Dana Garbarski, PhD

About

Dana Garbarski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the University Core Curriculum at Loyola University Chicago. As a sociologist, Dana’s research goals are to examine and inform the valid and reliable collection of survey data on health and well-being, with an intersectional focus on dimensions of race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and sexuality. Her methodological focus is on survey methodology, as surveys are a core methodology through which social, behavioral, and medical researchers learn about the health and well-being of populations. Her work has been published in several journals in the fields of sociology, public opinion, survey research, and health. Dana is co-PI of the Cook County Community Survey, a collaborative effort that brings together faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students to shed new light on the attitudes and behaviors of residents of Cook County.

Dr. Garbarski received her PhD in Sociology and her MS in Population Health Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also completed a postdoctoral research position in the Health Disparities Research Scholars program in the Center for Women's Health and Health Disparities Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Degrees

PhD, Sociology
University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2012

MS, Population Health Sciences
University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2012

MS, Sociology
University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2007

BS, Sociology
University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2004

Research Interests

Social determinants of health; health and society; health across the life course; medical sociology; social stratification and inequality; introduction to sociology; social problems; quantitative methods; research methods; survey methodology; demography

Professional & Community Affiliations

• American Association for Public Opinion Research
• American Sociological Association
• Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research

Awards

• Sujack Family Award for Faculty Research Excellence 2020
• Burns “Bud” Roper Fellow Award, American Association for Public Opinion Research 2017
• Honored Instructor by students on the LUC Women’s Basketball Team 2014
• Lumpkin Award for Best Dissertation in Wisconsin Sociology (co-winner) 2013
• Roberta G. Simmons Outstanding Dissertation in Medical Sociology Award 2013
• Health Equity Leadership Institute Scholar 2013
• Honored Instructor by students in University Housing 2013
• Population Association of America Poster Award 2009

News

• Data from the Cook County Community Survey (co-PIs: David Doherty and Dana Garbarski) is available online
• Dana Garbarski's co-authored Cook County Community Survey was highlighted in news stories about attitudes on recent migrant arrivals:
  • March 2024: Survey: Cook County residents’ thoughts on migrants
  • March 2024: Despite strain on resources, majority in Cook County support helping migrants
• Dana Garbarski's co-authored Cook County Community Survey was highlighted in these two WBEZ Chicago news stories:
  • April 2021: The Next Phase of Chicago’s Vaccine Rollout? Jumping the Hesitancy Hurdle
  • April 2021: Has the worst of COVID-19 passed in Cook County? Depends on who you ask

• Dana Garbarski has been appointed Director, University Core Curriculum, Loyola University Chicago.  
• Dana Garbarski is the Vice President/President/Elect of the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research. 
• Dana Garbarski was the 2019 conference chair for the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research. 
• Dana Garbarski and colleagues examined how response option order and scale orientation affect responses in an online experiment.
• Dana Garbarski is The Carolyn Farrell Endowed Assistant Professor at the Gannon Center for Women and Leadership.
• Dana Garbarski co-edited (with Jennifer Dykema and Nora Cate Schaeffer) an issue of Survey Practice dedicated to interviewer-respondent interaction.
• Dana Garbarski co-authored (presented by Jennifer Dykema and Nora Cate Schaeffer) a webinar sponsored by the American Association for Public Opinion Research on “The Role of Question Characteristics in Designing and Evaluating Survey Questions.”  Presented January 2016.

Selected Publications

Garbarski, Dana, Jennifer Dykema, Cameron Jones, Tiffany Neman, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Dorothy Farrar Edwards. 2024. “Questioning identity: How a diverse set of respondents answer standard questions about ethnicity and race.” Field Methods, 36(2), 113-130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X231173805

Vivas Bastidas, Juanita, Maria Akchurin, Dana Garbarski, and David Doherty. “How Local Perceptions Contribute to Urban Environmental Activism: Evidence from the Chicago Metropolitan Area.” The Sociological Quarterly, 65(1):38-60. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2023.2250394

Garbarski, Dana, Jennifer Dykema, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Cameron Jones, Tiffany Neman, and Dorothy Farrar Edwards. “Factors Associated with Interviewers’ Evaluations of Respondents’ Performance in Telephone Interviews: Behavior, Response Quality Indicators, and Characteristics of Respondents and Interviewers.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 87(S1):480-506. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfad028

Doherty, David, Dana Garbarski, and Pablo Guzman Rivera. 2023. “Null Effects of Framing Welcoming Ordinances.” Survey Practice 16 (1). https://doi.org/10.29115/SP-2023-0002.

