PARTICIPATION IN THE 1990 DECENNIAL CENSUS - POLITICS, PRIVACY, PRESSURES

Theoretical perspectives on survey participation suggest that survey p articipation is a form of community involvement, reflecting a sense of civic obligation that also motivates such behavior as voting, serving on juries, and paying taxes. Using data from the Survey of Census Par ticipation (SCP), we investigate this hypothesis with respect to mail response to the 1990 census. We examine such motivating factors as str uctural and attitudinal measures of alienation as well as more proxima l measures of knowledge of and attitudes toward the census and concern s about privacy and confidentiality. We also examine a variety of cons training factors, including literacy, facility with the English langua ge, and available time to complete the form. Using multivariate analys is, we explore the relative effects of these factors on the likelihood of returning the completed census form by mail and discuss the implic ations of our findings for participation in the census and political p articipation more generally.