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A gamification effect in longitudinal web surveys among children and adolescents
The paper measures a gamification effect in longitudinal web surveys among children and adolescents 7-15 years old. Two waves of the study were conducted using a volunteer online access panel in Russia among 737 children. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions in the first wave without changing the treatment in the second wave: (1) a text-only survey, (2) a visual survey and (3) a gamified survey. Though in the first wave of the study respondents found it more enjoyable and easier to complete the gamified survey, no differences in participation rates were found between the conditions in the second wave. Contrary to expectations, a higher breakoff was found in the gamified condition. Moreover, it produced lower test-retest reliability correlations than the text-only and visual conditions in all survey questions. The promising gamification effect found in the first wave of the study faded in the second wave. It seems that implementing gamified elements in longitudinal web surveys might differ from the implementation of gamified elements in cross-sectional surveys.