Attachment A -Use of Pretesting Generic Clearance (0970-0355) – 2018-2021

Attachment A: use of pretesting generic CLEARANCE (0970-0355) – 2018-2021

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

330 C Street, SW, 4^th Floor

Washington, DC 20201

In May 2018, OMB approved ACF’s request to renew the generic information collection for pre-testing of evaluation surveys (0970-0355). This report describes the use of the generic IC over the three years of approval (2018-2021), including the number of hours used, as well as the nature and results of the activities completed under this generic clearance.

Since this umbrella generic was renewed in 2018, ACF requested four generic ICs for pretesting. The use of the pre-testing generic IC has been beneficial to the development of instruments for these research studies. Over the three years, ACF collected information from 538 respondents, for a total of 1,114 hours of burden. The continued use of the generic is indicative of the usefulness of pretesting our surveys and procedures.

Date	IC Title	Respondents	Responses	Burden Hours
7/16/2018	Self-Regulation Training Approaches and Resources to Improve Staff Capacity for Implementing Healthy Marriage Services for Youth (SARHM)	197	116	397
9/18/2018	Pre-testing Request for Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS)	16	864	173
8/7/2019	Youth Empowerment Information, Data Collection, and Exploration on Avoidance of Sex (IDEAS)-Pre-Test	144	144	252
3/20/2021	Touchpoints for Addressing Substance Use Issues in Home Visiting: Performance Measurement Pilot	56	87	73
5/17/2021	Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation: Kindergarten Follow-Up (MIHOPE-K)	125	125	219
Total Over 3 Years:		538	1336	1,114

Example use of the Pre-testing Generic Clearance

Self-Regulation Training Approaches and Resources to Improve Staff Capacity for Implementing Healthy Marriage Services for Youth

The Self-Regulation Training Approaches and Resources to Improve Staff Capacity for Implementing Healthy Marriage Programs for Youth (SARHM) project developed, tested, and refined adult-focused strategies to enhance “co-regulation” in youth-serving Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs. Co-regulation is the supportive process between an adult and young person that promotes youth self-regulation development by integrating three types of support: warm, responsive relationships; safe and supportive environments; and coaching and modeling self-regulation skills. SARHM also developed and pretested data collection instruments to measure the implementation of co-regulation in youth program settings for use in potential future evaluations.

The SARHM team sought a pretesting generic clearance, approved in June 2018, to pretest and refine co-regulation measures that accompanied the strategies we developed, tested, and refined. The pretested measures included a classroom observation measure, facilitator self-assessment form, and facilitator questionnaire. First, the SARHM team pretested the measures in two HMRE programs whose staff received training to implement co-regulation strategies. Following that first round of pretesting, the SARHM team pretested the measures with three other HMRE programs whose staff had not been trained to implement co-regulation strategies.

The SARHM team benefitted from the pretesting generic clearance in a few ways. The speed of the generic clearance process enabled us to begin work quickly. If we had to seek a full OMB clearance, we would not have been able to work with the programs because the research timeline would have been out of step with program schedules. For example, one HMRE program had a three-month period with which to pretest (July – October 2018), less than nine months after the start of the project and less than two months after we sought clearance. The information we learned will help us create materials and products to inform the new cohort of HMRE grantees who received awards in October 2020. The timing of the study will also allow other ACF projects and technical assistance efforts to use study lessons about collaborating with federal grantees to develop and refine measures and strategies, and build on them to improve the implementation of HMRF programs and other ACF-funded programs for youth.