SSA_NSCAW Design Option_9-15-20_FINAL

Alternative Supporting Statement for Information Collections Designed for

Research, Public Health Surveillance, and Program Evaluation Purposes

Survey of National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) Adopted Youth, Young Adults, Adults and Adoptive Parents

OMB Information Collection Request

0970 – New Collection

Supporting Statement

Part A

September 2020

Submitted By:

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

4^th Floor, Mary E. Switzer Building

330 C Street, SW

Washington, DC 20201

Project Officers:

Amanda Clincy Coleman, PhD

Molly Jones, MAT, MA

Part A

Executive Summary

• Type of Request: This Information Collection Request is for a new data collection. We are requesting 12 months of approval.

• Description of Request: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks approval for a one-time study to examine familial outcomes 8 or more years after a child’s adoption from the child welfare system. The primary objective of this study design is to understand the extent of post adoption instability events that occur in families who have adopted children who have exited the foster care system. Post adoption instability refers to situations in which children who exit foster care to adoptive homes no longer reside with their adoptive parents and includes formal events, such as a child’s reentry into the foster care system, or informal events, such as a child going to live with a grandparent or running away. A second objective is to understand risk and protective factors associated with post adoption instability. The study will conduct web or telephone surveys with adopted youth, young adults, and adults as well as their adoptive parents who were participants in the first or second cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW I, II; OMB #0970-0202). This study is not intended to be generalized to a broader population of youth and young adults and adults. We do not intend for this information to be used as the principal basis for public policy decisions.

A1. Necessity for Collection

An estimated 5% to 20% of children and youth who leave foster care for adoption may experience instability¹ (White et al., 2018). For this study, “post adoption instability” is defined as a situation where a child or youth who has exited foster care through an adoption no longer resides with the adoptive parent. Based on current available evidence, it is difficult to determine a more exact estimate of post adoption instability. Most empirical studies of post adoption instability have relatively small sample sizes and are cross-sectional; this limits the precision of estimates drawn from these studies. Those studies that do follow children’s post-permanency outcomes over time include relatively short follow-up periods, even though instability may occur many years after adoption relationships are finalized (Rolock & White, 2016). Further, prior studies that rely exclusively on administrative data to track instability over time focus on rates of foster care reentry (or more formal instability events that are likely known to the child welfare system). These studies do not capture informal instability events such as homelessness, running away, being kicked out of a home, or temporarily living with relatives or other friends. Consequently, the extent of both formal and informal post adoption instability among children who have exited foster care to adoption remains uncertain. This proposed study will provide additional insight into post adoption instability, especially the rates of and factors associated with instability, which is critical to allow ACF and its federal, state, and local partners lead efforts to promote permanency outcomes for children who exit foster care to adoption.

No legal or administrative requirements necessitate the collection. ACF is undertaking the collection at the discretion of the agency.

A2. Purpose

Purpose and Use

The purpose of the data collection is to understand the extent to which families who have adopted children who have exited the foster care system experience instability. We will examine the extent to which adoption cases experience instability as well as risk and protective factors for several types of formal (i.e., reentry into foster care) and informal (i.e., temporarily living with another relative) instability outcomes. The study will also provide information on the strengths, supports, and resources that promote post-permanency stability.

The information collected will be used to:

• Supplement and expand on existing National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) I and II data to provide a picture of the postadoption experiences of youth and their caregivers

• Determine the extent of both formal and informal instability experienced by the NSCAW sample of adoption cases using a sizable sample which does not currently exist in the child welfare field

• Substantially build upon existing research by examining associations between instability, particularly informal instability, and the child and family level characteristics identified by experts, stakeholders, and in the conceptual framework guiding this project (Attachment A)

• Inform ACFs learning agenda and possible future research activities and technical assistance around promoting permanency for children after adoption

The information collected is meant to build the body of knowledge about the rates of and factors associated with instability as well as the strengths, supports, and resources that promote post-permanency stability. It is not intended to be used as the principal basis for public policy decisions.

