SUPPORTING STATEMENT
A. JUSTIFICATION
1. Necessity of the Information Collection
The purpose of this request for review is to obtain clearance for the supplemental inquiry concerning fertility to be conducted biennially
in conjunction with the June Current Population Survey (CPS).
This supplement is sponsored by the U.S Census Bureau. The collection of these data is authorized under Title 13, United States Code, Section 182.
The proposed supplement, as it will appear in the CPS instrument, is shown in Attachment A. The fertility questions (Items SF1 and SF2) will be asked of females 15-44 years of age. The June Fertility Supplement, like the June 2008 Fertility Supplement, differs from the June 1998 and the June 1995 supplements because it only includes fertility items. The 1998 supplement contained fertility and birth expectations items. The 1995 supplement contained fertility and marital history items.
2. Needs and Uses
The data collected from this supplement are used primarily by government and private analysts to project future population growth, to analyze childbearing patterns, and to assist policymakers in making decisions that are affected by changes in family size and composition. Past studies have documented profound changes to historical patterns that have occurred in fertility rates, family structures, premarital births, and the timing of the first birth. The CPS characteristics, such as family income, household relationships, and labor force status, when matched with fertility data, can produce estimates of potential needs families may have for governmental assistance: for example, aid to families with dependent children, childcare, and maternal health care for single-parent households. The fertility data also assist researchers and analysts who explore such important issues as premarital childbearing and postponement of childbirth because of educational or occupational responsibilities and goals. As a result of the rapid changes in the economy, the June Fertility supplement offers analysts with a key indicator of family economic resources, namely, the employment status of women with infant children.
Item SF1 establishes the number of children ever born, and Item SF2 asks the month and year the last child was born. Fertility Items SF1 and SF2 were included in the June CPS Supplement annually since 1971, with the exception of 1989, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1999.
Discontinuance of the Fertility Supplement would interrupt a data series, which is built upon previous surveys first collected in June 1971. Without current fertility data, data for the most recent female cohorts (age 18-24) would be missing in fertility projections. The statistics and projections from these data are useful for legislators in the public sector and businesses that make policy and resource decisions about childcare, development, and changes in family life.
Information quality is an integral part of the pre-dissemination review of information disseminated by the Census Bureau (fully described in the Census Bureau’s Information Quality Guidelines). Information quality is also integral to information collections conducted by the Census Bureau and is incorporated into the clearance process required by the Paperwork Reduction Act.
3. Use of Information Technology
Since January 1984, we have collected the CPS data using computer-assisted interviewing. We designed the supplemental questions to obtain the required information with minimal respondent burden. The proposed items and interviewer procedures were developed over years of consultation among the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and other government agencies. The use of computer-assisted personal and telephone interviewing is deemed the most appropriate collection methodology given existing available information technology. We have examined the internet as a reporting option, but have determined for a complex demographic survey, such as the CPS, the internet is not feasible.
4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
The Census Bureau has consulted with other government agencies, such as the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and has investigated other Census Bureau surveys and determined that the data in this supplement are not collected in any other survey that could provide the user with comparable accuracy in detailed fertility patterns. Refer to Attachment B for reports related to the accuracy and reliability of the CPS data on fertility.
The American Community Survey (ACS), in an effort to reduce respondent burden, contains one fertility question which asks if the woman had a birth in the last twelve months. This provides needed data at state and local levels for planning purposes for examining the potential needs of mothers with newborns. However, the absence of a question on children ever born on the ACS, means that we do not know parity of the birth--i.e., whether it was a first birth or higher order birth. In addition, the June Fertility Supplement can provide analysts with the ability to track childlessness over time which provides one with an important measure of how family life has changed and the how the needed resources of families differ by the childbearing experience of American women. The American Community Survey cannot provide these data.
The June Fertility Supplement has two items: first a question on how many children a woman has ever had and second, the month and year of the last birth. In addition to providing a similar estimate of births in the last year as in the ACS (i.e., births that have occurred since the previous June), it also provides us with the birth order of the child and a duration specific estimate of when the woman last had a birth. In the June 2006 report (Attachment B3), the month and year of birth item--which serves as both a birth in last year and an abbreviated "fertility history" indicator--permitted us to examine labor force patterns of women who had a birth in the last 12 months (see pages 13-14) and were in the labor force (see figure 6).
The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) collects data on fertility; however, because of the infrequency in data collection periods, relatively high standard errors of the estimates, and the small SIPP sample size, these data are not sufficiently reliable to produce annual estimates. The CPS Fertility Supplement is the only source of data that provides a comprehensive set of historical analysis as described in item 2.
Data on the profile of mothers with newborns enhance the overall statistical system of the federal government by providing much needed information on these mothers that is not available from vital income statistics estimates, which do not contain detailed socioeconomic items on the birth certificates such as income and labor force characteristics. Refer to Attachments B1 and B2 for a comparison between the CPS and the SIPP fertility data. The National Survey of Family Growth, conducted by the NCHS, collected data on fertility history in 1995 with a sample size one-third the size of the CPS. Again, due to the small sample, this survey cannot be compared to the CPS Fertility Supplement.