Garbarski, Dana. 2023. “The Measurement of Gender Expression in Surveys.” Social Science Research 110, 102845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2022.102845

Navarrete, Keyla, Skky Martin, Dana Garbarski, and David Doherty. 2022. “Cook County Community Survey: A Study on Policing and Neighborhood Perceptions.” Illinois Municipal Policy Journal 7(1). https://www.iml.org/file.cfm?key=25386

Dykema, Jennifer, Cameron Jones, Dana Garbarski, Mia Farias, and Dorothy Farrar Edwards. 2022. “Exploring the Relationship between Medical Research Literacy and Respondents’ Expressed Likelihood to Participate in a Clinical Trial ” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19(22):15168. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215168

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Jennifer Dykema. 2022. “Examining Interviewers’ Ratings of Respondents’ Health: Does Placement in the Survey Matter?” Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology 10(2):Pages 276-98.  https://doi.org/10.1093/jssam/smab025

Dykema, Jennifer, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Dana Garbarski, Nadia Assad, and Steven Blixt. 2022. “Towards a Reconsideration of the Use of Agree-Disagree Questions in Measuring Subjective Evaluations.” Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy 18(2):2335–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2021.06.014

Neman, Tiffany S., Jennifer Dykema, Dana Garbarski, Cameron Jones, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Dorothy Farrar-Edwards. "Survey Monetary Incentives: Digital Payments as an Alternative to Direct Mail." Survey Practice 15, no. 1 (2022): 30030. https://doi.org/10.29115/SP-2021-0012

Garbarski, Dana, Keyla Navarrete, and David Doherty. 2021. “Polling on police use of body cameras: The effect of response option order on distribution and concurrent validity.” Survey Practice 14 (1): 27194. https://doi.org/10.29115/SP-2021-0009

Garbarski, Dana. 2021. “The Survey Measurement of Sexual Orientation: Configurations of Sexual Identity and Attraction and Associations with Mental Health.” LGBT Health, 8(4), 307-15. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2020.0270

Garbarski, Dana, and Dana LaVergne. 2020. “The Measurement of Gender Expression and Sexual Attraction: Cognitive Interviews with Queer Women.” Understanding Survey Methodology: Sociological Theory and Applications, edited by P. Brenner. Springer.

Dykema, Jennifer, Dana Garbarski, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Isabel Anadon, and Dorothy Farrar Edwards. 2020. “Correlates of Differences in Interactional Patterns among Black and White Respon” Understanding Survey Methodology: Sociological Theory and Applications, edited by P. Brenner. Springer.

Goyal, Reeti, Skky Martin, and Dana Garbarski. 2020. “Perceptions of Cultural Competency in Pre-Medical Undergraduate Students.” Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development, 7, 2382120520934823.

Garbarski, Dana, Jennifer Dykema, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Dorothy Farrar Edwards. 2020. “Response Times as an Indicator of Data Quality: Associations with Interviewer, Respondent, and Question Characteristics in a Health Survey of Diverse Respondents.” Interviewer Effects from a Total Survey Error Perspective, edited by K. Olson, J. Dykema, A. Holbrook, F. Kreuter, J. Smyth, and B. West.Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Min, Bo Hee, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Dana Garbarski, and Jennifer Dykema. 2020. “Interviewers’ Actions and Participation: The Case of Disfluencies.” Journal of Official Statistics, 36(3), pp. 529-59.

Dykema, Jennifer, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Dana Garbarski, and Mike Hout. 2019. “The Role of Question Characteristics in Designing and Evaluating Survey Questions.” Pp. 119-52 in Advances in Questionnaire Design, Development, Evaluation, and Testing, edited by P. Beatty, D. Collins, L. Kaye, J. Padilla, G. Willis, and A. Wilmot. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781119263685.

Kroin, Ellen, Dana Garbarski, Aoi Shimomura, Joseph Romano, Adam Schiff, and Karen Wu. “Gender Differences in Program Factors that are Important to Residency Applicants when Evaluating Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Programs.” Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 11(5), 565-9. 

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Jennifer Dykema. 2019. “Interviewers’ Ratings of Respondents’ Health: Predictors and Association with Mortality.” Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 74(7), 1213–21.

Cusatis, Rachel, and Dana Garbarski. 2019. “Different Domains of Physical Activity: The Role of Leisure, Housework/Dependent Care Work, and Paid Work in Socioeconomic Disparities in Reported Physical Activity.” SSM Population Health, 7, article 100387.

Dykema, Jennifer, Dana Garbarski, Ian Wall, and Dorothy Farrar Edwards. 2019. “Measuring Trust in Medical Researchers: Comparing Agree-Disagree and Construct-Specific Survey Questions.” Journal of Official Statistics, 35(2), 353-86. 

