Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold
Online purposive samples have unknown biases and may not strictly be used to make inferences about wider populations, yet such inferences continue to occur. We compared the demographic and drug use characteristics of Australian ecstasy users from a probability (National Drug Strategy Household Surve...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Sage Publications
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29282 |
| _version_ | 1848752761534939136 |
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| author | Barratt, Monica Ferris, J. Lenton, Simon |
| author_facet | Barratt, Monica Ferris, J. Lenton, Simon |
| author_sort | Barratt, Monica |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Online purposive samples have unknown biases and may not strictly be used to make inferences about wider populations, yet such inferences continue to occur. We compared the demographic and drug use characteristics of Australian ecstasy users from a probability (National Drug Strategy Household Survey, n = 726) and purposive sample (online survey conducted as part of a mixed-methods study of online drug discussion, n = 753) using nonparametric (bootstrap) and meta-analysis techniques. We found significant differences in demographics and drug use prevalence. Ideally, online purposive samples of hidden populations should be interpreted in conjunction with probability samples and ethnographic fieldwork. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:13:46Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-29282 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:13:46Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Sage Publications |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-292822017-09-13T15:33:38Z Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold Barratt, Monica Ferris, J. Lenton, Simon hard-to-reach hidden populations sampling representativeness Internet Online purposive samples have unknown biases and may not strictly be used to make inferences about wider populations, yet such inferences continue to occur. We compared the demographic and drug use characteristics of Australian ecstasy users from a probability (National Drug Strategy Household Survey, n = 726) and purposive sample (online survey conducted as part of a mixed-methods study of online drug discussion, n = 753) using nonparametric (bootstrap) and meta-analysis techniques. We found significant differences in demographics and drug use prevalence. Ideally, online purposive samples of hidden populations should be interpreted in conjunction with probability samples and ethnographic fieldwork. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29282 10.1177/1525822X14526838 Sage Publications fulltext |
| spellingShingle | hard-to-reach hidden populations sampling representativeness Internet Barratt, Monica Ferris, J. Lenton, Simon Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold |
| title | Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold |
| title_full | Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold |
| title_fullStr | Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold |
| title_short | Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold |
| title_sort | hidden populations, online purposive sampling, and external validity: taking off the blindfold |
| topic | hard-to-reach hidden populations sampling representativeness Internet |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29282 |