WHD Child Labor Law Education and Outreach Materials

Interviews Related to YouthRules! Web Site with Parents of Employed Teens

Purpose

• To understand the information that parents of employed teens need to better inform the decisions they and their children make regarding their children’s job choices.

• To obtain feedback from parents on the usefulness of the YouthRules! web site for providing the needed information and to collect parents’ suggestions for improvements to the web site.

Overview

Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), WHD’s subcontractor for this project, will conduct a series of interviews over a two-week period in the late spring or early summer of 2009 for parents of employed teens in the Boston, MA area. ERG expects to conduct between 20 and 25 interviews. For purposes of estimating the burden of this data collection, ERG has assumed 25 interviews will be conducted. Participants will each receive a $50 stipend for participating.

For each participant, ERG will conduct a three-stage interview:

• Stage 1—Beginning interview. ERG will conduct a beginning interview to collect information about the types of information that parents need when making decisions related to their children’s employment.

• Stage 2—Observation on web site usage. ERG will observe the participant’s use of the YouthRules! web site and record detailed observations of the participant’s reactions to the usability and functionality of the web site. This will allow ERG to assess how well the current web site is meeting the needs of parents in terms of content, layout, and design.

• Stage 3—Ending interview. ERG will conduct an ending interview focusing on the participant’s experience of using the web site and how well the participant feels the web site meets their requirements, i.e. how satisfied the participant is with the content, functionality and usability of the web site.

Draft interview questions are provided under the “Protocol” section, a draft observation instrument is included in Appendix A.

Recruitment

Recruitment Plan

ERG will recruit up to 25 parents of employed teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18. ERG will recruit participants by placing an advertisement in a local newspaper and by networking among its own employees.¹ ERG will also invite parents of teens recruited for the teen focus groups to participate in the parent interviews while their children are participating in the teen focus group.

Given the small total size (25 participants) for these interviews, the sample of parents is not intended to be representative of all parents of employed teens. For this reason, ERG will not recruit specifically for geography, race, family income, or type of employment held.

Recruitment Materials

ERG will create a flyer to inform parents of employed teens of the opportunity to participate in the interviews, including the stipend amount. ERG will include PDF files of the flyer in the recruiting emails that is sent to potentially interested participants. Additionally, ERG will create a small ad to be placed in a local newspaper.

Logistics

Schedule

The interviews will be held over a 2-week period in the late spring or early summer of 2009. We expect the participants to spend on average one hour and 15 minutes in the interviews.

Location

ERG will hold the parent interviews at its office in Lexington, MA. Free parking, snacks and drinks will be provided to participants.

Protocol

The interview will be conducted in three phases. The interviewer and the observer will remain neutral to comments made by participants and will prompt participants for reactions and clarification as necessary. The interview is expected to last approximately one hour 15 minutes.

Beginning Interview – 20 to 30 minutes

The purpose of the beginning interview is to welcome the participant and set the context for the remainder of the interview. The interview questions are designed to help the participant refresh their memory of when their child was seeking employment and to help ERG understand the types of information that parents need when they are making decisions regarding their child’s employment (i.e., their customer requirements).

The interviewer will ask the following questions:

• When your teen started looking for a job, what kinds of questions did you have about the kinds of jobs teens can do or the hours they can work?

• How did you find the answers to these questions (if at all)?

• Did you search for information on line? How? What web sites did you refer to?

• What do you expect from a web site providing information on U.S. child labor laws? What do you expect from a Federal government web site that offers such information?

• What do you know now that you wished you knew before you child began work? What would you tell other parents whose children want to start working?

Following these questions, the interviewer will introduce the participant to an observer who will guide them through the second phase of the interview.

Observation of Web Site Use – 20 to 30 minutes

The purpose of this phase of the interview is to collect detailed observations of the participant’s reactions to the web site; as a result the observer will be an ERG staff person with experience evaluating web site usability. The participant will be seated at a computer with a web browser open to the YouthRules! web site and given up to 30 minutes to review the web site. An observer will sit with the participant and record detailed observations about the participant’s usage of the web site, such as:

• Pages visited,

• Time spent on each page,

• Perceived usefulness of information presented,

• Satisfaction with page format and content, and

• Participant comments or questions.

The participant will be encouraged to rate the web pages visited in terms of degrees of perceived usefulness and satisfaction, for example “I was very satisfied with the description of the hazardous occupations.” The observer will also prompt the participant to explain why they are satisfied (or unsatisfied), and what specifically makes a page useful or what improvements could make the page more useful. The observer will use an observation instrument to record these observations and participant comments, see Appendix A for a draft version of this instrument.

When the participant has completed their review of the web site the observer will return the participant to the interviewer for the final phase of the interview.

Ending Interview – 20 to 30 minutes

The ending interview is designed to capture the participant’s reactions to the experience of using the web site and how well they feel the web site meets their needs as the parent of an employed teen.

The interviewer will ask the following questions:

• How did you feel about the web site overall?

• Could you describe what was positive about the web site? And what was negative?

• Overall, how satisfied were you with:

• The content of the web site?

• The organization of the web pages?

• The format of the web pages?

• The user friendliness of the web site?

• How well did the web site meet the expectations you have for a web site providing this type of information?

• How well do you think the web site answers the questions or concerns you had about youth employment?

• Do you have any suggestions for improving the web site?

Following the interview the interviewer will thank the parent for participating, arrange the participant stipend, and provide the participant with a selection of YouthRules! materials and contact information should they have additional comments after they leave.

APPENDIX A: Draft Observation Tool

Observer: _____________________

Start review

Time: ________

CONTENT	Time	Perceived Usefulnessa	How Satisfied with Content?b	How Satisfied with Format?	Comments/Observations
Welcome Page		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU	[Record participant comments, explanations of ratings of usefulness, satisfaction. Also, other observations of participant use of web site]
Teens		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
Parents		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
Educators		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
Employers		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
State Rules		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
What hours can youth work?		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
What jobs can youth do?		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
Prevent workplace injuries		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
Poster, Stickers, Bookmarks		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
Compliance Assistance		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
Additional Resources		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
Partnerships		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
About YouthRules!		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
What’s New		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
Other?		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU
		VU SU SNU NU	VS SS N SU VU	VS SS N SU VU

a. VU= Very Useful, SU= Somewhat Useful, SNU=Somewhat Not Useful, NU=Not Useful

b. VS=Very Satisfied, SS=Somewhat Satisfied N=Neither Satisfied nor Unsatisfied (Neutral), SU=Somewhat Unsatisfied, VU=Very Unsatisfied

Finish Review

Time: ________

General Observations:

[Record overall observations of participant use and perception of web site]

1 ERG will not use any of its own employees or members of its employees’ immediate families in the interviews.