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Jennifer Dykema. 2019. “The Effects of Features of Survey Measurement on Self-Rated Health: Response Option Order and Scale Orientation.” Applied Research in Quality of Life,14(2), 545-560.

Cusatis, Rachel, and Dana Garbarski. 2018. “Which Activities Count? Using Experimental Data to Understand Conceptualizations of Physical Activity.” SSM Population Health, 6, 286-294.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, Bo Hee Min, Thomas Purnell, Dana Garbarski, Jennifer Dykema. 2018. "Greeting and Response: Predicting Participation from the Call Opening.” Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 6(1), 122-48.

Dykema, Jennifer, Kerryann DiLoreto, Kenneth D. Croes, Dana Garbarski, and Jeremy Beach. 2017. “Factors Associated with Participation in the Collection of Saliva Samples by Mail in a Survey of Older Adults.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 81(1), 57-86.

Garbarski, Dana, Jennifer Dykema, Kenneth D. Croes, and Dorothy F. Edwards. 2017. “How Respondents Report Their Health Status: Cognitive Interviews of Self-Rated Health Across Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Educational Attainment.”  BMC Public Health, 17, 771.

Dykema, Jennifer, Kerryann DiLoreto, Kenneth D. Croes, Dana Garbarski, and Jeremy Beach. 2017. “Factors Associated with Participation in the Collection of Saliva Samples by Mail in a Survey of Older Adults.”  Public Opinion Quarterly, 81(1), 57-86.

Garbarski, Dana.  2016. “Research in and Prospects for the Measurement of Health Using Self-Rated Health.”  Public Opinion Quarterly, 80(4), 977-997.

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Jennifer Dykema.  2016.  “Interviewing Practices, Conversational Practices, and Rapport: Responsiveness and Engagement in the Survey Interview.”  Sociological Methodology, 46(1), 1-38.

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Jennifer Dykema.  2016.  “Response to Comments on ‘Interviewing Practices, Conversational Practices, and Rapport: Responsiveness and Engagement in the Survey Interview.’” Sociological Methodology, 46(1), 50-52.

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Jennifer Dykema.  2016.  “The Effect of Response Option Order on Self-Rated Health: A Replication Study.”  Quality of Life Research, 27, 2117-2121.

Dykema, Jennifer, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Dana Garbarski.  Introduction to Special Issue of Survey Practice on Interviewer-Respondent Interaction.  Survey Practice, 9(2).

Dykema, Jennifer, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Dana Garbarski, Erik V. Nordheim, Mark Banghart, Kristen Cyffka.  2016. The Impact of Parenthetical Phrases on Interviewers’ and Respondents’ Processing of Survey Questions.  Survey Practice, 9(2).

Dykema, Jennifer, Kerryann DiLoreto, Kenneth D. Croes, Dana Garbarski, and Jeremy Beach. “Factors Associated with Participation in the Collection of Saliva Samples by Mail in a Survey of Older Adults.”  Forthcoming article in Public Opinion Quarterly.

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Jennifer Dykema. 2015. “The Effects of Question Order and Response Option Order on Self-Rated Health.”  Quality of Life Research, 24, 1443-1453.

Garbarski, Dana. 2015. “Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Midlife Depressive Symptoms: The Role of Cumulative Disadvantage across the Life Course.”  Advances in Life Course Research, 23, 67-85.

Garbarski, Dana. 2014. “Comparing Self and Maternal Reports of Adolescents’ General Health: Do Self and Proxy Reports Differ in Their Relationships with Covariates?” Quality of Life Research 23(7): 1953–1965.

Garbarski, Dana. 2014. “The Interplay between Child and Maternal Health: Reciprocal Relationships and Cumulative Disadvantage During Childhood and Adolescence.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 55(1): 91–106.

Garbarski, Dana, and Whitney P. Witt. 2013. “Child Health, Maternal Marital and Socioeconomic Factors, and Maternal Health” Journal of Family Issues, 34(4), 484–509.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, Dana Garbarski, Jeremy Freese, and Douglas W. Maynard. 2013. “An Interactional Model of the Call for Survey Participation: Actions and Reactions in the Survey Recruitment Call.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 77(1), 323–351.

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Jennifer Dykema. 2011. “Are Interactional Behaviors Exhibited When the Self-Reported Health Question is Asked Associated with Health Status?” Social Science Research, 40(4), 1025–1036.

Garbarski, Dana. 2010. “Perceived Social Position and Health: Is there a Reciprocal Relationship?” Social Science and Medicine, 70(5), 692–699.