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:

Audience Research for Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) Social Media Marketing Campaign

PURPOSE:

The purpose of the planned activities is to conduct qualitative research to test proposed products, messages, and concepts with youth to inform a creative campaign for youth encouraging them to avoid sexual risk behaviors. The research conducted under this generic IC will be used to inform the development of youth materials and messages about avoiding sexual risks.

The contractor (RTI International) will conduct all data collection related to the proposed approach. Data collection will consist of recruiting youth participants through existing grantee networks and other youth-serving entities, a screening questionnaire to capture participant characteristics at the aggregate level, and a series of both in-person and virtual focus groups.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents include diverse groups of youth and young adults aged 10 – 22 years old from different regions around the U.S., with targeted recruitment of high-risk youth to ensure their voices are heard.

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:__LeBretia White______________________________________________

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

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ X ] Yes [ ] No (See Supporting Statement for separation and of PII collected during screening from the primary data collected and analyzed to inform the campaign.)

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

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

Gifts or Payments:

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

Participants will be offered a token of appreciation of up to $15 as a gift card for food (i.e., Starbucks), music, or movie tickets for taking part in the research. As participants often have competing demands for their time, incentives are used to encourage participation. The payment amounts for this project were determined through discussions with the contractor, recruitment firms, and FYSB staff with expertise in recruiting participants and conducting interviews about avoiding risky behavior and similar health topics with the study population. This incentive will account for participation in a 1-hour in-person or virtual focus group

Numerous empirical studies have shown that incentives can significantly increase response rates.^i-ii Incentives are also necessary to ensure that there is sufficient representation from certain groups that are more difficult to recruit such as low socio-economic groups and high-risk populations.ⁱⁱⁱ Low or no incentives can also potentially result in a difficult and lengthy recruitment process. This can cause delays in initiating data collection, which can lead to overall timeline delays and increased costs to the government. Ultimately, the absence of an appropriate incentive could impede the development of clear, persuasive messages and a communication strategy on encouraging youth to avoid risky behaviors which is the goal of this project.

BURDEN HOURS

Estimated Annual Reporting Burden
Type of Collection	No. of Respondents	Annual Frequency per Response	Hours per Response	Total Hours
Focus groups	100	1	1.5	150

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $79,800_per year for a total of 2 years

Item/Activity	Details	$ Amount
FYSB oversight of contractor and project	10% of FTE: GS-13 Program Specialist and 15% of FTE for contractor staff	$4,000 $5,800
Recruitment, data collection including incentives, materials hosting, analysis, travel, overhead and reporting (contractor)	Labor hours and ODCs	$70,000
Total per year for a total of 2 years		$79,800

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?

The study sample will be a nonprobability-based purposeful sample. Therefore, the results are not generalizable to the general population. The audience for this research will be diverse groups of youth and young adults aged 10-22 years old from different regions around the U.S., with targeted recruitment of high-risk youth to ensure their voices are heard. The contractor anticipates connecting with youth participants through the project’s youth-serving grantee organizations.

Initial data collection will consist of 10 focus groups per year (up to 100 participants in total per year). All focus groups will be conducted only one time. Most youth participants will be recruited through the various youth-serving Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention grantees. In some cases, the contractor may supplement recruitment with outreach to community-based youth-serving organizations, such as schools and colleges.

Screening data may be collected using a standardized screening instrument to facilitate recruitment of participants into the study for focus groups and help us capture a range of perspectives from diverse youth. The contractor will send the online screener to the grantee/organization contact to gather inputs from potential participants. The contractor will then work with the grantee/organization contact to collect and/or confirm the names of the eligible individuals who agree to participate and confirm the date/time for the in-person or virtual focus group. For virtual focus groups, we also will collect the participants’ email addresses, so we can send them e-gift cards. Participants of in-person focus groups will receive “hard” gift cards in person immediately following the session.

Statistical power is not applicable because this is a qualitative study.

Administration of the Instrument

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

[ X] Web-based

[ 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.

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 (in minutes) 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 Respondents and the Participation Time then 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.

i Abreu, D. A., & Winters, F. (1999). Using monetary incentives to reduce attrition in the survey of income and program participation. Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association.

ii Shettle, C., & Mooney, G. (1999). Monetary incentives in U.S. government surveys. Journal of Official Statistics, 15, 231–250.

iii Groth, SW. (2010). Honorarium or coercion: use of incentives for participants in clinical research. Journal of the New York State Nurses Association.

5