The Impact of Active Consent Procedures on Nonresponse and Nonresponse Error in Youth Survey Data: Evidence From a New Experiment

This article reports results from a student survey fielded using an experimental design with 14 Kentucky school districts. Seven of the 14 districts were randomly assigned to implement the survey with active consent procedures; the other seven districts implemented the survey with passive consent procedures. We used our experimental design to investigate the impact of consent procedures on (a) participation rates, (b) demographic characteristic of the survey samples, and (c) estimates of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD) use. We found that the use of active consent procedures resulted in reduced response rates, underrepresentation of male students and older students, and lower lifetime and past 30-day prevalence rates for most drugs and for most antisocial behaviors. Methodological implications of these findings are discussed along with directions for further research.