NCVS School Crime Supplement Testing 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 National Crime Victimization Survey, School Crime Supplement, sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The purpose of this cognitive research is to test proposed changes to certain questions on the School Crime Supplement. These changes include adjustments to question wording to be consistent with the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) definition of “bullying,” including “cyber-bulling,” as well as changes to wording based on other research. The CDC recently modified its definition of bullying to include two additional components: repetition and a power differential. In the questionnaire being tested, one version maintains the original question on bullying and adds two new follow-up questions to capture these two components (this would help preserve the time trend). Testing protocol specifies that we first read only the original question and then probe on whether the respondent, on their own, includes these two components as necessary for the incident to "count" as bullying (this could lead to satisfying the CDC definition without the need to add new questions). In the other version, a single new question on bullying that includes the two new components is being tested. Testing will be conducted with students aged 12-18 and will include some students who identify as LGBT, due to the Department of Education’s commitment to gathering data on this vulnerable population.

From December 2013 to February 2014, staff from the Center for Survey Measurement will conduct approximately 40 cognitive interviews. Our recruiting efforts will target the following: (1) students in three age groups (i.e., ages 12-13, 14-15, and 16-18); (2) students who feel they have been bullied, and students who feel they have not been bullied; and (3) some who identify as LGBT. In addition to these characteristics, respondents will ideally represent a range of demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status). Respondents will be recruited through contacts with local schools and interest groups (e.g., Little Friends for Peace, Move the World), as well as advertisements in local newspapers and Craigslist.com, 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-person in the local metropolitan area (DC, Maryland, Virginia).

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

For children under 18, parents will give the consent to participate, and children will give their assent to participate on the audio-tape. 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. A copy of the parental and adult (i.e., 18 years old or older) consent forms is enclosed.

We estimate that each interview will take approximately one hour. The screening questionnaire will take approximately two minutes per person. Thus, the total estimated burden for this research is 42 hours.

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

Joanne Pascale

Center for Survey Measurement

U.S. Census Bureau

Room 5K022F

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-4920

joanne.pascale@census.gov

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