Elsevier

Social Science Research

Volume 40, Issue 6, November 2011, Pages 1691-1701
Social Science Research

Underestimating busyness: Indications of nonresponse bias due to work–family conflict and time pressure

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2011.06.004Get rights and content

Abstract

International research shows that both work–family conflict and time pressure are increasing in Western societies. With these increased pressures, precisely those people who are combining work and family obligations may be missing from survey estimates. This study investigates whether the measurement of work–family conflict (WFC) and time pressure is influenced by nonresponse bias. Using the Flemish “Work, Family and Time use in Flanders”-survey and the Basic Question survey for nonrespondents of this survey, we investigate whether nonrespondents score higher on subjective and objective indicators of WFC and time pressure than respondents. Results show that nonrespondents are indeed those sample units who experience significantly more WFC and time pressure, demonstrating that WFC and time pressure related nonresponse biases exist. Implications and suggestions to reduce bias in data collections are discussed.

Highlights

► We investigate whether work–family conflict (WFC) and time pressure can be underestimated due to nonresponse bias in surveys. ► The Basic Question approach is used to gather data on nonrespondents of the WFTF-survey on WFC. ► We find that nonrespondents experience more WFC and time pressure. ► WFC and time pressure are underestimated in the examined survey. ► Surveys on WFC and time pressure can suffer from nonresponse bias.

Introduction

Balancing paid work and family responsibilities is often difficult (e.g. Innstrand et al., 2009; see Eby et al., 2005 for a review). There is evidence that the experience of incompatibility of roles in the work and family domain, the so-called work–family conflict (WFC), is increasing in Western societies (e.g. van der Lippe et al., 2006, Winslow, 2005, Zuzanek, 2004). These findings however, are based on survey estimates – estimates that may be susceptible to a number of errors and biases, such as nonresponse bias (Groves, 1989). People who are busy, or feel busy, combining work and family roles may be more difficult to contact and when contacted may have a higher chance of refusing to comply with a survey request because of a lack of time. In that way, nonresponse may actually be related to the experience of “busyness” and lead to a systematic underestimation of WFC in survey based research.

Studies on the effect of time pressure on survey participation are inconclusive and, to the best of our knowledge, the effect of WFC as a more specific form of busyness on survey participation, has not been investigated yet. WFC-related nonresponse biases however, have already been suggested (e.g. Keeton et al., 2007). To be able to investigate whether nonresponse can be related to WFC and (feelings of) time pressure, data on such busyness indicators needs to be available for the nonrespondents. The “Work, Family and Time use in Flanders”-survey (WFTF survey) allows to compare respondents with nonrespondents on indicators of WFC and time pressure, as the Basic Question approach (e.g. Bethlehem and Kersten, 1985, Bethlehem, 2009) was applied in a follow-up survey among nonrespondents. Thus, this data opens up the possibility to explore whether WFC-related and time pressure related nonresponse biases occur and hence, to analyse whether these indicators of “busyness” are systematically underestimated in surveys.

Section snippets

The increase of (perceived) WFC and time pressure issues

WFC is a bi-directional concept: work-interfering-with-family (WIF) occurs when the paid work role obstructs the fulfilment of roles in the family domain, family-interfering-with-work (FIW) occurs when family roles obstruct the role fulfilment in the work domain (Frone et al., 1992, Judge et al., 2006). These interferences are often time interferences: time-based WFC refers to the inter-role conflict in which the roles in the family and the paid work domain are not compatible with each other as

Data

The purpose of the survey ‘Work, Family and Time use in Flanders’ (WFTF survey) is to gather data on how working women in Flanders combine paid work and family roles and spend their time on these roles. It also contains indicators of the women’s well-being. Given that the majority of Dutch-speaking Belgians lives in a suburban region (Kesteloot, 2003), a suburban area was chosen for the survey. In this area we contacted all schools. Because almost all children in Flanders from the age of 2.5–3 

Results

When comparing the mothers of the original WFTF survey with those of the Basic Question survey, the BQ-participants score significantly higher on time pressure and have significantly more children (Table 1). This demonstrates that the BQ-participants, who were nonrespondents in the WFTF survey, are indeed busier than the mothers in the original survey.

As more measures of busyness are available for the working mothers, Table 2a compares the working mothers of the WFTF survey with the working

Discussion and conclusion

Our analysis reveals interesting differences between the original participants of a survey on how work and family life are combined and the non-participants of that survey who participated in the follow-up Basic Question survey. The results demonstrate that (feelings of) WFC and time pressure can indeed lead to nonresponse bias and consequently to an underestimation of busyness. In the WFTF-study, the non-participants who did participate in the BQ survey had significantly higher scores on time

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Hannelore De Grande for her substantial contribution to the data collection process of the original WFTF survey.

