Plan -- 2009 PFU Operational Test

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 new changes to Section A of the Person Followup (PFU) form. We plan to call this field test the 2009 Person Followup Operational Test. The PFU form is part of the Census Coverage Measurement (CCM). The CCM will evaluate the accuracy of the 2010 Census.

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). And earlier this year, we conducted a small field test with respondent debriefings to evaluate Section A of the same form (approved by OMB in early 2009 and conducted in March/April 2009). In both these tests, interviewers had difficulty using Section A correctly to find a knowledgeable respondent and record their attempts.

Section A questions pertain to finding a knowledgeable respondent who can answer questions about the people for whom inconsistent information was collected and who therefore 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. Because there continued to be difficulties with

Section A during the small-scale field test conducted earlier this year, we have redesigned it once again. We have simplified the section tremendously. Interviewers can now write the names of all respondents they talk to regarding the followup person, not just the three “knowledgeable respondents.” Secondly, the form now has space for six respondent names for each followup person, in hopes that at least three of those names are people who are “knowledgeable” according to the PFU operational rules.

In order to verify that our changes to Section A have solved this ongoing problem of finding and recording knowledgeable respondents, in late August 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 2009 PFU questionnaire. They will conduct 200-300 PFU interviews at expired CPS sample addresses in Anne Arundel, Howard, and Montgomery counties in Maryland, Fairfax county in Virginia and Queens, Nassau, and New York counties in New York.

Staff who are familiar with the PFU form from the Statistical Research Division, Decennial Statistical Studies Division, and the NPC in Jeffersonville, IN, will observe the interviews and debrief the respondents. They will conduct approximately 50 respondent debriefings with the following types of respondents: 1) respondents who have heard of the followup person, but do not know the person well; 2) 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; and

3) respondents who initially claim to know the followup person well, but once into the main part of questionnaire don’t know or seem unsure of their answers to the residence questions posed. 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