Research Questions or Tests

This design option will address 8 research questions (RQs):

• RQ 1. To what extent have adopted NSCAW participants experienced post adoption formal and informal instability?

• RQ 2. What are the risk and protective factors for post adoption instability at the individual child, parent, and family levels?

• RQ 3. How are youth/young adult and parent self-reported motivations to sustain the adoption relationship associated with post adoption instability outcomes?

• RQ 4. How are young adult and parent self-reported expectations or perceptions of their adoption relationship associated with both formal (e.g., foster care reentry) and informal (e.g., periods of homelessness, runaway events) post adoption instability?

• RQ 5. How is the association between child/caregiver/family characteristics and instability outcomes moderated by youth/young adult and parent self-reported expectations and perceptions of their adoption relationship as well as motivations to sustain the adoption relationship?

• RQ 6. What is the quality of current parent-child relationships among children who exited foster care to permanency through adoption?

• RQ 7. What support services such as peer support groups, individual or family counseling, or academic tutoring are accessible, for each instability event, to youth/young adults and adoptive parents experiencing (or at risk of experiencing) post adoption instability?

• RQ 8. What are the facilitators and barriers to accessing support services for adoptive families?

Study Design

This study will conduct web or telephone surveys with 588 adopted youth, young adults, and adults (15-37 years of age) and 554 adoptive parents who were participants in one of the NSCAW I or II longitudinal study cohorts and meet sampling eligibility requirements (see SSB, B2, Sampling). NSCAW I and II were longitudinal surveys of children and families who were investigated by child protective services. The surveys for this study will be conducted 8 or more years after the child’s adoption. Surveys will assess the occurrence of both formal and informal instability events in adoption cases along with perceptions of adoptive relationships. This information will be used to augment existing secondary data available within the NSCAW I and II datasets to answer the proposed RQs. This is a one-time data collection effort, and data collection will occur over a 12-month period. More detail on study design, sampling, and data collection procedures are found in Supporting Statement B.

Instrument(s)	Respondent, Content, Purpose of Collection	Mode and Duration
Survey of NSCAW Adopted Youth, Young Adults, Adults (Instrument 1)	Respondents: Youth, young adults, and adults (15-37 years of age) who were participants in one of the NSCAW I or II longitudinal study cohorts and adopted during the study period. Content: Demographics; adoption history; post adoption instability experiences; post adoption services and support; family relationships; adoption motivations/experience; perceptions of childhood family cohesion/functioning; health and mental health status; support. Purpose: To observe any post adoption instability events from youth/young adult experience and related risk and protective factors	Mode: Web or phone (youth between the ages of 15 and 17 will only be provided a phone option) Duration: 30 minutes
Survey of NSCAW Adoptive Parents (Instrument 2)	Respondents: Adoptive parents who were participants in one of the NSCAW I or II longitudinal study cohorts Content: Demographics; adoption history; post adoption instability experiences; post adoption services and support; family relationships; adoption motivation/experience; perceptions of family cohesion/functioning during childhood; child mental health status and parenting stress/burden Purpose: To observe any post adoption instability events of the adopted youth/young adult from the parents’ experience and related risk and protective factors	Mode: Web or phone Duration: 30 minutes

One limitation of this study is reliance on late adolescents’, young adults’, or adults’ memories of adoption experiences from childhood. These memories may be biased with the passage of time. The degree of this bias is likely influenced by the amount of time that has passed since the child’s adoption as well as the amount of time passed since the child first met his or her adoptive parent or legal guardian. There are several ways that the study team has considered and plans to address this limitation. First, we consulted with experts about this limitation. These experts suggested memories of painful instability events may be more accurate when reported retrospectively than during childhood when children and youth may fear negative repercussions for reporting negative family events. Second, we decided to create items that “prime” respondents to remember specific salient life events (e.g., high school graduation) that occurred at similar points in time to key study outcomes, such as post adoption instability. This survey methods “best practice” is very similar to using an Event History Calendar (e.g., Glasner, Van der Vaart, & Dijkstra, 2015) without introducing additional respondent burden of asking web respondent to complete a full historical event calendar. These items are designed to increase the accuracy of respondent reports. Third, to account statistically for a potential time recall bias, all analyses will consider time passage since adoption as a covariate. In presenting findings, study results will be clear that information on instability events or perceptions of family relationships will be based on late adolescents’ and adults’ memories of their childhood/adolescence.

