2010 CPEX Nonsubstantive Change Request – AQE Focus Groups (03-10-2011)
The Census Bureau requests approval to modify moderator guides used in the 2010 Alternative Questionnaire Experiment (AQE) Focus Group data collection. The OMB granted approval to conduct the 2010 AQE Focus Groups under the Generic Clearance for the 2010 Census Program for Evaluations and Experiments (CPEX) (OMB approval number 0607-0952). After presenting brief background information, this request explains proposed changes to the moderator guides and the rationale for making them.
Background on the 2010 AQE Focus Groups
The overall goal of the 2010 AQE study is to continue efforts to improve a user-friendly mailout questionnaire that can be accurately completed by respondents. More specifically, the 2010 AQE will test different strategies to collect race and Hispanic origin data from Census respondents. While the mailout/mailback portion of the 2010 AQE will quantitatively demonstrate how respondents answer various race and Hispanic origin treatments, the focus group portion will provide information on why they respond as they do.
These focus groups serve four main purposes:
Help determine why respondents answer a certain way to gain insight into why certain treatments may perform well or not;
Help explain patterns observed in 2010 AQE quantitative data;
Target small race and ethnic groups that may not be well represented in the 2010 AQE; and
Explore areas of research that may require further examination during the 2020 testing cycle.
Proposed Revisions to 2010 AQE Moderator Guides
After conducting ten focus groups, the Census Bureau realized that the 2010 AQE moderator guides required refinements to better elicit information desired from participants. In some cases, the questions confused focus group participants, while others yielded only a portion of the information that the Census Bureau wanted to collect. Moreover, some of the sessions were touching on topics of interest, but they were ending early.
The Census Bureau considers all proposed revisions to the 2010 AQE moderator guides to be non-substantive changes. None of the proposed revisions result in an increase to the burden hours already approved by OMB for this data collection. Furthermore, the purpose of these revisions is to improve the overall quality and utility of the data collected (as opposed to expanding the previously approved data collection scope). All moderator guides updated with the proposed revisions discussed below appear in attachments to this document (See Attachments A-P).
All Guides
The
Census Bureau found that one of the themes that explores how
respondents came to their answers for the questions on race and
ethnicity did not work well. The moderator’s questions were
confusing respondents. Therefore, the Census Bureau would like to
replace a series of questions with a new set that will better elicit
detailed responses on “why” participants answered the way
that they did.
The Census Bureau proposes removing the following question series:
Please tell me how you completed the snippet for yourself for questions 8 and 9…
Which box or boxes did you choose?
Did you write an answer on any of the lines?
What did you write?
Under which checkbox did you write your answer?
Why did you choose to write on that line?
How did you come up with your answer?
The Census Bureau proposes adding the following question series in its place:
Please tell me how you completed the snippet for yourself for questions 8 and 9…
Which box or boxes did you choose?
Did you write an answer on any of the lines? What did you write?
Under which checkbox did you write your answer?
Why did you choose the box or boxes you did?
If you choose more than one, why did you check each one?
Why did you choose to write an answer? OR Why did you choose not to write anything?
How did you decide where to write in your answer?
Did you think about answering any other way? If so, in what way?
Parent's
of Multiracial Children
While the Census
Bureau recruited parents with children of different ages, these
parents tended to report on either their oldest or youngest child.
To obtain perspectives on racial identity experiences and reporting
for other children in the household, the Census Bureau would like to
add two questions to the moderator guide for focus groups with
parents of multiracial children. These additional questions aim to
gain insights regarding children of different age groups because
racial identity and reporting can change among them. To ensure that
the moderator has time to ask these additional questions, the Census
Bureau proposes removing a series of questions from the guide that
did not seem particularly salient for this group.
The Census Bureau proposes removing the following question series:
How many of you have lived in another country, for example, if you were born or lived in some place other than the U.S.?
Did you identify your child’s race differently there than you do here? If so, how did it differ?
When you came here, did you identify your child’s race differently?
The Census Bureau proposes adding the following question series in its place:
Would you report differently for another child in your family? Please tell us about this?
If
you have other children, have any of them had different life
experiences that have impacted their racial identities in ways other
than what we've discussed?
White European/North American
This focus group session lasted only about an hour, so there is time to address additional questions and topics. One particularly salient theme came out during participant discussions in which they recommended using a form with a similar structure to one of the AQE forms being tested in other focus groups. Therefore, the Census Bureau would like to explore this theme further in the White European/North American focus group by having participants complete and discuss an additional form (that is, the X4).
The
Census Bureau also proposes adding another question series to the
White European/North American moderator guide. Many of the
topics below came up naturally during this focus group, and the
Census Bureau would like to add these questions to obtain this
information from more participants in the group.
The Census Bureau proposes adding the following question series:
Do you believe your cultural or ethnic identity has changed over time? How so? For example, early childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, now?
Thinking back to how you completed the X3, some of you wrote in specific origins, how closely do you identify with those origins? Are they a part of your every day life?
How far back in your family history were you thinking when you reported that origin?
Do you know who from your family immigrated to the US (e.g., parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc)? When was that?
Contacts for Data Collection
For questions on the design or implementation of the data collection described above, please contact Karen Humes (301-763-4875 or karen.humes@census.gov) or Nicholas Jones (301-763-2440 or nicholas.a.jones@census.gov) of the Population Division or Jason Machowski (301-763-4173 or jason.d.machowski@census.gov) of the Decennial Management Division at the Census Bureau.
List of Attachments
Attachment A: African American Moderator Guide
Attachment B: African Moderator Guide
Attachment C: Afro-Caribbean Moderator Guide
Attachment D: Alaska Native Moderator Guide
Attachment E: American Indian Moderator Guide
Attachment F: Ancestry Differs From Place of Birth Moderator Guide
Attachment G: Asian Moderator Guide
Attachment H: European North American Moderator Guide
Attachment I: Hispanic Moderator Guide
Attachment J: Hispanic PR Moderator Guide
Attachment K: Middle Eastern North African Iranian Moderator Guide
Attachment L: Multiracial Moderator Guide
Attachment M: Native Hawaiian Moderator Guide
Attachment N: Pacific Islander Moderator Guide
Attachment O: Parents of Multiracial Children Moderator Guide
Attachment P: South and Central American Indigenous Moderator Guide