Measuring disengagement in the Survey of Adult Skills

This chapter uses timing indicators to estimate and analyse disengagement with the Survey of Adult Skills assessment. The analysis shows that the incidence of disengagement varies substantially across countries. Respondents with low levels of education and low familiarity with information and communications technology (ICT) are more likely to be disengaged, and respondents are more likely to be disengaged with items that appear in the second module of the assessment. Disengagement strongly reduces the probability of giving a correct answer, which results in disengaged individuals performing worse in the assessment. This relationship holds at both individual and country levels.