Jen Dykema

Associate Scientist
University of Wisconsin Survey Center
1800 University Ave., Rm. 102
(608) 262-8385
dykema@ssc.wisc.edu

Research Interest Statement
Dr. Jennifer Dykema is an Associate Scientist and Survey Unit Coordinator for the University of Wisconsin Survey Center and the Center for Demography and Ecology. Dr. Dykema assists Center researchers and staff on issues related to the collection of original data including question development, instrument design, and other survey-based design components. She has taught research methods at the UW and the Summer Institute of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. Before receiving her doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin (2004), she worked in the Interview Methodology Program the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Dykema has extensive experience and expertise in the field of survey research including: wording questions and designing survey instruments; developing protocols for, conducting, and analyzing the data from cognitive interviews, in-depth interviews, and focus groups; developing and implementing systems to code interviewer-respondent interaction; designing and implementing experiments to improve survey items; and conducting statistical analyses of response errors using multiple data sets. She has worked directly on developing or providing expert evaluation of several national and state-based surveys including the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement, National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), the Youth Behavior Survey (YBS), the Schools and Staffing Survey, the Parent Survey 3, and the California Survey of Birth Defects.