A second limitation of this study is the potential accuracy of the contact information available for NSCAW I cases (last contacted in 2007) and NSCAW II cases (last contacted in 2012). Given the length of time that has passed since last contact with these respondents, we anticipate that locating respondents will be challenging. In addition to providing contact information, all NSCAW I and II respondents were asked to provide the names and contact information for 2-3 secondary contacts who might know the respondent’s whereabouts if existing study information was inaccurate. The current research team will use both the respondent information and secondary contacts to update locating information. To improve the contact information available, we will also conduct new batch tracing using data from the last point of contact with the respondent (e.g., last known address, last 4 digits of social security number, driver’s license number; see SSB, Section B5, Response Rates and Potential Nonresponse Bias). After batch tracing, we will also conduct in-person locating efforts. Finally, to help us understand any non response biases in our final sample, we will use the secondary data from NSCAW I and II about child, caregiver, and family characteristics (e.g., socio demographics, maltreatment histories) to determine whether there are differences between follow-up survey responders and nonresponders (see SSB, Section B5, Response Rates and Potential Nonresponse Bias).

This study is intended to present an internally valid description of the extent of instability experienced by adopted NSCAW participants, and risk factors for instability, among children adopted after living in foster care. It is not intended to promote statistical generalization to other populations of children, youth, and adults.

Other Data Sources and Uses of Information

The new survey data collected for this study will be analyzed along with secondary data available within the existing NSCAW I and NSCAW II datasets. The NSCAW I cohort included 6,228 children, ages birth to 14 (at the time of sampling), who had contact with the child welfare system within a 15-month period that began in October 1999. In addition to the baseline interview, respondents were followed up over 4 waves of data collection with an overall weighted response rate of 77.6% at Wave 5. Data collection waves were spaced approximately 12–18 months apart; Wave 5 interviews occurred between 2005 and 2007.

The NSCAW II cohort included 5,800 children, ages birth to 17.5 years (at the time of sampling), who had contact with the child welfare system beginning in 2007. In addition to the baseline interview, respondents were followed up over 2 waves of data collection (18 months and 3 years after baseline). Key characteristics of NSCAW I and II relevant to the current study are described in Table 1.

Table 1. NSCAW I and II Study Characteristics

Characteristics	NSCAW I	NSCAW II
Dates of last NSCAW interview	Aug 2005–Dec 2007		June 2011–Dec 2012
Anticipated current age of children	18–37 years		15–29 years
Number of waves of original data collection	5		3
Timing of last data collection wave	5–7 years after the maltreatment investigation		3 years after the maltreatment investigation

NSCAW I and NSCAW II provide rich information on child, caregiver, and family characteristics both before and after adoption, as well as information on post adoption instability events. To reduce burden and increase efficiency, the project team will use existing NSCAW I and II variables as much as possible to describe the pre-permanency characteristics of cases selected for participation in the follow-up data collection effort. The project team will use this data in predictive models to explore risk/protective factors for instability, and to examine differences in new follow-up survey responders and nonresponders to understand potential biases in the representativeness of our new data collection sample. Secondary data from NSCAW I and II will describe the post-permanency characteristics of cases after adoption. Using this existing secondary data will allow us to shorten the new survey instruments to collect only essential elements not included in the NSCAW I and II datasets or do not need to be verified to account for the passage of time. Since certain post permanency characteristics may have changed since the last NSCAW data collection period (e.g., foster care placement history, adoption finalization date), the new surveys do gather some information also included in the original NSCAW surveys.

