Many inquiries regarding the causal effects of policies or programs are based on research designs where the treatment assignment process is unknown, and thus valid inferences depend on tenuous assumptions about the assignment mechanism. This article draws attention to the importance of understanding the assignment mechanism in policy and program…

Gathering time-series data of behaviors and psychological variables is important to understand, guide, and evaluate behavior-change campaigns and other change processes. However, repeated measurement can affect the phenomena investigated, particularly frequent face-to-face interviews, which are often the only option in developing countries. This…

Compared face-to-face interviews with self-administered questionnaires as methods of data collection in a study of smoking attitudes and behavior conducted with 601 young Latina and African American women. Results show neither mode to provide superior results and indicate that cost effectiveness and convenience may be greater for the…

This methodological study examines an original data collection model designed to incorporate human factors and enhance data richness in qualitative and evaluation research. Evidence supporting this model is drawn from in-depth youth and adult interviews in one of the largest policy/program evaluations undertaken in the United States, the Drug,…

Challenges of collecting and using photographic evidence and photo-interviewing to evaluate technology infusion programs in higher education are discussed. A five-phase study for using photo-interviewing is presented, using evaluation of a hypermedia workshop attended by 1 instructor, 1 graduate assistant, 26 graduate students, and 1 art…

The Maryland Gun Violence Act, enacted into law in 1996, explicitly authorized courts to order batterers to surrender their firearms through civil protective orders. It also vested law enforcement with the explicit authority to remove guns when responding to a domestic violence complaint. In order to assess how these laws were implemented, we…

This article presents a discussion of field utilization of staff development activities in the context of three separate training programs. Specifically, classroom implementation of knowledge and skills gained by participants in their training sessions was assessed via the Levels of Use (LoU) interview system. (Author/LMO)

This study assessed the nature of response bias in a two-stage data-collection design (telephone interviews followed by a questionnaire mailing), which was used to examine the effectiveness of a state-level pharmaceutical assistance program for the elderly. Demographic and health factors affecting response (N=1,705 elderly persons) are discussed.…