Screener

Focus Group Screener

Hello. RTI International, a nonprofit research organization in North Carolina, is conducting a study for the Department of Health and Human Services. The study is about how parents and their teenage children communicate with each other about issues related to sex. The research does not ask about any sexual behaviors—just the communication between parents and teens.

As part of this study, we are going to be conducting online discussion groups with teens between the ages of 13 and 15. Participants will be asked to log on to a discussion site each day for 3 days, and respond to a few questions about the information teens get from their parents about sex, what information they would like to get, and what factors may make it hard for parents and teens to communicate. To protect the privacy of teens participating in the groups, neither the researchers nor the teens in the group will be able to identify other participants in the group. All comments made will be completely anonymous.

If you have a teenage child who is eligible for the study, we would like to invite him/her to participate in one of these groups. If your teen is eligible and you and your teen both agree for him/her to participate in the group discussion, your teen will receive $4025 for his/her time and effort.

To see if your teen is eligible to take part in one of the groups, we first need to ask you just a few questions. It will only take about 1 minute.

1. Are you the parent or guardian of any children between the ages of 13 and 15?

	Yes, 1 child between the ages of 13 and 15	1
	Yes, 2 or more children between the ages of 13 and 15	2
INELIGIBLE	No, no children between the ages of 13 and 15	3

If you have more than one child between the ages of 13 and 15, please answer the following questions for the oldest of the two children

2. Does this teen live with you at least some of the time?

	Yes	1
INELIGIBLE	No	2

3. Is this teen a boy or a girl?

	Boy	1
	Girl	2

5. Is this teen Hispanic or Latino?

	Yes [Skip to 7]	1
	No	2

6. What is the category that best describes this teen’s racial background? (Please mark only one).

Black or African American	1
White	2
Other:__________________________________________	3
Don’t know	8
Decline to answer	9

7. What is the highest level of education you yourself have completed?

Less than high school	1
High school or GED	2
Some college or more	3

• Note to recruiters: For each group, must have at least 6 of the 25 participants recruited must be from each of the following categories:

  • African American

  • Latino/Hispanic

  • White

• In addition, each group must have at least 6 participants whose parent has either high school or less than high school as their highest level of education (i.e., less than “some college or more.”

8. If teen is a boy and eligible, place in a “boys” group.

If teen is a girl and eligible, place in a “girls” group.

CLOSING for INELIGIBLE participants:

I’m sorry. Your teen is not eligible to be in the discussion groups. There are many possible reasons why people are not right for the groups. These reasons were decided earlier by the project leaders. We appreciate your interest in this project. Thank you for being willing to help us.

INVITATION for ELIGIBLE participants:

Thank you very much. We would like to invite your teen to be an online discussion group about parent-teen communication about teen sexual activity. Your teen will be in a group of about 20 other [insert “boys” or “girls”]. The group will last for 3 days. Each day during those three days, the group leader will post 2-3 questions about things like what kinds of information about sex teens would like to hear from their parents, what kinds of information they actually get from their parents, and what factors make it difficult for parents and teens to talk about these things. The teens will be asked to log on at least once each day and respond to each question. They may also comment on responses posted by other group participants. We estimate that it will take at least one hour over the course of 3 days for the teens to respond to all of the questionsWe estimate that teens will spend an average of two hours over the course of the 3 days participating in the group. We anticipate that it will take only one hour to respond to all of the questions, but teens . Teens
will be encouraged to spend take more time than that if they are interested and would like to comment on other participants’ responses or write more detailed responses, but additional time is not required.

All comments posted during the discussion group will be completely anonymous. Reports summarizing the study findings will not identify any of the participants.

If you think you might be willing to allow your teen to participate, we will send both you and your teen informed consent forms with more complete information about the study. If you both agree to your teen participating in the study, we will schedule your teen for one of the discussion groups. Your teen will receive $450 for his/her participation.

May I send you and your teen an informed consent form?

Yes	1
No	2
Don’t Know / Not Sure / Declines to answer1	3

¹If participant says “Don’t Know” “Not Sure” or declines to answer, state the following: “if you decide that you WOULD BE INTERESTED IN HAVING YOUR TEEN PARTICIPATE, please CONTACT us at [INSERT CONTACT INFO?]. thank you for your time.”

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