Available child, parent, and family characteristics available in NSCAW I and II include:

• Child date of birth*

• Child age at adoption finalization*

• Child race/ethnicity*

• Child maltreatment history prior to foster care placement

• Child foster care placement history*

• Child relationship to the adoptive caregiver (kinship)*

• Child gender*

• Child history of health and behavioral health problems

• Adoptive parent age at the time of adoption

• Adoptive parent race/ethnicity

• Adoptive parent marital status at the time of adoption

• Adoptive family household size and composition at the time of adoption

*Characteristics also collected in current study design instruments. Child date of birth is asked in the new surveys to help with respondent verification. Gender questions are repeated since NSCAW I and II did not differentiate sex assigned at birth versus gender identify. Race/ethnicity questions are repeated since youth, young adults and adults may now have a more well-formed sense of ethnicity than during their childhood (when the NSCAW surveys were originally conducted). Foster care placement history and age at adoption finalization information is asked in the new survey to update the status of these activities since the last point of NSCAW I/II data collection.

NSCAW I and II also contain existing data on the occurrence of various formal and informal instability events that were observed during the original NSCAW I and II study periods. The project team will combine new survey participant reports of various instability events with those indicated by secondary dataset observations to produce a richer and longer accounting period to establish the occurrence of instability following adoption.

A3. Use of Information Technology to Reduce Burden

Adult survey respondents will be able to choose whether to complete the survey via the web or telephone. The project team selected these methods to allow respondents as much flexibility as possible to decide when and how they want to complete the survey. Youth respondents 15-17 years of age will only be able to complete the survey by phone. Both survey platforms will focus on reducing the administrative burden of the survey experience for respondents. Definitions of core constructs will be embedded within the web survey to help orient respondents to key survey terms. Telephone interviewers can read these definitions to clarify terms that may be confusing to survey respondents. Both the web and telephone survey programs will automatically eliminate routing errors and implement logical range checks to ensure that responses are entered accurately. These checks increase the ease with which respondents move from item to item without having to decide (themselves) which items are most applicable to their individual experiences. Telephone interviewers will key in survey responses in real-time and submit completed surveys electronically immediately after the survey completion, eliminating any role that the respondent must play in survey submission. Respondents who choose to take the web survey may start the web survey, save their work, and complete it at another time.

A4. Use of Existing Data: Efforts to Reduce Duplication, Minimize Burden, and Increase Utility and Government Efficiency

This proposed study capitalizes on the NSCAW I and II cohorts to understand post adoption instability. The NSCAW I and II surveys include rich information about child and family characteristics before and after adoption that will be used in current study analyses. These existing surveys also include some limited information about post adoption instability events. This secondary data will improve the completeness of information associated with this data collection effort. However, most post adoption instability events occur several years after the child’s adoption has been finalized. Preliminary NSCAW I and II analyses indicate that most adopted children did not have their adoption finalized until several years after the baseline data collection. Consequently, existing secondary data is limited by a short period in which to observe post adoption instability events. New survey data will be designed to complement and augment existing NSCAW I and II data to enhance our understanding of adoptive family outcomes 8 or more years after adoption.

A5. Impact on Small Businesses

This data collection does not involve small businesses.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

This is a one-time data collection.

A7. Now Subsumed Under 2(b) Above and 10 (Below)

A8. Consultation

Federal Register Notice and Comments

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR Part 1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995), ACF published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the agency’s intention to request an OMB review of this information collection activity. This notice was published on March 30, 2020, Volume 85, Number 61, page 17582, and provided a 60-day period for public comment.

