Focus Group Criteria

Appendix B: Focus Group Screening Questionnaires by Audience

For each audience, the following tables provide an overview of the specific recruitment procedures. They contain the unique characteristics that each group will include and soft quotas for recruiting an appropriate mix of participants of different genders, ages, races, countries of origin, and education levels. These recruitment tables will be used as guidelines for the soft quotas of the focus groups. Recommendations for audiences were created in collaboration with U.S. Census Bureau Subject Matter Experts (SME) and Research Team multicultural experts.

Note: Fully representing the country across all audiences would require more groups than the schedule allows for fielding, and is not necessarily needed for selecting an effective campaign platform. Following standard communication industry practices, audiences have been prioritized based on the guidance from the Decennial Communications Coordination Office and the ICC Program Management Office and balanced against time, budget, and Census Bureau SME and multicultural agency recommendations.

Based on previous experience working with these different populations, Team Y&R knows different groups will have different show rates. Therefore, Team Y&R recommends over-recruiting for groups – specifically, recruiting 12 to seat six participants. This will reduce the risk of not having enough participants to run a focus group.

All audiences will represent a combination of hard-to-count traits (based on Erdman & Bates 2017) via a points-based recruiting strategy, including:

• Female householder, no husband present

• Rents home

• Less than high school education

• Households with children 4 years old or younger

• Moved in the last year

• Annual household income of less than $35,000

• Living in multi-unit or mobile home

• Large household (6+ people)

Audiences:

1. American Indian / Alaska Native (AIAN)

2. Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (NHPI)

3. Asian

4. Hispanic

5. Rural

Audience #1: American Indian / Alaska Native (AIAN) – 8 focus groups

Proposed Locations	Session 1	Session 2
Fairbanks, AK	Females, 35 years and older	Males, 18-44 years
Phoenix, AZ	Females, 35 years and older	Males, 35 years and older
Sault Ste. Marie, MI	Females, 18-54 years old	Males, 18-54 years old
Portland, OR	Females, 55 years and older	Males, 18-44 years old

Alaska Native Definition: Self-identifies as Alaska Native; a Shareholder of an Alaska Native Corporation; able to read and speak English
Location 1: Fairbanks, AK
Characteristics		Session 1 # recruited per FG	Session 2 # recruited per FG
Education	High school or less	10	10
	Some college or an associate’s degree	6	6
	College graduate +	0	0
Gender	Female	16	0
	Male	0	16
Race/Ethnicity	Alaska Native	16	16
	Other	0	0
Age	18-34	0	8
	35-44	5	8
	45-54	6	0
	55 or older	5	0
Lives in Village?	Currently lives in a village	8	8
	Has lived in a village in the past 2 years, but not currently	8	8
Recruit 16 per session to seat 6-8

American Indian Definition: Self-identifies as American Indian; a member of a Tribe; able to read and speak English
Location 2: Phoenix, AZ
Characteristics		Session 1 # recruited per FG	Session 2 # recruited per FG
Education	High school or less	10	8
	Some college or an associate’s degree	6	6
	College graduate +	0	0
Gender	Female	16	0
	Male	0	16
Race/Ethnicity	American Indian	16	16
	Other	0	0
Age	18-34	0	0
	35-44	5	6
	45-54	6	5
	55 or older	5	5
Lives on Reservation?	Currently lives on reservation	8	8
	Has lived on reservation in the past 2 years, but not currently	8	8
Recruit 16 per session to seat 6-8

American Indian Definition: Self-identifies as American Indian; a member of a Tribe; able to read and speak English
Location 3: Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Characteristics		Session 1 # recruited per FG	Session 2 # recruited per FG
Education	High school or less	10	10
	Some college or an associate’s degree	6	6
	College graduate +	0	0
Gender	Female	16	0
	Male	0	16
Race/Ethnicity	American Indian	16	16
	Other	0	0
Age	18-34	5	5
	35-44	6	6
	45-54	5	5
	55 or older	0	0
Lives on Reservation?	Currently live on reservation	8	8
	Has lived on a reservation in the past 2 years, but not currently	8	8
Recruit 16 per session to seat 6-8

