Beschreibung

"Non-response is common in longitudinal surveys, reducing efficiency and introducing the potential for bias. Principled methods, such as multiple imputation, are generally required to obtain unbiased estimates in surveys subject to missingness which is not completely at random. We present a systematic data-driven approach used to identify predictors of non-response in Next Steps, a national cohort study which follows a sample of young people from age 13-14 years to age 25 years. The identified predictors of non-response were across a number of broad categories. We found that including these predictors of non-response as auxiliary variables in multiple imputation analyses allowed us to restore sample representativeness in several different settings. We propose that such variables are included in future analyses using principled methods to reduce bias due to non-response in Next Steps." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))