During the notice and comment period, 1 substantive comment was received, which is attached (Attachment B). In this comment, the Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services expresses concern over the timing of the study due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Deputy Commissioner is concerned that the pandemic will affect the likelihood that individuals will respond to the survey request (and consequently jeopardize data quality). The letter requests that the study team consider delaying data collection until 2021. The study team has considered the impact of COVID-19 on data collection efforts. We believe that a web/telephone survey (as originally planned for this study) will be less impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic than if the data collection was planned to be in-person. No in-person surveys are planned for this study. We have also already planned that approximately half of the data collection period will occur in 2021. Currently, data collection plans are to begin until late Fall of 2020 and will continue through Winter and early Spring of 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. The study team will continue to monitor this situation and consider implications for the data collection effort.

Consultation with Experts Outside of the Study

The project team consulted with several experts external to the project team to inform the study design and data collection instruments. These experts offered advice about the study’s conceptual framework, key variables of interest, study design parameters, and made suggestions about how to address the study design limitations. Experts, affiliations, and consultation domains are outlined in Table 2.

Table 2. Expert Consultants

Expert Consultant	Affiliation	Consultation Domain
Alfred Pérez	California State University, Stanislaus	Post adoption and guardianship instability, interviewing youth and young adults with foster care histories
Julie Selwyn	University of Bristol	Surveys and interviews with adoptive parents and youth, with specific focus on high-risk and high-need children and youth
Ruth McRoy	University of Texas at Austin	Open adoptions, outcomes for birthmothers, adoptive parents and adopted children, transracial adoptions, family preservation, special needs adoptions, post adoption services
Joseph Crumbley	Private consultant	Adoption, foster care, physical and sexual abuse, kinship care, and transracial adoptions
Joseph MaGruder	University of California, Berkeley	Administrative data, child welfare population survey design and methods

A9. Tokens of Appreciation

Study surveys are intended to collect information about respondent instability experiences after adoption. Because the proposed surveys focus on instability events for youth and young adults who were involved with the child welfare system, it deals with several private and sensitive topics, such as homelessness and runaway attempts. The study will survey only adopted adults and adoptive parents who participated in the NSCAW I and II studies. Minimizing non-response is critically important for both youth/young adult/adult and parent survey respondents as the starting number of candidate adoption cases is fixed.  Study respondents from both NSCAW I and NSCAW II received tokens of appreciation at each wave of data collection to lessen the impact of non-response bias.  In NSCAW I, adults (including young adults and adoptive parents) received $25 at baseline (conducted ~1999-2000) and later $50 for participation in follow-up waves of data collection. In NSCAW II, adult respondents received $50 for each wave of data collection. Without the continued use of tokens of appreciation, this current study of former NSCAW I and II respondents may miss cases who participated in prior NSCAW data collection efforts. The NSCAW I and II interviews were 100 minutes and conducted in-person, longer than the 30-minute web/telephone survey included in this study. For that reason, the project team proposes a $30 token of appreciation for participating youth/young adults/adults and adoptive parents in this Survey of NSCAW Adopted Youth, Young Adults, and Adoptive Parents. Tokens of appreciation are used to encourage participation and convey appreciation for respondents’ contributions to the research. They can significantly increase participation rates not only for adults, but also youth. The study will also not rely exclusively on tokens of appreciation to minimize non-response. Other data collection and analysis tactics to minimize non-response are described in Supporting Statement B.

A10. Privacy: Procedures to Protect Privacy of Information, While Maximizing Data Sharing

Personally Identifiable Information

This current study will collect personally identifiable information (PII) in the form of updated contact information (address, telephone number), email addresses and date of birth (only for youth, young adult and adult survey respondents).

PII will be used from the NSCAW I/II secondary data to locate and recruit sampled youth, young adults, adults, and adoptive parents. This information includes but is not limited to the sample member’s address, email, driver’s license number, last 4 digits of the social security number, telephone number, and the names and contact information of family and friends who knew how to reach the sample member. This data is available within the NSCAW I/II datasets if the NSCAW I/II respondents provided it. All NSCAW I and II respondents were told that this information would be used to contact them in the future about new study participation opportunities. The NSCAW I/II data also includes the respondent’s date of birth.