American Indian Definition: Self-identifies as American Indian; a member of a Tribe; able to read and speak English
Location 4: Portland, OR
Characteristics		Session 1 # recruited per FG	Session 2 # recruited per FG
Education	High school or less	10	10
	Some college or an associate’s degree	6	6
	College graduate +	0	0
Gender	Female	16	0
	Male	0	16
Race/Ethnicity	American Indian	16	16
	Other	0	0
Age	18-34	0	10
	35-44	0	6
	45-54	0	0
	55 or older	16	0
Lives on Reservation?	Currently lives on a reservation	8	8
	Has lived on a reservation in the past 2 years, but not currently	8	8
Recruit 16 per session to seat 6-8

Audience #2: Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (NHPI) – 4 focus groups

NHPI Definition: Self-identifies as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; as being able to read and speak English; MICRONESIAN, POLYNESIAN/MELANESIAN ONLY: Must speak an indigenous language relevant to their race
Location 1: Honolulu, HI
Characteristics		Session 1 # recruited per FG	Session 2 # recruited per FG
Education	High school or less	10	10
	Some college or an associate’s degree	6	6
	College graduate or postgraduate degree	0	0
Gender	Female	8	8
	Male	8	8
Race/Ethnicity	Native Hawaiian	6	6
	Micronesian islands	5	5
	Polynesian/Melanesian islands	5	5
Age	18-34	3	3
	35-44	3	3
	45-54	5	5
	55 or older	5	5
Recruit 16 per session to seat 6-8
Location 2: Seattle, WA
Characteristics		Session 1 # recruited per FG	Session 2 # recruited per FG
Education	High school or less	10	10
	Some college or an associate’s degree	6	6
	College graduate or postgraduate degree	0	0
Gender	Female	8	8
	Male	8	8
Race/Ethnicity	Native Hawaiian	6	6
	Micronesian islands	5	5
	Polynesian/Melanesian islands	5	5
Age	18-34	3	3
	35-44	3	3
	45-54	5	5
	55 or older	5	5
Recruit 16 per session to seat 6-8

Audience #3: Asian – 2 focus groups

Asian Definition: Self identifies as one of the below Asian ethnicities; as bilingual in English and another Asian language; as being able to read and speak English well; as 1^st generation to U.S.

Note that the Asian focus groups will exclude students as they have different perspectives, per recommendation from Team Y&R’s multicultural partner who specializes in Asian audience.

Location 1: San Gabriel Valley/Pasadena, CA
Characteristics		Session 1 # recruited per FG	Session 2 # recruited per FG
Education	High school or less	9	9
	Some college or an associate’s degree	5	5
	College graduate or postgraduate degree	0	0
Gender	Female	7	7
	Male	7	7
Ancestry	Chinese	3	2
	Vietnamese	3	1
	Korean	3	1
	Filipino	0	3
	Hmong or Thai	3	1
	Cambodian	2	0
	Asian Indian	0	3
	Other South Asian (Pakistani, Bangladeshi)	0	3
Age	18-34	3	2
	35-44	3	2
	45-54	4	5
	55 or older	4	5
Recruit 14 per session to seat 6-8

Audience #4: Hispanic – 2 focus groups

Definition: Self identifies as Hispanic; as bilingual in English and Spanish; as being able to read and speak English well; as transient immigrants.
Location 1: Houston, TX
Characteristics		Session 1 # recruited per FG	Session 2 # recruited per FG
Education	High school or less	9	9
	Some college or an associate’s degree	5	5
	College graduate +	0	0
Gender	Female	7	7
	Male	7	7
Race/Ethnicity	Hispanic	14	14
	Not Hispanic	0	0
Ancestry	Mexican	9	9
	Central American	5	5
Generation	1st Generation	7	7
	1.5 Generation	7	7
Age	24-34 years old	7	7
	35-50 years old	9	9
Recruit 14-16 per session to seat 6-8

Definitions

1st Generation: Foreign born; both parents foreign born; immigrated to the U.S. when 17 or older

1.5 Generation: Foreign born; both parents foreign born; immigrated to the U.S. when 16 or younger

Audience #5: Rural – 2 focus groups

Rural Definition: Lives in a Zip Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) that is identified as rural in the 2010 Census
Location 1: Polk County, MO
		Session 1 # recruited per FG	Session 2 # recruited per FG
Education	High school or less	9	9
	Some college or an associate’s degree	5	5
	College graduate +	0	0
Gender	Female	7	7
	Male	7	7
Age	18-34	2	2
	35-44	2	2
	45-54	5	5
	55 or older	5	5
Race/Ethnicity	White, not Hispanic	14	14
	Other	0	0
Recruit 14 per session to seat 6-8