Field Test Plan -- 2008 Person Followup Form

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). We plan to conduct a field test with respondent debriefing to evaluate changes to Section A of the 2008 Person Followup (PFU) form. The 2008 Person Followup (PFU) form is part of the 2008 testing of the Census Coverage Measurement (CCM).

During 2006, we conducted respondent debriefings on the 2006 PFU as part of the 2006 Census Test (approved by OMB in late 2006 and conducted in January 2007). Several changes to the form resulted from that test, most specifically were changes to Section A of the form. Section A questions pertain to finding a knowledgeable respondent who can answer questions about the people for whom inconsistent information was collected, who need to be followed up. Finding a knowledgeable respondent is often difficult in the PFU operation since the original census and/or CCM respondent might no longer live at the sample address. The interviewer must find another respondent who knows the followup people well. This proved to be a difficult task during the 2006 Test, and the form was modified to try to assist interviewers to find a more knowledgeable respondent.

Unfortunately, the Dress Rehearsal for the 2008 PFU operation was cancelled. In order to verify that our changes to Section A are an improvement from 2006, in March 2009, we will conduct a small-scale test of the form using respondent debriefings as our evaluation means. Headquarters and National Processing Center (NPC) staff will be specially trained to administer the 2008 PFU questionnaire. They will conduct 200-300 PFU interviews at addresses from expired CPS sample near Census Bureau headquarters in the Washington DC metropolitan area and Louisville, Kentucky (which is near Jeffersonville, Indiana).

Staff from the Center for Survey Methods Research in the Statistical Research Division, Decennial Statistical Studies Division, and the NPC in Jeffersonville, IN, who are familiar with the PFU form, will observe the interviews and debrief the respondents. They will conduct approximately 50 respondent debriefings with respondents who have heard of the followup person, but do not know the person well, and/or respondents who have never heard of the followup person, but claim to know who lived at the unit around the time that the followup person lived there. Data gathered from these interviews allows us to assess how well our rules regarding who is considered a knowledgeable respondent work. Interviews will not be tape recorded and participants will not be reimbursed for participation.

Each PFU interview is expected to take approximately 10 minutes, and the respondent debriefing should take no more than 2 minutes. Thus the total burden is no more than 52 hours [(300x10min) + (50x 2 min) = 51.6].

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and study design is:

Elizabeth Nichols

Statistical Research Division

U.S. Census Bureau

4600 Silver Hill Road

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-1724

Elizabeth.May.Nichols@census.gov