CPEX Unduplication Research Plan

RE: Continuation of qualitative research on methods for unduplicating people suspected of being counted more than once during a census

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of our plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725) to develop optimum methods for resolving suspected instances of person duplication. The Census Bureau requests permission to conduct 50 interviews with individuals who the Census Bureau believes have been counted more than once in the 2010 Census. This data collection will consist of a mix of in-depth qualitative interviews and cognitive interviews.

Background and Purpose

In preparing for the 2010 Census, research began to reveal the need for a followup interview that is tailored to (or targeted for) the resolution of suspected person duplicates. The Census Bureau’s focus during the years leading up to the 2010 Census was on developing a followup interview (that is, the Coverage Followup or CFU) that could comprehensively address a variety of potential coverage problems. While the CFU could sufficiently resolve certain types of problems (for example, discrepancies between household population count and number of people listed on the form, additional people for a household appearing on administrative records but not on its census form, or affirmative answers to whether members of the household live or stay in college housing or a nursing home), mid-decade testing results showed that it failed to prompt respondents to acknowledge or to recognize living situations that have led to the existence of duplicate person records.

The Census Bureau recently decided that this supplemental data collection is necessary to address a shortfall in the number of interviews already conducted in support of an ongoing research project titled, the 2010 Census Program for Evaluations and Experiments Effectiveness of Unduplication Evaluation (See 2010 Coverage Followup Telephone Operation Information Collection (OMB approval number 0607-0946)).

The purpose of this research is to better understand why people are duplicated in a census, in addition to gaining more insight on why the CFU fails to be a successful means for resolving person duplication. The Census Bureau also wishes to test an instrument developed for interviewers attempting to resolve cases of potential person duplication via a followup interview tailored specifically for this purpose: the Targeted Coverage Followup (TCFU). The knowledge gained from this research will help census planners to design better methods for resolving potential duplicate person records.

Procedures for Data Collection

Interviews will be conducted by two contractors (RTI International and Research Support Services, Inc.) using interview questions developed by the Census Bureau.

Using a list of potential participants provided by the Census Bureau (that is, initial census returns for which computer matching determined possible duplicate person links), the contractor will recruit participants who represent a range of characteristics as outlined by the Census Bureau. For instance, the Census Bureau will require the contractor to contact some households with children who are duplicated and others with adults who are duplicated.

The contractors will conduct the interviews in five diverse geographic areas: Washington, D.C.; Chicago, IL; Raleigh, NC; San Diego, CA; and New York, NY. The contractors will pay respondents a maximum of $40 for participating in the study.

The contractors will conduct 50 interviews from July 1, 2011 to July 25, 2011. The interviews will be comprised of the respondent and one interviewer. There are to be approximately five semi-structured qualitative interviews and approximately 45 structured cognitive interviews. For the qualitative interviews, the interviewer will have a typed debriefing protocol to assist in directing the conversation. For the cognitive interviews, the interviewer will use a paper questionnaire followed by a typed debriefing protocol to assist in directing the conversation. For all interviews, the interviewer is to find out who completed the census form for the address (or addresses) that interviewers ask about during the interview. Respondents are to remain unaware that they may have been counted more than once in the census.

For the qualitative interviews, researchers will follow the protocol found in Attachment A and will attempt to collect the following types of information:

• Reasons why the Census Bureau could count respondents more than once in the census;

• Description of respondent living situation (elicited through ethnographic-style probes);

• Respondent willingness to provide information about other place or places stayed, if asked about living situation during an interview – in addition to example questions that would elicit this type of information;

• Distance respondents travel between places that they stay;

• Respondent perception of whether this type of information is “none of the Census Bureau’s business”; and

• Variation in responses, if posing the same questions to others in the household.

For the cognitive interviews, researchers will use the TCFU questionnaire found in Attachment B and the protocol found in Attachment C to capture the respondent’s living situation during the year 2010 (including all of the places that the respondent may have stayed) and to answer the questions listed below. In addition, researchers will use the tool in Attachment D titled, Event History Calendar to supplement this data collection. Interviewers will use situational or expansive retrospective probing and other probing as specified in the protocol.

• Does the respondent show confusion or lack of understanding of specific questions or concepts? Which terms or phrases, if any, do respondents feel are confusing or difficult to understand?

• Does the respondent refuse to respond or is he or she unable to respond to any of the TCFU questions?

• Does the respondent have a negative or a positive reaction to the questions?

• Are there any terms or topics that are offensive or inappropriate? Which terms or topics, if any, do respondents believe are offensive or inappropriate?

• Does the questionnaire elicit privacy concerns? Are there questions that are perceived as too sensitive?

• Does the questionnaire elicit confidentiality concerns? Does the respondent figure out that someone else reported them on their census form? If so, does this upset them?

• Does the TCFU interview capture the entire living situation of the respondent, or are there pieces of the respondent’s story that are missing? Does it uncover all addresses and all dates that the respondent stayed at another place during 2010?

• Are there any comprehension problems within the TCFU questionnaire?

The contractors plan to audio record all interviews upon receiving consent from the respondent to do so. The contractors will obtain approval from the respondent to audio record the interview using the format found in Attachments E and F (the contractors each use a separate form). In addition, the contractor will prepare detailed written summaries for each interview and a final report for the Census Bureau that summarizes the data collection.

Estimate of Burden Hours

The number of burden hours required for this data collection is 75, as indicated in the table below.

Experiment/Evaluation	Total # of Respondents	Estimated Response Time	Estimated Burden Hours
Effectiveness of Unduplication –Qualitative Interviews/ Cognitive Interviews	50	1 hour and 30 minutes	75

The contacts for questions regarding data collection for this research appear below:

Jason Machowski

2020 Research and Coordination Branch

Decennial Management Division

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, DC 20233

(301)763-4173

jason.d.machowski@census.gov

Sarah Heimel

Decennial Statistical Studies Division

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, DC 20233

(301)763-9297

sarah.k.heimel@census.gov

Ryan King

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, DC 20233

(301)763-4774

ryan.w.king@census.gov

Attachments

Attachment A: Targeted Coverage Followup (TCFU) Qualitative Interview Protocol

Attachment B: Targeted Coverage Followup (TCFU) Questionnaire

Attachment C: Targeted Coverage Followup (TCFU) Cognitive Interview Protocol

Attachment D: Targeted Coverage Followup (TCFU) Event History Calendar

Attachment E: Consent Form for RTI International

Attachment F: Content Form for Research Support Services, Inc.

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