meaningful”data about
vulnerabilitiesandpopulationsatrisk,andthesecondofwhichiswhether‘quality’
isbestachievedbyapplyingstandard,widely-acceptedtechniquesforgatheringnew
data,orbyadaptingthesemethodstothespecificpopulationsofinterest,orresearch
conditions.
The pertinence of this challenge – the methodological aspects of which have
longtroubledcomparativeresearchers(Harknessetal.2010;Davidovetal.2010)–
extendsbeyondLIVESandbeyondSwitzerland.Inthissensetheninechaptersof
thisvolumecontributetocrucialscientificdebatesin surveymethodology,aswell
asinbothpsychologicalandsocialsciences.Theyprovidedetailedpresentationsof
concreteexperiencesofconductingsurveysandusingotherinnovativeapproaches
tostudyvulnerabilitiesandvulnerableindividuals(belongingornottopopulations
considered to be vulnerable). Each one highlights the importance of a proper
integrationoftheory,concepts,questionnairecontentanddesign,proceduresofdata
collection,analyticalmethods,andinterpretations,todeveloporiginalperspectives
in an area of research, which continuesto gain in popularity.Indeed, the topic of
‘vulnerability’ has seen an explosion of interest in the scientific world over the
course of the past 20 years, partly in response to demands from stakeholders and
citizens,inspiteof–ormaybebecauseof–thefactthattheconceptofvulnerability
isnotclearlydefined.Itsmanyconnotationsanduseshavebothgeneralandspecific
implicationsforthemethodsusedtoinvestigatethephenomenatowhichitpertains,
andnotably,forthevariousdecisionsinvolvedinthedesignofquantitativesurveys.
This booktackles the challengeof using surveyresearch methodology– either
on its own or in combination with other innovative approaches (such as social
networksandobservation)–tocollectdatafromvulnerablepopulationsubgroups,
to investigate their experiences of vulnerability and the resources available to
themforsurmounting‘vulnerabilising’contexts,eventsandlifetransitions.While
at the same time aspiring to uphold the scientific standards of survey research
methodology, researchers interested in vulnerability face a number of distinctive
challenges. Many are extensions of existing problems affecting the quality with
whichanysurveycanbecarriedout.
Apart of being helpful for people working with data produced within the
LIVESproject, this book is mainly addressed to researchersspecialized on topics
around vulnerability, survey practitioners and survey methodologists who aim at
questioningtheirroutines,aswellastoyoungresearcherslookingforexamplesof
honestandinnovatingsocialsciencemaking.
SurveyingHumanVulnerabilitiesAcrosstheLifeCourse:Balancing... 3
Afterthisintroductorychapter,whichdiscussesthecontributionofthefollowing
chapters,thebookisorganizedasfollows:thefirstsixchaptersaregroupedaround
the surveyed topics and populations: elder people for chapters “Representation
of Vulnerability and the Elderly. A Total Survey Error Perspective on the VLV
Survey” and “Adapting Quantitative Survey Procedures: The Price for Assessing
Vulnerability? Lessons from a Large-Scale Survey on Aging and Migration in
Switzerland”, harsh events (such as widowing and cancer) during middle age
for chapters “Vulnerability Following a Critical Life Event: Temporary Crisis or
Chronic Distress? A Psychological Controversy, Methodological Considerations,
and Empirical Evidence” and “A Survey of Couples Facing Breast Cancer in
Women”, working careers and disruptions for chapters “Career Pathways and
Professional Transitions: Preliminary Results from the First Wave of a 7-Year
LongitudinalStudyand“HowtoSurveyDisplacedWorkersinSwitzerland:Waysof
AddressingSourcesofBias”.Thelastthreechaptersaremorefocusedonaspecific
survey tool: life calendars for chapter “Using Life History Calendars to Survey
Vulnerability”, online social networks for chapter “Studying Youth Transitions
Througha SocialNetwork:FirstImpressions”andpanelsforchapter“Attritionin
theSwissHouseholdPanel:AreVulnerableGroupsMoreAffectedthanOthers?”.
1.1 Backgroundto ThisVolume
At the origin of this collection is an international workshop organized by LIVES
called ‘Methodological and Substantive Challenges in Measuring vulnerability
across the Life Course’, held at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, in June,
2012. The aim of the workshop was to address some of the methodological
challengesinvolvedinmeasuringvulnerabilityandresilienceusingsocialsurveys.
The workshop broughttogether substantive specialists in researching these topics
fromwithinLIVES,andinvitedinternationalexpertsinsurveymethodologytoshed
lightonsomeofthesharedmethodologicalchallengesbeingfacedbythethematic
research projects that make up LIVES. The challenges discussed at the workshop
included(1)samplingandsurveying‘hard-to-reach’populations;(2)theriskoflow
anddifferentialratesofparticipationacrossimportantsub-groups,andattritionfor
surveyswithalongitudinaldesign;(3)difficultiesassociatedwithusingtraditional
data collection methods, including telephone under-coverageand the high cost of
face-to-face interviewing,which have increased the demand for mixed mode data
collection;and(4)measurementchallengesincludingthecollectionofretrospective
data(e.g.eventhistoriesandretrospectiveevaluationsofpersonalwellbeingacross
different points of the life course), and the potential for interviewer effects on
data quality. Understanding the nature of such challenges and the implications
they have for the substantive aims of the LIVES project was one of the primary
objectivesof the workshop.A secondary,and relatively seldom pursuedaim, was
to forge a dialogue between substantive and methodological specialists, to try to