Attachment J: ACS Respondent Burden Testing Protocol, Group 3, Version 1 (CAI)
Hello, my name is ______________ and I work here at Westat. Thank you for taking the time to participate in this research study.
Westat is working to develop new questions for the American Community Survey, which is sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau. Before surveys are conducted, it’s important to try out questions with the help of people such as yourself. The survey asks questions about your you and your household.
It is important that the questions make sense, are easy to answer, and that everyone understands the questions the same way. If you agree to take part in this study, I will read you the questions as if I were an interviewer contacting you at your home. Afterwards, I will ask you some questions about the answers you gave. There are no right or wrong answers. Our purpose is not to compile information about you. Instead, your interview along with those of others will show us how to improve these questions for a later survey.
Before we get started, there are a few things I should mention. This is a research project, and your participation is voluntary. If you prefer not to answer any questions just say so, and we’ll go on to the next one. It’s also okay if you change your mind after starting and would rather not participate.
All your answers, everything you say, will be kept confidential. We will not use your name in any reports. The interview will take about 40 minutes and you will receive $40. We will also need to audio record our conversation. This helps me so I can listen to what you are saying and won’t have to take a lot of detailed notes while you are talking; it will also help when we write up a summary of this interview. Only project staff will have access to the recording and other project materials, and those materials will be stored according to Title 13 requirements for protecting the identity of individual respondents. {Finally, some of the researchers developing the questions are here today observing our interview to learn if there are things that might need to be changed.}
HAND CONSENT FORMS TO RESPONDENT, This form contains all of the things I just told you about your rights in this interview. Please read it over and sign both copies if you are willing to take part in the study.
HAVE R SIGN TWO CONSENT FORMS, KEEP ONE AND GIVE ONE TO RESPONDENT.
TURN ON RECORDER. The date and time is ____________. Now that the recorder is running, let me ask again, is it okay with you if we record this interview?
Protocol
In a moment, I am going to begin asking you the questions. I’d like you to answer them as you would if I contacted you at home. After I have finished asking you the questions, we will talk about some of the answers you gave. Before we begin, do you have any questions about the process?
BEGIN AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY ROSTER
ASK ENTIRE ROSTER, ROW BY ROW (ASKING ALL SUB-ITEMS FOR A QUESTION BEFORE MOVING TO THE NEXT PERSON), THEN STOP FOR PERSON SELECTION.
SELECTION OF PERSONS TO PROBE ON:
WRITE RESPONDENT’S FIRST NAME AS PERSON #1 BELOW.
SELECT ONLY ADULTS AGES 15 OR OLDER AS PERSONS 2-3.
PRIORITIZE NON-RELATIVES FROM Q2 OF HOUSEHOLD ROSTER
Person 1 First Name _________________________
Person 2 First Name _________________________
Person 3 First Name _________________________
ADMINISTER ACS QUESTIONS 13-40 FOR PERSONS 1-3 AS APPROPRIATE.
Place of residence: Q15A-h, PAGES 2-3
Research Questions:
How easy or difficult is it for respondents to understand and answer the revised question and why?
15a. Did you live in this <house/apartment/mobile home/unit> 1 year ago?
15b. Did you live in the United States, Puerto Rico, or another country?
15c. What was the foreign country?
15d. What was the street address?
15e. What was the city or town?
15f. What was the state?
ENTER THE STATE ABBREVIATION
15g. What was the ZIP code?
15h. What was the county?
15h. (If Puerto Rico) What was the municipio?
PERSON 1 PROBES
Let’s talk about the questions I asked you at the beginning of the interview about where you lived one year ago. I asked about the country, street address, city or town, state, county, and zip code and you answered [REPEAT R’S ANSWERS TO Q15B-H].
How easy or difficult was it to remember your address from one year ago? What made it easy or difficult?
How easy or difficult was it for you to remember the county where you lived one year ago?
When providing an address, do you prefer to be asked city, county, state, zip – OR – city, state, zip and then county? What makes you say that?
PERSON 2 PROBES (CAI PAGES 8-9)
How easy or difficult was this for you to answer about (PERSON 2)? What made it easy/difficult?
How confident are you in the answers you provided?
PERSON 3 PROBES (CAI PAGES 14-15)
How easy or difficult was this for you to answer about (PERSON 3)? What made it easy/difficult?
How confident are you in the answers you provided?
Place of work: q30a-f, PAGE 4
Research Questions:
How easy or difficult is it for respondents to understand and answer the revised question order and why?
Are respondents able to answer about county and city limits?
30a. The next few questions deal with where you worked LAST WEEK and how you got there.
LAST WEEK, at what location did you work?
What is the address – number and street name?
(If you worked at more than one address or location, give the address or location where you worked most LAST WEEK.
If you do not know the exact street address, give a description of the location such as the building name or the nearest street or intersection.
For example: Town Center Mall, 1st National Bank, Reno Airport, 2nd Ave. and 4th St.)
30b. What was the city or town?
30c. What was the state?
30d. What was the ZIP code?
30e. What was the county?
30f. Is the work inside the limits of (<name of city>/that city or town)?
PERSON 1 PROBES
Next I asked you for the address of where you worked last week and you said, [REPEAT R’S ANSWERS FOR Q30A-E]
How easy or difficult was it to answer this series of questions. What made it easy or difficult?
I also asked whether the work address is inside the limits of [NAME OF CITY], and you answered [REPEAT R’s ANSWER FOR 30F]. How easy or difficult was it to answer this question?
How confident are you about your answer to this question?
