Various Demographic Pretesting Activities

Sample protocol Anna Chan

In-Depth Interviewing Protocol for 2010 Census Coverage Measurement (CCM)’s GQ Post-Enumeration Evaluation Study

INSTRUCTIONS FOR IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

Questions and texts to be read to participants

• Questions and texts that are to be read to participants are printed in blue.

Interviewer Instructions

• Instructions for interviewers are written in CAPS when it is embedded in a question.

Fills

• Fills are in parenthesis, e.g. [you/he/she]. Be sure to use the appropriate word for the appropriate pronoun or type of GQ you are talking about.

Optional texts

• Question texts and notes that are optional will be inside a set of brackets, e.g. (Your best guess is fine.)

INTERVIEW PROCEDURES

Gather all necessary materials for the in-depth interview:

o Hard copy of the list of questions/Protocol (Interviewer Guide)

o Consent form

o Tape recorder, taping device for telephone interview, batteries, and one cassette tape (this will be set for you if the interview is going to be conducted in the laboratory)

INSTRUCTIONS TO BE READ TO RESPONDENT

Thank you for agreeing to participate in our study. Let me start by telling you a little more about what we’ll be doing today. We’re studying about facilities like yours where people live and or stay. As you may already know that this year the U.S. Census Bureau is counting everyone living in the United States, including residents at your facility. Our goal is to collect your feedback on the 2010 Census Operation so we can understand how well the Census Bureau did in counting everyone at facilities like yours. I am interested to hear your honest opinions about the Census and its operation, particularly your experiences assisting the 2010 Census operation and the completion of Census forms.

We are researchers at the Census Bureau who are independent of the staff conducting the 2010 Census operation itself. We want to learn about to improve future censuses and also how we might best assess the quality of the information gathered during the Census. We are investigating whether we should do this by returning to a facility like yours to re-collect information about your residents and to evaluate whether or not the census operation may have missed anyone at your facility.

We greatly appreciate your time in helping us improve the census. Do you have any questions before we begin?

explain about confidentiality

Confidentiality:

Our session today is completely confidential. Any names you provide will never be used in our reports, and all of the information you provide will be completely confidential. Also, your participation in this study is completely voluntary, and you can decline to answer any particular question. Please feel free to ask me any questions at any time.

I will be tape-recording the interview so that I can go back and listen to it later if it is necessary when I need to summarize the interview results. And this way I can focus today on what you’re saying rather than having to concentrate on taking notes. As I mentioned earlier, please be assured that all your responses will be kept confidential and your name, and any personal information you provide will never be used in any of our reports.

***IN-PERSON INTERVIEW: PARTICIPANT COMPLETE CONSENT FORM NOW***

****ALL INTERVIEWS: TURN ON TAPE RECORDER AND ASK IF YOU HAVE RESPONDENT”S PERMISSION TO RECORD THE SESSION; YOUR QUESTION & INTERVIEWEE’S RESPONSE HAS TO BE RECORDED ****

****RECORD START AND END TIME****

START TIME

END TIME

Topic Outline for Unstructured Interviews

questions on content areas BELOW should be tailored SO THEY ARE APPROPRIATE FOR THE type of GQ IN QUESTION

Start of Interview

I. Open-endED discussion on respondent’s experienceS with the Census BureAu.

1. First please tell me about your experiences with the Census Bureau.

2. Other than the 2010 census, what other census survey operation have you participated in? (e.g. American Community Survey)

3. Please tell me about your experiences with the 2010 Census.

4. What is your biggest impression or frustration?

5. Is there anything else you want to tell me before I ask you information about your facilities and your residents?

Now let’s turn to the questions we have regarding the facility that you work for. I will first ask you some basic information about the facility and the people that are living at your facility.

II. Collect information for developing a CCM-like questionnaire

A. Basic information of the facility (If necessary)

1. Please briefly describe the facility and the residents who live or stay at your facility.

• What type of facility is this?

• What is the mission or purpose of this facility?

• If applicable Where do the residents come from?

