The Epidemiological Network Survey: A New Tool for Surveying Deviance and Handicaps--A Research Note
| Autor: | Michel Tousignant, H. B. M. Murphy |
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| Rok vydání: | 1982 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Social Forces. 60:854-858 |
| ISSN: | 1534-7605 0037-7732 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/sf/60.3.854 |
| Popis: | The Epidemiological Network Survey (E.N.S.) is a new research tool for assessing the prevalence of certain types of deviant behavior and handicapping states such as drug abuse, delinquency, and being victim of street violence. Based on the key informant method in anthropology, it employs randomly selected community respondents to provide information on groups of anonymous acquaintances. The instrument was developed to survey problems about which official records and self-reports have both proved inadequate in the past even when confidentiality is assured, alcohol abuse being one well-documented example of the latter. The technique is relatively simple. One first asks questions concerning the informant himself and his experience with the target conditions. After that, he is invited to make a private list of acquaintances living within a designated area but not in the same household, such as relatives, friends, neighbors, work colleagues, and club members. He should possess a good general knowledge about the listed persons, but does not need to feel close to or like them. The names are written on a sheet with numbered lines which he keeps to himself, and at this point he is merely asked how many men and women are listed, a recheck being asked to ensure that all fall within the research parameters (area, age range, etc.). One then proceeds to ask about a number of target and other conditions in the following fashion: "Is there anyone on your list whom you know to have had, or to have shown signs of, during the past X months?" (Preferably, the condition which is the main target of the research should at this stage be made less prominent by mixing it with others which can act as controls on the representativeness of the results). The final stage of the interview consists of asking about the broad social characteristics of the persons indi |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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