Journal article
Health Behavior and Policy Review, 2021
Assistant Professor of Applied Health Science
APA
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Maier, J., Jozkowski, K., Montenegro, M. S., Willis, M., Turner, R., Crawford, B. L., & Lo, W.-J. (2021). Examining Auxiliary Verbs in a Salient Belief Elicitation. Health Behavior and Policy Review.
Chicago/Turabian
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Maier, Julie, K. Jozkowski, María S. Montenegro, Malachi Willis, R. Turner, Brandon L. Crawford, and Wen-Juo Lo. “Examining Auxiliary Verbs in a Salient Belief Elicitation.” Health Behavior and Policy Review (2021).
MLA
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Maier, Julie, et al. “Examining Auxiliary Verbs in a Salient Belief Elicitation.” Health Behavior and Policy Review, 2021.
BibTeX Click to copy
@article{julie2021a,
title = {Examining Auxiliary Verbs in a Salient Belief Elicitation},
year = {2021},
journal = {Health Behavior and Policy Review},
author = {Maier, Julie and Jozkowski, K. and Montenegro, María S. and Willis, Malachi and Turner, R. and Crawford, Brandon L. and Lo, Wen-Juo}
}
Objective: Salient belief elicitations (SBEs) measure beliefs toward a health behavior through open-ended questions, with the purpose of developing close-ended survey questions. Auxiliary verbs used in SBE questions often differ (eg, What are the top 3 reasons you would/should decide to have an abortion?). We tested how 2 auxiliary verbs function in a SBE assessing abortion in English and Spanish: would/decidíra and should/debería.
Methods: We administered a SBE survey online (N = 175) and in-person (N = 72); in-person participants also participated in cognitive interviews to assess question interpretation. Participants were assigned to survey versions that included identical SBE questions aside from auxiliary verbs—would/decidíra versus should/debería. Data analysis included: (1) content analysis of survey responses to assess differences in responses by version and (2) thematic analysis of interview data focused on interpretations of would/decidíra and should/ debería.
Results: Would/decidíra surveys generated more response categories. Similarly, cognitive interview findings suggest participants conceptualized would/decidíra as allowing for more options, while should/debería was thought to include only the most significant reasons/circumstances for abortion, potentially restricting participants’ responses.
Conclusion: These findings have important measurement implications for researchers administering SBEs