1. How many buildings (different addresses?), floors and wings are there at your facility?

2. How many floors are there at your facility?

3. (If applicable) How many wings are there at your facility?

4. What is the maximum number of people who can live or stay at your facility (overnight)? (Your best guess is fine.)

5. How many people are living or staying at your facility right now?

B. Fluidity of the population∙

In order to better understand the population that lives in facilities like yours, next I would ask you some questions about the residents who live or stay at your facility.

1. Please describe to me a typical resident’s comings and goings (during a typical day and or during their length of stay). About how long people stay in the facility?

2. What brings new residents to come to live at the facility? How often do residents leave and then return? What is the average length of time between when they leave and when they return?

3. Does this facility open year round? In particular, will it be open on April 1^st for the Decennial Census and from June through August for a coverage measurement study?

4. Will the same residents be there if we return for a second visit at a later date?

5. Describe any unusual living situations that your residents may have (e.g. multiple residences.)

C. Facility Access

Now I would like to find out about the accessibility of your facility if, in future censuses, we did return to your facility for an evaluation of the Census operation after the census enumerators had visited.

1. What would you need from us to do before we visit your facility?

2. What does it take for you to let us in?

3. What can we do to help facilitate the process?

4. Who can escort the interviewer into the building? What is this person’s job? Is this person available? If so whom?

5. When we come to conduct an evaluation interview with your residents, will the interviewer be escorted from room to room or bed to bed? If no, how is the interviewer permitted to move around the facility? Describe any trouble that the interviewer might have in moving through the facility.

6. Who do we need to contact to obtain permission to access the facility?

7. Describe what might happen if the point of contact is absent? With whom can the interviewer talk?

D. Cooperation from GQ

Next I would like to know more about gaining cooperation from staff and residents your facility.

1. Who is the most important person to contact for the Census to gain cooperation with your facility? What makes this person critical for getting cooperation?

2. How often do key people for getting cooperation leave? ASK RESPONDENT WHO THE KEY PEOPLE ARE?

E. Best mode to collect information about the residents

Next I will ask you some questions to help us understand the best method to collect information for future study with residents at your facility.

1. What will help our interviewers to talk with your residents directly?

2. Are there any residents that your facility would not allow Census interviewers to talk with? If so, what would keep us from talking with them?

3. If we were to interview the residents directly and ask questions about their names, date of birth, race, whether they are of Hispanic descent and where they were living before they arrive, how accurate would you say their answers would be?

4. What issues may prevent residents from providing accurate self responses? Are there mental issues? Please describe them. Are there physical issues? Please describe them. Are there emotional or other issues. Please describe them.

5. [IF YES FOR Q2] Is there anyone at the facility who can respond for the residents? Will they be able to tell us about the residents? Are they relatives of respondents or staff? How deep will their knowledge be of the residents?

6. What is the best way for Census Bureau to identify who was residing at their facility on April 1^st of 2010?

7. What does it take for your residents to provide accurate information for us? How easily can you provide a list? Is there a specific person who generally does this? Is there a backup person who can do this? What can the Bureau do to assist in this task? (Can we provide a record keeping or listing software? etc)
   
   

F. Record keeping

When residents are not available or are unable to provide information about them, we generally would ask to use administrative records to complete the census form. Now I would like to ask you a few questions about the kind of records that are kept at your facility.

1. Is there a particular/designated person who keeps records about the names, date of birth, race and prior address of all residents? Whom at your agency/facility should we contact or work with to obtain the administrative records? Tell me how come we should rely on this person. Is there a backup person?

2. Describe the information that you keep? (ie what type of records does the facility keep?)

3. How often are the records being updated? If respondent doesn’t know, find out the name and phone number of the person who will have such information.

4. In your opinion, how accurate are the records? What kind of information is the most accurate? What type of information is the least accurate?

5. Can the facility provide a list of residents who were living or staying there on April 1^st 2010? Can they do so before and or after that date or they have to print it out the day of (software limitation)? What types of information are available? Ask about issues, problems and difficulties for such request.

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