Abstract
Surveys tend to yield low response rates among human service professionals. This study examined whether a randomly-assigned prepaid $2 incentive increased response rates over time, and was cost-effective for increasing response count, among social workers and volunteer mediators. The incentive was enclosed with a mixed-mode survey of factors related to burnout and intention-to-remain. The incentive increased response rates over time. The effect of the incentive did not differ between mediators and social workers. The $2 incentive was not cost-effective for increasing response count. Implications are discussed for reducing nonresponse bias, decreasing time-to-response, and considering response rate versus response count.
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This research was supported with funding from University of Maryland School of Social Work.
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This author is employed by University of Maryland School of Social Work, and has received funding support for educational programs and attending symposia.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual respondents included in the study. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
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Cosgrove, J.A. Using a Small Cash Incentive to Increase Survey Response. Adm Policy Ment Health 45, 813–819 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-018-0866-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-018-0866-x