Justification for Change

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Surveillance System (NISVSS),

(OMB no. 0920-0822, exp. date 09/30/2012)

Proposed Changes: Justification and Overview

October 18, 2010

Justification

We are requesting non-substantive changes to an approved surveillance activity. The overall scope, purpose, burden, protocol, methodology, and planned analyses remain unchanged from the original application.

Project Description

NISVSS is a random digit dial dual frame (landline and cell phone) telephone survey. Information is gathered regarding women’s and men’s experiences with a range of intimate partner violence (IPV) (including physical and psychological aggression and sexual violence); sexual violence by any perpetrator (including unwanted sexual situations, abusive sexual contact, and nonconsensual sex [completed and attempted]); and stalking by any perpetrator. Such data will help inform prevention strategies and will help guide and evaluate progress toward reducing the substantial health, social, and economic burdens associated with IPV, SV, and stalking.

Proposed Changes

The proposed changes relate primarily to minor changes added for clarification to introductory language. A small number of follow-up questions were also added to existing questions. Additionally, the three year time frame was eliminated throughout the survey because the comparison to military populations is no longer required. This change slightly decreased the survey length and repetitiveness. Questions regarding unemployment were also added. The unemployment questions used are from existing national surveys and supplement our existing social determinants questions. They have been added to provide important economic data comparable to other existing data collection efforts in DHHS.

Change to Burden and/or Cost Estimate

The proposed changes described below will not result in a change in the approved burden estimate because the majority of additional questions are administered as follow-up questions to a subset of participants. Because the additional questions are offset by the elimination of questions that refer to the 3 past years there will not be an increase in the estimated burden.

Requested Changes

The modified language is detailed below (new words are in bold)

1. Add birth month to improve accuracy in determining age at the time the survey was completed (page 11):

RC1 What month and year were you born?

2. Additional follow-up for self identified AIAN who indicate that they lived on a reservation during the past 12 months (added on page 14):

RC6d “On what reservation did you live during the past 12 months?”

3. Language added for interview to explicitly check in with the respondent (page 31):

CHK1 “I’d like to check in with you to make sure you’re feeling alright and would like to continue the interview. Shall we continue?”

4. Modification to unwanted sex introduction – with the purpose of giving people a heads up so they don’t include coercion or drug facilitated in the physical force question. The additional text (copied below) is included on page 36.

“I will ask you about different types of unwanted sexual situations. In general, these are: unwanted sexual situations that did NOT involve touching and situations that DID involve touching. I will also ask you about your experiences with unwanted sex that happened when someone used verbal pressure, or used physical force, and situations in which you were unable to provide consent to sex due to the influence of alcohol or drugs.”

5. Modified language for SV6 (page 36):

“How many people have ever fondled, groped, grabbed, or touched your sexual body parts you in a way that made you feel unsafe?”

6. Additional follow up for IPV perpetrator related info (page 51):

FU2_1 “Did you ever feel owned or controlled by {fill: {initials}?”

7. We already had the use of alcohol by perpetrator in the SV questions, but did not include them in the IPV section. Alcohol /drug use by the partner was added in the IP follow-ups (page 52):

FU3a“Had {fill: initials} been using alcohol or drugs at the time that they did any of these things to you?”

FU3a_2 “Would you say it was always, almost always, sometimes, or never?”

8. Response options changed throughout survey from [1,2-10,11-50,>50] to [1,2,3-5,6-10,11-20,>20] to better reflect and delineate the lower range frequencies typically given by respondents.

9. Unemployment questions were added for respondent (page 14 and 15) and current partner (pages 59).

1. 4-5 employment questions asked of respondent:

RC7_1 “Are you currently employed or working a job for which you get paid?”

RC7_2 “Are you currently employed full time or part time?”

RC7_3 “Why are you currently not employed?”

RC7_4 “Now please think about your employment status or work situation of over the past 12 months. What were you doing for most of the past 12 months?”

RC7_5 “How are you generally paid for the work you do? Paid by salary, hour, job or task, or some other way?”

2. 3 employment questions asked about respondent’s current spouse or live in partner:

IP6 “Now please think about the employment status or work situation of your partner over the past 12 months. What was your partner doing for most of the past 12 months?”

IP7 “How is your partner paid for the work he or she does? Is he or she paid by salary, hour, job or task or some other way?”

IP8 “Do you get paid more than your partner, paid about the same as your partner, or paid less than your partner?”

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