justification

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 0970-0401

T ITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Father Involvement Communication Checks

PURPOSE: Research indicates that the lack of a father in the home correlates closely with crime, educational difficulties, teen pregnancy, and drug and alcohol problems. Since 2006, the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse and HHS have partnered with the Ad Council to develop public service ads (PSAs) designed to help fathers understand that their presence is critical to the well-being of their children.

The purpose of the collection is to assist ICF, the Ad Council, and Lowe Campbell Ewald improve future communication materials. The collection of information will involve getting reactions to creative communication ideas proposed by Campbell Ewald, to ensure these ideas are clear and relevant for the target audience (fathers). The information collected will help determine whether revisions should be incorporated into the creative concepts prior to final production.

The information collected will be acquired through the use of small focus groups, and one-on-one interviews. Focus groups are an important information gathering technique because they allow for more in-depth feedback from respondents compared to other types of studies. One-on-one interviews add additional depth of response from individuals, to supplement the group discussion. Both forms of qualitative, focus groups and one-on-ones, serve the narrowly defined need for direct and informal opinion on a specific topic.

Specifically, the key objectives of creative message testing are to determine:

• How well the target audience understands the concepts

• The overall appeal of the concepts

• The strengths and weaknesses of individual concepts

• The relevance of the concepts to the target audience

• How motivating the concepts are to fathers to follow through on the call-to-action, or main “ask” of the advertising, and seek more information

The Ad Council plans to conduct 6 focus group sessions, each lasting 90 minutes, and 6 one-on-ones, each lasting 45 minutes. The Ad Council proposes to recruit 7 people for each of the 6 groups to seat 5-6 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 67.5 hours.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

• Males between the ages of 18 to 49, who are fathers of children ages 3 to 17.

• Types of Fathers

  • 23 Full-time Fathers (defined as living with their children full time);

  • 25 Non-Custodial Fathers (defined as having partial to no custody of their children)

• A mix of race and ethnicities representative of the general population (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Other) in all groups

  • Respondents to include 16 Hispanic fathers who are “Spanish dominant,” who will be interviewed in Spanish

• A mix of household incomes, with at least half of respondents to be low-income, defined as HHI<$30K.

• A mix of ages of child

• A mix of marital status

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: ______________________

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:___Patty Goldman, Ad Council

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

Respondents will receive a monetary stipend of $110 for their participation in the focus groups and $95 for their participation in the one on ones. This amount is strongly recommended by the focus group facilities as the minimum required to ensure an adequate response rate and participation.

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Individual Recruited	48	10 minutes	480 minutes /8 hrs
Individual Participant – Focus Group	42	90 minutes	3780 minutes/63hrs
Individual Participant – One-on-One	6	45 minutes	270 minutes/4.5 hrs
Totals	48 respondents		75.5 hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated cost to the Federal government is $_28,550 +/- 10%.

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?

See attached recruitment screener for further description. All individuals who will be called to be taken through the recruitment screener will be members of the two focus group facility’s databases.

Administration of the Instrument

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

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] 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.

Instructions for completing Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Provide the name of the collection that is the subject of the request. (e.g. Comment card for soliciting feedback on xxxx)

PURPOSE: Provide a brief description of the purpose of this collection and how it will be used. If this is part of a larger study or effort, please include this in your explanation.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Provide a brief description of the targeted group or groups for this collection of information. These groups must have experience with the program.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: Check one box. If you are requesting approval of other instruments under the generic, you must complete a form for each instrument.

CERTIFICATION: Please read the certification carefully. If you incorrectly certify, the collection will be returned as improperly submitted or it will be disapproved.

Personally Identifiable Information: Provide answers to the questions. Note: Agencies should only collect PII to the extent necessary, and they should only retain PII for the period of time that is necessary to achieve a specific objective.

Gifts or Payments: If you answer yes to the question, please describe the incentive and provide a justification for the amount.

BURDEN HOURS:

Category of Respondents: Identify who you expect the respondents to be in terms of the following categories: (1) Individuals or Households; (2) Private Sector; (3) State, local, or tribal governments; or (4) Federal Government. Only one type of respondent can be selected per row.

No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of respondents.

Participation Time: Provide an estimate of the amount of time required for a respondent to participate (e.g. fill out a survey or participate in a focus group)

Burden: Provide the Annual burden hours: Multiply the Number of responses and the participation time and divide by 60.

FEDERAL COST: Provide an estimate of the annual cost to the Federal government.

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. Please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them. If the answer is yes, to the first question, you may provide the sampling plan in an attachment.

Administration of the Instrument: Identify how the information will be collected. More than one box may be checked. Indicate whether there will be interviewers (e.g. for surveys) or facilitators (e.g., for focus groups) used.

Submit all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

4