Generic Information Collection Request
Request: The U.S. Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). We propose to conduct testing of the Census Barriers Attitudes and Mindsets Survey (CBAMS) instrument. We are seeking approval for cognitive and usability testing to be conducted by Census Bureau staff.
CBAMS is a survey designed to capture the attitudes of the country towards the decennial census, any barriers that might inhibit participation in the census, and possible motivators of responding. In order to optimize this survey throughout the decade in preparation for the 2030 Census, it is important to pretest the questions with potential respondents.
This project is to pretest questions that will be used in the CBAMS instrument. The plan is to conduct this testing in preparation for the fielding of the CBAMS survey. We will conduct cognitive interviews to judge respondents’ understanding of the CBAMS questions, especially on the following topics.
Topics for Pretesting
Test whether and how responses vary when participants are asked about the “2020 Census” or the “last census”
Test how participants understand the response option “concerned about citizenship status”
Test whether the battery of questions about Census knowledge works better as a grid or as separate questions
Test an additional question related to genealogy
Test how binary responses compare to scaled responses on various questions
Test a reworded question about the birthplace of parents
Test a new wording of a question on how participants get their news, focusing on a limited time frame
Test questions about the undercount of young children
Test how participants understand wording related to government agencies collecting data
Test questions about misinformation about the Census
Population of Interest: This pretesting will involve general population respondents in both English and Spanish. For the Spanish-speaking population, we plan to recruit monolingual Spanish-speakers to the best of our ability.
We are interested in recruiting participants with a diversity of ages, races, and gender identities. We are also interested in recruiting participants with a diversity of education levels.
Sample: We plan on testing with approximately 40 people total: 20 English and 20 Spanish speaking participants. We will aim to recruit participants that have not participated in previous testing for the decennial census; however, if we are struggling with meeting our recruitment goals, particularly for Spanish speaking participants, we may recruit participants who have participated in previous studies. We will recruit participants who have at least one year’s experience using the internet for tasks other than reading or writing email. Respondents that would be likely to complete the decennial census online will likely be familiar with the internet, so for this recruitment, familiarity with the internet is necessary.
Language: Testing will be conducted in English and Spanish.
Timeline: Testing will be conducted in April through July of 2023.
Method: The pretesting sessions will be conducted virtually with the test administrator and participant in different locations. Remote participants will use their own laptop, desktop computer, or smartphone. Participants will be asked to complete the CBAMS questionnaire online, after which we will ask them probing questions about their experience with the survey, and their understanding of the questions. We expect this study to take 60 minutes. Participants will be sent the privacy and consent information prior to their interview session. Remote participants will be asked to join a 5-minute technology check session up to one week prior to the session to verify they can use the approved screensharing software Microsoft Teams. They will be asked to provide oral consent before they start the study.
Recruitment: Participants will be recruited using the CBSM approved generic screener questions.
Protocol: The Protocols for CBAMS pretesting are included here (Enclosure A and B)
The CBAMS pre-testing will employ a think-aloud protocol. Participants will be asked for their consent to participate in the study and given the privacy notice (Enclosure C). The test administrator will ask the participant to complete the CBAMS survey on the Qualtrics platform. Following the participant completing the survey, the test administrator will ask probing questions to understand how the participant understands the questions in the survey.
Below is a list of materials to be used in the study.
Protocols for cognitive testing of the CBAMS survey (Enclosure A and B)
Informed Consent and Privacy Notice (Enclosure C)
Payment Voucher (Enclosure D)
Survey Questionnaire (Enclosure E)
Additional Screener Question (Enclosure F)
Advertisement Wording (Enclosure G)
Length of interview: The session should take 60 minutes for each of the 40 participants. We anticipate 5 minutes per participant for the technology check for remote participants.
Respondents will be screened using the Census Bureau’s generic screener. We estimate that we will screen 3 people for each successful recruit, resulting in 120 participants screened. The total estimated respondent burden for this request is 36 hours. See Table 1.
Table 1. Total Estimated Burden
Category of Respondent |
No. of Respondents |
Participation Time |
Burden |
Screening |
120 |
5 minutes |
10 hours |
Tech check |
40 |
5 minutes |
3.3 hours |
Interview Sessions |
40 |
60 minutes |
40 hours |
Totals |
|
|
53.3 hours |
Use of Incentive: The total incentive for this project is $40. The test administrator will send the incentive money to the participant’s address using approved USPS priority mail, and will send the participant an email confirmation with the tracking number for the incentive payment.
The contact persons for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is listed below:
Marcus Berger
Center for Behavioral Science Methods
U.S. Census Bureau
Washington, D.C. 20233
(301) 763-8335
Betsarí Otero Class
Center for Behavioral Science Methods
U.S. Census Bureau
Washington D.C. 20233
(301) 763-2235
betsari.otero.class@census.gov
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Erica L Olmsted Hawala |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2025-08-12 |