Household Survey Content

The DNORS questionnaires included a screener and a main interview that produced three types of interviews: an Adult (AR) interview; a Household (HHR) interview with someone identified as the most knowledgeable person regarding family and housing; and a combined Household and Adult (HH/Adult) interview where one person was selected to do both parts. In addition, the main interview contained a special child module with questions asked of female adult respondents with children under the age of 18.

Screener Interview

Within each of the selected households, interviewers would first collect a household listing of people who were living at the sampled address in August 2005, at the time of Hurricane Katrina. From this list, the screener interview determined who was eligible to be interviewed for the main. The screener collected location and contact information for the selected respondents.

Main Interview

Pre-Katrina Household Roster

The pre-Katrina household roster based off the listing obtained in the Screener Interview was filled out by the HHR. The roster (Section C of the Main interview) asked detailed questions about each pre-Katrina household member ascertaining current status and location as well as residential changes immediately following Katrina plus some basic demographic information. Some detailed information, such as job-related questions, was only asked of the respondent.

When the AR was not also the HHR, the AR was asked the same set of detailed questions but only about himself/herself and was not asked about any other pre-Katrina household members.

Individual Interview

The individual interview (Sections D-M of the Main interview) was administered to the AR and the HHR, if they were different individuals. These questions covered traumatic experiences, health, mental illness, PTSD, depression, and perceived stress plus household income.

Child Module

Female AR with children under the age of 18 were administered a series of questions for up to three children (randomly selected if she had more than 3 children under age 18) covering the child’s father’s involvement, and the child’s background characteristics, health and behavior problems (if any). For selected children who were in the pre-Katrina household roster, questions in the Child Module that were the same as those asked in the roster section were not re-asked.