How to Survey 18-29-Year-Olds about Their Intimate Relationships

Constance Hemmer, Ined
Paul Cochet , Ined

The INED survey on young adults’ intimate relationships is the first French survey to focus specifically on the sexuality and couple relationships of 18-29-year-olds. Its objective is to capture the diversity of relational and sexual experiences in youth, other than the first partner and the first spouse. The survey includes questions on 4 types of relationships in the last 12 months (couples, ‘one-night stands’, other intimate relationships, and interests) and experiences over the life course. The survey was conducted by telephone in 2022-2023 on a representative sample of 10,000 individuals aged 18 to 29 and living in metropolitan France. The data collection had been meticulously prepared and designed to capture the target population. During this presentation, we first explain the choice of a mobile phone data collection in order to reach young people and for a survey about sexuality. This choice implies random digit dialing (RDD). However, RDD does not enable to select only eligible individuals. In a second section, we present how we confronted this problem and the different methods used for narrowing down the cell phone sample. We then present how we set up a contact phase designed for the early detection of ineligible respondents. We managed to ask for their age even before presenting the intimate nature of the survey, and this prevented us from distorting the methodological analysis of the sample. Finally, we discuss whether we have obtained a representative sample of young respondents, both in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and survey responses.

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 Presented in Session 28. Flash session New and Critical Perspectives on Data Collection and Measurement