Attachment C – Project Description
Message Testing for Parents Regarding Bullying
Project Description:
Bullying is a widespread form of youth violence in the United States. In a 2017 nationwide survey, 19% of high school students reported being bullied on school property and in the 12 months before the survey. And while the prevalence is highest among white (21.5%) and AI/AN students (21.7%), Hispanic students (16.3%) report the second highest prevalence of being bullied on school property – higher than for black students (13.2%). Additionally, an estimated 14.9% reported being bullied electronically in the 12 months before the survey – including 12.3% of Hispanic students.1
Parents can play a key role in preventing youth’s involvement in violence. However, data on parents’ knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs regarding children’s bullying prevention is limited. Such information is essential to develop appropriate prevention strategies, including among Hispanics – the largest racial or ethnic minority in the US, accounting for about 18.3% of the US population.2
The purpose of this research is to test refined and culturally-sensitive English and Spanish message concepts among target audiences for use to inform multiple parent-focused bullying prevention materials. This information will be collected through a series of four focus groups. Two focus groups will be conducted in English and two will be conducted in Spanish, with the messages also translated into Spanish. We are expecting to collect data in June and hoping to conduct the focus groups in-person. However, given the current situation and public health needs from the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be necessary to move the focus groups to an online format. Online focus groups would allow us to collect the data, while maintaining the best interests of the respondents and public health in accordance with CDC’s Office of Science guidance for human research issued on March 26, 2020. CDC will use findings from the data collected to refine the effectiveness of messages for the intended audiences for parent-focused prevention materials. Feedback gathered, including message delivery and content, dissemination strategies, and dissemination channels will help ensure NCIPC is providing quality messages and prevent waste in the dissemination of health information by CDC to the public.
Who are we trying to influence?
Primary Audience: Respondents will be parents and caregivers, U.S. residents who are responsible for the daily care and rearing of one or more children ages 10-17. At least half of the respondents will speak fluent Spanish and identify as Hispanic.
What do we want them to DO as a result of this communication?
We will use what we learn from focus group discussions to adapt messages or refine the messages and improve the materials offered to parents and caregivers about bullying.
How do we expect communications to work towards achieving this?
Content strategy will include:
Time-saving — focus on the messages and useful tips / tools / facts that are easy to absorb given our audience.
Relevance — ensure new or revised materials meet our audiences’ current needs, with a particular focus on culturally sensitive materials.
Accessible — ensure the tone is direct, clear, real and salient with our audiences.
What are we trying to convey?
In our planned focus groups, our goal is to learn opinions about the bullying prevention messages developed for this project. We want to get subjects’ reactions to the messages and to determine if they are receiving and understanding these messages. We also want to determine the best channels for dissemination of prevention materials to parents and caregivers. We will use what we learn from focus groups to refine the messaging and use that messaging in bullying prevention materials for both English and Spanish-speaking U.S. residents.
Recruitment of Participants
A CDC contracting company works with third-party vendors specialized in recruiting and vetted for quality. The contracting company has identified local third-party focus group facility vendors who will use their database of individuals who have expressed an interest in participating in research projects to identify prospective respondents meeting the inclusion criteria. Contact information including name, and address of those respondents who wish to participate will be used to communicate location of the focus group. Also, signed consent forms from focus group participants (Att. E) will be collected. Signed consent forms will be kept by the interviewer and stored in locked filing cabinets at the contractor offices. These forms will be stored separately from other project records so that names are not stored in the same folders. During the focus groups (Att. E & F), respondents will be referred to only by first name. Focus group recordings will be transcribed. All identifiers will be stripped from the recordings and transcripts. At no time will personal information be linked or linkable to focus group data. At no time does CDC have access to, or will receive, potentially identifiable information. At no time is this information linked or linkable to focus group information.
Incentives
Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ X ] Yes [ ] No
Each focus group participant will receive $75 incentive. The amount of this incentive aligns with the general limitations of the overarching Generic ICR. Providing incentives to respondents is necessary to successfully recruit individuals for qualitative projects conducted in person.3 Literature reveals that the payment of incentives can provide significant advantages to the government in terms of direct cost savings and improved data quality. It also should be noted that message testing is a marketing technique, and it is standard practice among commercial market researchers to offer incentives as part of respondent recruitment. In the event that the focus groups have to be conducted online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we would still offer the $75 incentive. Since we are recruiting parents, who are facing increased challenges and demands for time and resources due to the pandemic, we feel that the incentive is warranted and necessary.
Protection of the Privacy and Confidentiality of Information Provided by Respondents
The NCIPC-CIO has determined that the Privacy Act does not apply. Contact information including name, and address of those respondents who wish to participate is secondary data already collected by a third-party vendor. At no time will personal information be linked or linkable to focus group data. All identifiers will be stripped from the recordings and transcripts. At no time does CDC have access to, or will receive, potentially identifiable information. At no time is this information linked or linkable to focus group information.
All data will be reported in aggregate unlinked form. All procedures have been developed, in accordance with federal, state, and local guidelines, to ensure that the rights and privacy of respondents will be protected and maintained.
BURDEN HOURS
1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth risk behavior surveillance—United States, 2017. MMWR, Surveillance Summaries 2018;67(8). Available from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/2017/ss6708.pdf .
2 U.S. Census Bureau. (2019 Aug 20). Facts for Features: Hispanic Heritage Month 2019 (Release Number CB19-FF.07). Available from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2019/hispanic-heritage-month.html.
3 National Cancer Institute. (2001) Making Health Communication Programs Work, http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/pinkbook/Pink_Book.pdf; and Krueger, RA and Casey, MA. (2008). Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 4th ed. Sage Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-14 |