Focus Groups for Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Programs and Activities

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 2105-0573)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Focus Groups for Traffic and Motor Vehicle

Safety Programs and Activities

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 increase the proper use of car seats, booster seats and seat belts among children between the ages of 0-14, and to reduce the injuries and deaths in motor vehicle crashes where these children are either in the incorrect seat, are graduating prematurely to the next seat type, or are not utilizing any safety restraints such as car seats, booster seats, or seat belts. Parents and caregivers will be encouraged to make sure their children are in the right seat for their age and size, and wearing seat belts.

NHTSA would like to conduct a limited number of focus group sessions with the goal of gaining feedback on creative concepts prior to production. Specifically, the research will be used to understand message clarity, appeal of the concepts, relevance, and ability to motivate the target audience of parents.

Focus groups will be conducted by Good Run Research & Recreation, a qualitative vendor with experience working extensively with NHTSA public service campaigns, and deep knowledge of sensitive topics such as smoking, and texting and driving.

The results from this project will in no way be used to make significant policy or resource allocation decisions.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Our recommended data collection method is qualitative focus groups among parents and caregivers of children 0-14. Separate groups will be conducted among parents of children of different age groups (specifically, parents of children ages 0-7; and 8-14), to allow us to capture the responses specific to the different car seat, booster seat and seat belt recommendations for different age children.

This will include 4 separate focus groups of less-acculturated, Hispanic parents and caregivers, who primarily consume media in Spanish, to gain insights from this population. All communication with these respondents will be in Spanish. These respondents will be recruited by a vendor that specializes in this demographic.

We recommend conducting a total of 8 focus groups. Each will be 90 minutes in length. The focus group discussions will be conducted in two geographically diverse locations (Tampa, FL; Chicago, IL) and will be segmented by age group of child/children.

7 participants will be recruited for each individual focus group. However, each group will be conducted among a maximum of 6 participants. This is reflected in the burden hours below.

Respondents will include a fair representation of demographics including gender, race/ethnicity, and household income. All respondents will be required to drive their child/children or the children they care for at least 3 times per week. More details in “the selection of target respondents” section below.

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 paid $75 in cash after participating in the focus group. No additional PII or social security numbers will be collected in order to pay respondents for their participation. 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.

The facilities will screen potential recruits via telephone based on an information screener provided by Good Run, approved by NHTSA. This screener is being submitted as backup to this Clearance Request. The screener will collect the following information about each potential participant: gender, age, parental status, age of child/children, frequency of driving with children in the vehicle, safety-related behavior with children in the vehicle, household income, educational attainment, and race/ethnicity. Facilities will record screening information by hand and transpose it into digital files stored securely on servers to which only their staffs have access.

The focus groups will consist of 90-minute sessions in which a Good Run moderator will guide discussion around the creative ideas and respondent responses. The facilities will record the sessions in digital video format that shows participants’ faces and contains audio, but in which participants are identified by first name only. Other than the facial images and voices in the digital recordings, the facilities will not share personally identifiable information with NHTSA or its contractors. However, the facilities have adequate information in their proprietary databases and about specific focus groups to link individuals appearing in videos to specific people and their contact information for follow-up purposes. The facilities will securely store the digital recordings for three months after NHTSA accepts Good Run’s final report in case of any follow-up requests, then will dispose of them. Good Run will securely store the digital recordings only until NHTSA accepts the final report, then also will dispose of them. This is standard industry practice across all focus group facilities and vendors.

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondents	No. of Respondents	Participation Time (hours)	Burden Time No. of Respondents x Participation Time]
Unqualified/Refusal Respondents: total number of individuals who will be contacted, but screened out or refuse participation.	168*	2.5 minutes	7 hours
Screened Respondents: total number of individuals fully screened to participate in the focus group discussion	56 (7 respondents per group x 8 groups)	.167 (10 minute screening call)	9.34 hours
Focus Group Respondents: total number of individuals screened in and participating in the focus group discussion	44 (5 or 6 per group, for average of 5.5, x 8 groups)	1.75 hour (90 minute discussion + 15 min wait time)	77 hours
Recruited “No-Shows”: total number of individuals screened in but do not show or participate during research period.	12 (1 or 2 per group, for average of 1.5, x 8 groups)	5 minutes	1 hour

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS: 94.34 hours

*On average, incidence of qualified respondents for any project with either of the market research facilities is about 25% success.

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

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $58,700.

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?

Good Run Research & Recreation will work with focus group facilities in both markets, Tampa and Chicago, to screen and recruit participants using their own databases of participants who have signed up to be contacted for potential participation in focus groups.

The market research facilities will call potential respondents on the phone, and using the screener attached, will find participants and schedule their focus group times. During the focus groups, moderators from Good Run Research & Recreation will walk respondents through the discussion guide.

We will target participants based on these demographics:

• Gender (recruiting a mix)

• Not employed in industries that would make them overly knowledgeable about the topic (e.g. marketing, car seat manufacture or safety group)

• Haven’t participated in other focus groups within past 6 months (to avoid ‘professional respondents’)

• Age (recruiting a mix of age 25+)

• Parental status (must have child age 14 or younger; or care for a child that age 3+ days/week)

• Child age (recruiting a range, per screener)

• Ethnicity (Hispanic or not)

• Race (accepting multiple responses for race; recruit a mix)

• Educational attainment (recruit a mix; detail per screener)

• Acculturation (multiple questions on language use, country of origin, and media use to ascertain level of acculturation; less-acculturated Hispanic respondents to be in separate Spanish-language groups)

• Driving behavior (drive 3+ days/week; drive with child)

• Current safety belt/restraint/car seat use (rear-facing car seat; forward-facing car seat; booster seat; adult seat belt; don’t know; please see screener for full detail)

• Marital status (recruit a mix)

• Household income (recruit a mix)

Please see screener attached for full set of screening questions.

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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