Interview Privacy and Responses to Sensitive Questions: Cross-National Evidence from DHS Surveys Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Face-to-face interviews are widely used in demographic and health research, but responses to sensitive questions may depend on whether the interview is conducted in private. Using Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data from 1,530,099 women across 59 countries, we examine whether interview privacy is associated with women’s endorsement of spousal abuse. Bayesian multilevel models reveal cross-national heterogeneity: private interviews are associated with lower endorsement on average, but this association reverses in 11 countries. Because interview privacy is not randomly assigned, we use a doubly robust causal framework to estimate its effect. The effect is substantially smaller after accounting for local community norms, suggesting that much of the observed privacy effect reflects local social pressure rather than privacy alone. The effect of privacy also weakens in settings with stronger local support for spousal abuse.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction................................................................................................1

Methods................................................................................................3

Results................................................................................................8

Discussion................................................................................................16

Conclusion................................................................................................19

References................................................................................................20

Supplementary Materials................................................................................................22

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Data and Decision Sciences
Degree	B.S.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Statistics Health Sciences, Public Health Economics, General
Keyword	Causal Inference Interview Privacy Survey Methodology
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Hadley, Craig, Emory University
Committee Members	Sánchez-Becerra, Alejandro, Emory University O’Connell, Stephen, Emory University

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