References (56)

  • L. Eby et al.

    Work and family research in IO/OB: content analysis and review of the literature (1980–2002)

    Journal of Vocational Behavior

    (2005)
  • K. Abraham et al.

    Nonresponse in the American Time Use Survey: who is missing from the data and how much does it matter?

    Public Opinion Quarterly

    (2006)
  • T. Allen et al.

    Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research

    Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

    (2000)
  • American Association for Public Opinion Research, 2009. Standard Definitions: Final Dispositions of Case Codes and...
  • V. Angus et al.

    The requirement for prior consent to participate on survey response rates: a population-based survey in Grampian

    BMC Health Services Research

    (2003)
  • N. Bates et al.

    Privacy concerns, too busy, or just not interested: using doorstep concerns to predict survey nonresponse

    Journal of Official Statistics

    (2008)
  • M. Bekker

    Werk en kinderen: dubbele belasting of gezonde combinatie?

    Tijdschrift voor Vrouwenstudies

    (1995)
  • J. Bethlehem

    Applied Survey Methods. A Statistical Perspective

    (2009)
  • J. Bethlehem et al.

    On the treatment of nonresponse in sample surveys

    Journal of Official Statistics

    (1985)
  • K. Breedveldt

    Nonresponse survey SCP

    (2001)
  • R. Cinamon et al.

    Gender differences in the importance of work and family roles: implications for work–family conflict

    Sex Roles

    (2002)
  • D. Doumas et al.

    The relationship between daily marital interaction, work, and health-promoting behaviors in dual-earner couples: an extension of the work–family spillover model

    Journal of Family Issues

    (2003)
  • R. Drago et al.

    Time for surveys: do busy people complete time diaries?

    Society and Leisure

    (1998)
  • P. Edwards et al.

    Increasing response rates to postal questionnaires: systematic review

    BJM

    (2002)
  • M. Frone et al.

    Prevalence of work–family conflict: are work and family boundaries asymmetrically permeable?

    Journal of Organizational Behavior

    (1992)
  • J. Gershuny

    Busyness as the badge of honour for the new superordinate working class

    Social Research

    (2005)
  • Glorieux, I., Moens, M., 2001. The 1999 Flemish time budget study. Response, external validity and results. In: Paper...
  • J. Greenhaus et al.

    Sources of conflict between work and family roles

    The Academy of Management Review

    (1985)
  • R. Groves

    Survey Errors. Survey Costs

    (1989)
  • R. Groves

    Nonresponse rates and nonresponse bias in household surveys

    Public Opinion Quarterly

    (2006)
  • R. Groves et al.

    Nonresponse in Household Interview Surveys

    (1998)
  • A. Hochschild

    The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work

    (1997)
  • T. Hoge

    When work strain transcends psychological boundaries: an inquiry into the relationship between time pressure, irritation, work–family conflict and psychosomatic complaints

    Stress and Health

    (2009)
  • S. Innstrand et al.

    Gender-specific perceptions of four dimensions of the work/family interaction

    Journal of Career Assessment

    (2009)
  • J. Jacobs et al.

    Who are the overworked Americans?

    Review of Social Economy

    (1998)
  • J. Jacobs et al.

    Overworked individuals or overworked families? Explaining trends in work, leisure, and family time

    Work and Occupations

    (2001)
  • T. Judge et al.

    Work–family conflict and emotions: effects at work and at home

    Personnel Psychology

    (2006)
  • E. Kaner et al.

    ‘So much post, so busy with practice so, no time!’: a telephone survey of general practitioners’ reasons for not participating in postal questionnaire surveys

    British Journal of General Practice

    (1998)
  • Cited by (21)

    • Hotel image and reputation on building customer loyalty: An empirical study in Macau

      2019, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management
      Citation Excerpt :

      The pilot testing showed that the respondents would shortly complete the questionnaire (within 8 min). Since time pressure to complete a survey related non-response biases exist (Vercruyssen, Roose, & Van de Putte, 2011), the current questionnaire design could minimize the non-response bias due to time pressure. From September to October 2014, three research assistants administrated the survey on the streets at different periods of time near fifteen different hotels and in three major attractions (Senado Square, A-Ma Temple, and Ruins of St. Paul's) in Macau.

    • Busyness

      2015, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition
    • Subjective time pressure: General or domain specific?

      2014, Social Science Research
      Citation Excerpt :

      Furthermore, alternate measures of stress, beyond self-report, would add important dimensions to this area of study, and might particularly shed light on the health implications of time pressure. Another limitation to this study, highlighted by recent research in this journal, is the greater tendency for busy individuals to decline to participate in surveys (Vercruyssen et al., 2011). We can expect, therefore, that highly time pressured individuals might be under-sampled in this study.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text