IF NEEDED: Do you know what the city limits for [NAME OF CITY] are?
IF NEEDED: I asked you to provide the street, city, state, zip code, and county, and then asked if this address was within the city limits. What did you think of asking for the zip code before the county and city limits?
PERSON 2 PROBES (CAI PAGE 10)
How easy or difficult was this for you to answer about (PERSON 2’s) work address? What made it easy/difficult?
How confident are you in the answers you provided?
PERSON 3 PROBES (CAI PAGE 16)
How easy or difficult was this for you to answer about (PERSON 3’s) work address? What made it easy/difficult?
How confident are you in the answers you provided?
weeks worked: Q39a-d, PAGE 6
Research Questions:
Which alternate version is easier for respondents to understand and answer and why?
Does adding an option to provide a response in months help respondents answer about the number of weeks worked?
The next few questions ask about work in the past 52 weeks, that is from <Current date, year -1> to today.
39a. Over the past 52 weeks, that is since one year ago today, did you work EVERY week? Count paid vacation, paid sick leave, and military service as work.
39b. Over the past 52 weeks, that is since one year ago today, how many WEEKS did you work? Include paid time off and include weeks when (you/Name) only worked for a few hours.
39c. How many months have you worked since one year ago today?
INCLUDE PAID TIME OFF AND WEEKS WHEN YOU ONLY WORKED FOR A FEW HOURS.
39d. Then you worked about (fill calculated number) weeks. Is that right?
PERSON 1 PROBES
Next I asked some questions about the weeks and hours you work. First, I asked, “Over the past 52 weeks, that is since one year ago today, did you work EVERY week? Count paid vacation, paid sick leave, and military service as work.” And you said [REPEAT R’S ANSWER TO 39A].
Tell me more about your answer to this question.
How did you decide on your answer to this question?
Was it easy or difficult to answer this question? What made it easy or difficult?
What time period were you thinking of when you answered this question?
IF ANSWERED 39B: Next I asked you, “Over the past 52 weeks, that is since one year ago today, how many WEEKS did you work? Include paid time off and include weeks when (you/Name) only worked for a few hours.” And you answered [REPEAT R’S ANSWER FOR Q39B]. Tell me about your answer.
Were there any weeks during that time that you were receiving pay but were not at work? Did you include these times when answering this question? What made you decide that?
Were there any weeks that you did not work or receive pay that you did not include when answering this question? What made you decide that?
IF NECESSARY: Did you include part-time jobs? Did you include paid time off?
[IF R ANSWERED IN WEEKS] Would it be easier or more difficult to answer this question in months instead of weeks? What makes you feel that way?
IF R PREFERRED TO RESPOND IN MONTHS
You told me how many months you had worked since one year ago today. How did you come up with your answer?
(IF NEEDED): In the months you worked, did you work EVERY week in each of those months?
I then asked you if you worked about [REPEAT NUMBER OF WEEKS CALCULATED IN 39C] weeks.
IF R ANSWERED THAT 39D WAS INCORRECT AND Q39C NEEDED TO BE REPEATED: What made you say this number was not correct for number of weeks worked?
How confident are you in the final calculation of weeks worked?
PERSON 2 PROBES (CAI PAGE 12)
How easy or difficult was this for you to answer the number of weeks worked for (PERSON 2)? What made it easy/difficult?
How confident are you in the answer you provided?
PERSON 3 PROBES (CAI PAGE 18)
How easy or difficult was this for you to answer the number of weeks worked for (PERSON 3)? What made it easy/difficult?
How confident are you in the answer you provided?
Hours worked: Q40, PAGE 6
Research Questions:
Which alternate version is easier for respondents to understand and answer and why?
40. Over the past 52 weeks, that is since one year ago today, in the weeks you worked, how many hours did you usually work each week?
PERSON 1 PROBES
Next I asked “Over the past 52 weeks, that is since on year ago today, in the weeks you worked, how many hours did you usually work each week?” and you said {R’s ANSWER}. Tell me how you came up with your answer.
How easy or difficult was it to answer this question? What made it easy or difficult?
Does the number of hours you work in a week vary from week to week or stay the same?
Did you work any other amount of time that you did not include in your answer to this question?
What time period were you thinking of when you answered this question?
How confident are you about your answer to this question?
I asked you first about how many weeks you worked in the past 52 weeks, and then I asked you about how many hours you worked per week. If I had flipped the order of those questions to first ask about hours worked, and then about weeks worked, would that have been easier or more difficult for you? What makes you say that?
PERSON 2 PROBES (CAI PAGE 12)
How easy or difficult was this for you to answer about the number of hours (PERSON 2) worked? What made it easy/difficult?
How confident are you in the answer you provided?
PERSON 3 PROBES (CAI PAGE 18)
How easy or difficult was this for you to answer about the number of hours (PERSON 3) worked? What made it easy/difficult?
How confident are you in the answer you provided?
Closing and Incentive
IF OBSERVERS ARE PRESENT, CHECK TO SEE IF THEY HAVE FURTHER QUESTIONS.
Those are all the questions I have for you. Is there anything we haven't discussed that you would like to mention?
DISCUSS ANY RESPONDENT COMMENTS.
Thank you for your time.
STOP
TAPE RECORDER.
GIVE INCENTIVE AND HAVE RESPONDENT SIGN RECEIPT.
2016
ACS Respondent Burden Testing Protocol: CAI, Group 3, Version 1
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | [Introduction will be developed as part of the materials |
| Author | Westat |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-28 |