Focus Groups & In-depth Interviews with Non-English-Speaking Households Plan

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of our plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725) to conduct focus groups or in-depth interviews for a study on the census enumeration of non-English speaking households. The Census Bureau recently decided that this supplemental data collection will be necessary to address a shortfall in the number of observations of 2010 Census enumerations for some subsets of the non-English speaking population.

The purpose of this research is to learn about difficulties associated with collecting census data from non-English speaking households and about language barriers and sociocultural factors affecting non-English speaking respondents’ knowledge of and reaction to census enumeration. Planners of the 2020 Census will use the results of this evaluation to improve upon procedures for enumerating the non-English speaking population.

During July, researchers under contract will conduct focus groups or in-depth interviews with monolingual speakers of the following languages: Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Vietnamese. The questions will cover the following topics:

• Experience with past U.S. censuses;

• Views of government sponsored activities;

• Experience with other survey interviews;

• Issues encountered with the census process; and

• Factors impacting communication between the interviewer and the respondent.

Two or three focus groups will be conducted in each language (a total of 15 focus groups), with 8-10 participants per group. One-on-one interviews may be done in lieu of focus groups for participants who are more comfortable with an interview than a focus group or in cases deemed more culturally appropriate to do so. The moderator guides for the focus groups or the in-depth interviews are enclosed.

Each focus group or in-depth interview will last approximately one hour. Respondents will be recruited regardless of whether they responded to the 2010 Census. Focus groups will be conducted in Santa Clara, CA: the Washington DC metropolitan area; Baltimore, MD; and Providence, RI.

Focus groups will be audio recorded with participants’ permission, to facilitate accurate summarization of the results. Participants will be informed that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential and will be accessible only to Census Bureau employees involved in the research project. A copy of the consent form is enclosed. Respondents will be paid a maximum of $40 for their participation in the focus group.

Each focus group or in-depth interview is expected to take approximately one hour. Thus, the total estimated burden for this research is 150 (15 focus groups x 10 participants x1 hour).

The contact person for questions regarding data collection for this research is listed below:

Yuling Pan

Center for Survey Methods Research

Statistical Research Division

5K117

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, DC 20233

(301)7623-4950

[email protected]

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