SIPP EHC Parental Mortality & Natality Questions Pretesting Plan

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). We will be conducting cognitive research on the 2012 SIPP-EHC- Parental Mortality and Natality Questions.

SIPP is testing a new set of questions to collect the birth and death dates of the biological parents of household members. These data will be used by the Social Security Administration to estimate the percentage of maternal, paternal and double orphans who receive benefits from its survivor insurance programs. In addition, we have arranged the wording of the questions asking about respondent’s parents on the household roster to ask about parent one and parent two instead of asking about a mother and a father. This is an effort to be responsive to same-sex couples. Since the questionnaire contains content that might be perceived as sensitive, we will also be testing an introduction to the questionnaire on half of the respondents, letting them know about the potential perceived sensitivity. This is being done in order to see if this introduction will increase respondent’s item-based response rates for the sensitive questions.

From February 2012 to May 2012, staff from the Center for Survey Measurement will conduct approximately 40 cognitive interviews in two rounds. In our recruiting efforts we will be targeting same-sex couples, blended families with both step and biological children, and low income families. Respondents will be recruited through advertisements in local newspapers and Craigslist.com, through our respondent database, and personal networks. Interviews will be conducted at the Census Bureau’s Response Research Laboratory and at locations convenient to interviewees. The interviews will be conducted in the local metropolitan area (DC, Maryland, Virginia).

We will be conducting our cognitive interviews using the concurrent think-aloud method. We will audio-tape the interviews to facilitate analysis of the results. A copy of the draft questionnaire with protocol probes is enclosed.

We will inform participants that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential and will be seen only by employees involved in the research project. Participants will receive $40 for their participation in this research.

We estimate that these interviews will take approximately one hour. Thus, the total estimated burden for this research is 40 hours.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is listed below:

Rachel Freidus

Center for Survey Measurement

U.S. Census Bureau

Room 5K022D

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-6763

rachel.a.freidus@census.gov