OMB Memo on Satisfaction Add-On Research

Memorandum

To: Office of Management and Budget

From: Lin Wang, Center for Survey Measurement, U.S. Census Bureau

Subject: Cognitive Interview Protocol for Satisfaction Construct

Date: September 28, 2016

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0978). This submission seeks approval of an online survey for future pretesting research. This online survey will collect data on respondent-reported satisfaction with completing a survey. The data will be used to develop a standardized satisfaction questionnaire for Web survey completion.

We developed a 6-question cognitive interview protocol to elicit elements for Web survey satisfaction construct (Enclosure A), and have conducted a pilot face-to-face study. The preliminary results from the pilot study suggest a potentially different construct from those currently used in usability testing.

To further the research, we plan to continue this cognitive interview with an expanded sample of 400 respondents. We will analyze the responses collected from the cognitive interviews, and qualitatively synthesize the data to form themes that may contribute to the satisfaction construct.

Participants will be recruited as follows: 4000 email addresses will be randomly sampled from the affinity panel that is maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau. An email invitation (Enclosure B) will be sent at the email addresses. It is estimated that it will take no more than 3 minutes to read the email invitation. There will be no follow-up emails.

Below is a list of materials to be used in the study.

1. Protocol used for the study (Enclosure A)

2. Email invitation (Enclosure B)

It will take the participant no more than 3 minutes to read the email invitation and 5 minutes to perform this task. After 400 participants respond to the survey, no more email invitations will be sent. There will be no follow-up email invitations. Given the scenario where all 4000 email invitaions are to be read and 400 participants complete the survey, the maximum burden for this add-on study will be no more than 233.4 hours (4000x3 + 400x5 min). There is no recruiting needed for this study because recruitment will be done through emails.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is listed below:

Lin Wang

Center for Survey Methods Research

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-9069

[email protected]

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