1. Respondents' Race, Sex, and
Language (probably) Predict Item
Nonresponse on Sexual Identity
and Behavior Questions
Evidence from Three Cycles of the
California Health Interview Survey
Matt Jans
David Grant
Annie Lee

2. Sexuality and Sensitive Questions
 Private topic
 Violates social norms to discuss with stranger
 Disclosure risk – Sexual Orientation
 For closeted respondents in certain contexts
 Only sensitive for certain responses
 Cultural and language complexities
 Conversation/privacy norms
 Equivalent (or lack of) concepts

3. What CHIS Brings to the Discussion
 Sexual orientation questions for past 11 years
 Record “Don’t Know” and “Refused” responses
 So does BRFSS
 Interviews in 5 Languages (2 Chinese Dialects)
 English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, and
Vietnamese
 Captures detailed ethnicity data
 8 Asian ethnicities, 7 Latino ethnicities, Multi-group
identification for both
 Other detailed language and country of origin info

4. CHIS/Data Overview
 Multi-frame Cell RDD, Landline RDD, Surname
 All interviews by phone
 Data collected in 2-year survey cycles, now
continuous
 Data on adults, teens, kids (adults analyzed here)
 Data reported here includes 2-year cycles from
2005, 2007, and 2009
 Exploratory

5. Sexual Orientation and Behavior
Questions
 Located with other items on general health,
disability, and sexual health
 Sexual orientation Immediately follows past 12 mos.
sexual behavior (including partner sex)
 Not asked of adults over 70 years, proxy
respondents, kids, and teens

6. Non-Heterosexual Orientation
Prevalence and Nonresponse
 3.78% in total in 2009
 1.80% Gay/Lesbian (447,535)
 1.36% Bisexual (339,608)
 0.62% Nonsexual/Celibate/Other (153,844)
 About 2% Item nonresponse
 If all (or even most) NR comes from these groups,
proportion of those groups in population is
greatly under-estimated

7. “Is that partner male or female/In the past 12 months,
have your partners been male, female, or both male
and female?”
0.00%
1.00%
2.00%
3.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%
% Not Answering
(DK, Ref & Not Asc.)

8. “Do you think of yourself as straight or heterosexual,
as gay {, lesbian} or homosexual, or bisexual?”
0.00%
1.00%
2.00%
3.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%
7.00%
% Not Answering
(DK, Ref & Not Asc.)
Weighted

9. Interview Language and Sex Matter
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
n=114,599
Male
Item NR %
Female
Item NR %
% Not Answering
(DK, Ref & Not Asc.)

10. Don’t Know & Refusal Reveal More
0.00%
1.00%
2.00%
3.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%
7.00%
English Spanish Cantonese
Male DK
Male Ref
Female DK
Female Ref

11. Asian Ethnicities Not Identical
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
16.00%
Male
Item NR % (weighted)
Female
Item NR % (weighted)
% Not Answering
(DK, Ref & Not Asc.)
Satisficers?
(small n)

12. Mexican, Central American and
Other Latino Subgroups
0.00%
0.50%
1.00%
1.50%
2.00%
2.50%
3.00%
3.50%
4.00%
4.50%
Male
Item NR %
Female
Item NR %
% Not Answering
(DK, Ref & Not Asc.)

13. Language, Ethnicity, and Culture
 Native language v. English
 Comprehension and terminology
 Cultural concepts and norms around sex and
sexual orientation
 Need explore linguistic aspect of culture more
 Exploit our other “enculturation” measures

14. Next Steps in Analysis
 Is NR common?
 Sensitive and nonsensitive items
 Is missingness random?
 Little’s test for MAR
 What variables predict it?
 More detailed “enculturation” measures
 DK v. Refused
 Interviewer effects

15. Thank you
 mjans@ucla.edu
 ucla.academia.edu/mattjans

16. Does Identity Reflect Behavior?
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
"Inconsistent" Sexual Orientation and Sexual Behavior
(past 12 mos)
(CHIS 2009, weighted)