5. Efforts to Minimize Burden on Small Business
The collection of fertility information does not involve small businesses or other small entities.
6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
The June Fertility Supplement is conducted to determine current fertility rates for women in different socioeconomic groups and to project future population growth. If the collection of information was conducted less frequently, the fertility data would not be sufficiently monitored to measure accurately fertility events of women as they enter the ages when marriage and childbearing typically begin. Less frequent reporting would result in a distortion of segments of the population whose fertility backgrounds change most rapidly.
In addition, there would be no consistent measure of fertility characteristics of women who are graduating from school and entering the labor force.
7. Special Circumstances
There are no special circumstances. We collect the CPS data in a manner that is consistent with the OMB guidelines.
8. Consultations Outside the Agency
The following people have been in frequent consultation since October 1997 concerning the development of this supplement:
Jeffery Evans Lynne Casper
NICHD University of Southern Calf.
6100 Executive Blvd Dept of Sociology
Room 8B13 3620 Vermont Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20892 Kaprielian Hall, Room 352
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2539
Stephanie Ventura
National Center for Health
Statistics, Div. of Vital Statistics
3311 Toledo Road, Room 7418
Hyattsville, MD 20782
The result of these consultations is the final set of questions. In addition, a statement soliciting comments for improving the CPS data is prominently placed in all the Census Bureau publications that cite the CPS data.
We include a similar statement in the technical documentation that accompanies the microdata files. Finally, we published a notice of our intent to ask the fertility questions in the December 4, 2009 edition of the Federal Register (see Vol. 74 pg 63717-63718). No comments were received regarding this collection. The CPS advance letter (see ttachment D) provides respondents with an address at the Census Bureau to which they can submit general comments on the survey and specifically those comments regarding respondent burden.
9. Paying Respondents
The Census Bureau does not make any payments or provide any gifts to individuals participating in the CPS.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality
The Census Bureau will collect the Fertility Supplement data in compliance with the Privacy Act of 1974 and the OMB Circular A-130. Each sample household receives an advance letter approximately one week before the start of the initial CPS interview (see Attachment D). The letter includes the information required by the Privacy Act of 1974, explains the voluntary nature of the survey, and states the estimated time required for participating in the survey. Interviewers must ask if the respondent received the letter and, if not, provide a copy and allow the respondent sufficient time to read the contents. Also, interviewers provide households with the pamphlet How the Census Bureau Keeps Your Information Strictly Confidential, which further states the confidentiality assurances associated with this data collection effort and the Census Bureau's past performance in assuring confidentiality (see Attachment C). All information given by respondents to Census Bureau employees is held in strict confidence under Title 13, United States Code, Section 9. Every Census Bureau employee has taken an oath to that effect and is subject to a jail penalty or substantial fine if they disclose any information given to them.
11. Justification for Sensitive Questions
The June Fertility Supplement does not include any questions of a sensitive nature.
12. Estimate of Hour Burden
The estimated respondent burden is 250 hours. This is based on an average 30-second interview for each of the 30,000 women in the supplement universe. This estimate was based on the time required to answer similar questions in past Fertility Supplements. Given that the collection will be performed twice during the anticipated upcoming period of clearance, we have requested an annual reporting burden of 167 hours.
The actual respondent burden is dependent upon the size of the household and the characteristics of its occupants. One respondent answers for the entire household.
13. Estimate of Cost Burden
There are no costs to respondents other than that of their time to respond.
14. Cost to Federal Government
The estimated cost to the government for the CPS program is $86 million in FY 2010. The costs are to be borne by the Census Bureau, the BLS, and other government agencies, if involved. We estimate the cost of the supplement on fertility to be $131,250, all in FY 2010.
15. Reasons for Change in Burden
This is a reinstatement of a previously approved collection. Our estimated respondent burden is the same as June 2008.
16. Project Schedule
The June CPS, of which this supplement is a part, will be conducted during the week of CPS interviewing. Processing of this supplement will commence in July. The public use file will be released in the spring. Final reports will follow late that same year.
17. Request to Not Display Expiration Date
The June Supplement is administered as part of the CPS monthly interview. However, these supplements (as well as all the CPS supplements) bear an OMB control number and expiration date which is different from the basic CPS interview. The OMB control number and expiration date for the CPS basic interview is included in the advance letter we give respondents (see Attachment D). Because of these difficulties and anticipated respondent confusion involved with expressing a separate control number and expiration date to respondents for the supplement questions, we do not wish to display the OMB control number and expiration date for the CPS June Supplement.
18. Exceptions to the Certification
There are no exceptions to the certification.
| File Type | application/msword |
| Author | woods009 |
| Last Modified By | smith056 |
| File Modified | 2010-02-05 |
| File Created | 2010-01-05 |