Genereic Clearance Request

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 2127-0682)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

Fast Track Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery

PURPOSE:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was authorized by the Highway Safety Act of 1966 to carry out a Congressional mandate to reduce the mounting number of deaths, injuries and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes on our Nation’s highways. In support of this mission, NHTSA is developing a new public service campaign designed to deter impaired driving among teenagers. The goal of this research is to gain feedback on creative concepts prior to producing the national public service advertising campaign.

NHTSA would like to conduct a limited number of focus group sessions to help assess creative concepts. NHTSA proposes to conduct 6 focus group sessions, each lasting 90 minutes. NHTSA proposes to recruit 8 people for each of the 6 groups to seat 6 participants per focus group session. Recruiting will be done via telephone screening calls estimated to take no more than 10 minutes each. The total estimated burden for this information collection is 62 hours.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

The respondents for this survey will be the target audience for the public service campaign: U.S. teenagers ages 16-17 who are licensed drivers and drive at least occasionally. The groups will be segmented by grade level to include juniors and seniors in high school (11^th and 12^th grade, respectively). Respondents will include a fair representation of demographics including gender, race/ethnicity, and household income (parents). The focus group discussions will be conducted in two diverse geographic markets: Chicago, IL and New York, NY.

To create a more comfortable setting for teens and mitigate socially desirable responses, each focus group will consist of “friendship pairs.” We will recruit four friendship pairs (8 respondents) per group. This recruitment strategy will encourage accountability and honesty while allowing for individual expression within the group. Past experience with this age group indicates that respondents who attend this type of discussion with a friend will open up and share more quickly than when they are among a group of all strangers.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[X] Focus Group [ ] Other: Online Survey

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name: Susan McMeen

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [X] Yes [ ] No

Each respondent will be provided with $75 following their participation in a focus group session. This amount is in line with the industry standard, relative to focus group participation by people in the target market. These industry-standard stipends help to ensure that respondents can be recruited efficiently and ensure their arrival and participation in the groups. These standards exist to provide fair compensation for costs incurred by participants while attending groups, based on the location of and expenses in each market.

BURDEN HOURS

No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Average Burden per Response (hours)	Total Burden Hours
48 Participants (Screening call)	1	1/6 hours (10 minutes)	8
36 participants (Focus group discussion)	1	1.5 hour (90 minutes)	54
TOTAL			62

The maximum total input cost, if all respondents were interviewed on the job, is estimated as follows:

$16.71 per hour x 62 interviewing hours = $1,036.02

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $40,000.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [X] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

Please see recruitment screener attached.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[X] Telephone

[X] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [X] Yes [ ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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