All data collection processes will be electronic; no paper-based recording will be used. PII is not accessible by or provided to anyone but authorized project personnel. Access to PII is granted only on a need‐to‐know basis. The project will have strong protections embedded in any data release processes.

Information will not be maintained in a paper or electronic system from which data are actually or directly retrieved by an individuals’ personal identifier.

Assurances of Privacy

Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Respondents will be informed of all planned uses of data, that their participation is voluntary, and that their information will be kept private to the extent permitted by law (Attachment G). As specified in the contract, RTI will comply with all federal and departmental regulations for private information.

RTI has obtained a federal Certificate of Confidentiality for this study to protect the identity of the respondents. This certificate prevents us from releasing any information that would identify the respondent, even from a court order.

NSCAW I and II participants were asked their permission to be contacted in the future about new research opportunities. The RTI team will attempt to locate and seek consent from NSCAW I/II participants to participate in this related data collection effort. The consent statement provided to all participants includes assurances that the research team will protect the privacy of respondents to the fullest extent possible under the law, that respondents’ participation is voluntary, and that they may withdraw their consent at any time without any negative consequences (Attachment G).

In addition to project-specific training about study procedures, members of the data collection team (particularly telephone interviewers) will receive training that includes general security and privacy procedures. All members of the data collection team will be knowledgeable about privacy procedures and will be prepared to describe them in detail or answer any related questions raised by respondents. As part of training, the study team will emphasize the need to avoid disclosing adoption status. Some adoptees’ parents may never have disclosed adoption to their children. Interview questions and study introductory materials will not reference adoption unless adoption status is known to the respondent. Our survey instruments include items to assess knowledge of adoption status. Across the training, telephone interviewers will be reminded (overall study description, consent and assent process, youth instrument) that if the youth, young adult or adult respondent (former NSCAW child respondent) states that they are not adopted, then the interviewer will not reveal to them that they are adopted.

This study received a full committee review with RTI’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) and was approved on April 20, 2020.

Data Security and Monitoring

The project team will use its extensive corporate administrative and security systems to prevent the unauthorized release of information, including state-of-the-art hardware and software for encryption that meet federal standards and physical security that includes a keyless card-controlled access system on all buildings and local desktop security and account lockout via Microsoft Windows.

RTI has established data security plans for handling data during data collection, as follows:

• All data collection devices are encrypted with Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 compliant software and stored in restricted share drives that are available only to authorized project team members through role-based security in the form of Windows security groups. An individual’s security group membership is determined based on the minimum necessary access needed to perform their job function on the project. For example, on this project, only staff directly associated with data collection (i.e., field interviewers responsible for tracing and locating efforts, telephone interviewers) will need to have access to respondent personally identifiable information.

• Data will be transmitted and stored so that only authorized members of the project team who need it will have access to any identifying information. Overall, all the methods RTI uses for data transmission require several levels of password‐protected access. Any PII that is used is limited to only the PII necessary to accomplish the project goal; for example, contact information is limited to that required to reach the respondent. All exchanges of data, including PII, are encrypted by RTI, and all staff, including field staff, tracking staff, and data processing personnel on the project receive training on how to transmit and use PII safely.

• All personnel working on the survey must sign affidavits pledging that the data they will collect or work with will not be disclosed. Penalties for disclosure include termination of employment and substantial financial fines.

• Access to project file shares, systems, and data is strictly controlled by role-based security in the form of Windows security groups. Individuals’ security group membership is determined based on the minimum necessary access to perform their job function on the project. Staff are only added to security groups after completing the Project Confidentiality Pledge and any required trainings on data security. Project leaders audit security group membership quarterly to ensure that only those who still need specified access continue group membership.

Additionally, the study’s contractor protects PII data collected by implementing National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-53 security controls at the Federal Information Processing Standard 199 (FIPS 199) Moderate Impact level in our Moderate Network, including requiring two-factor authentication and role-based access. Data is also secured with FIPS 140‐2 compliant encryption at the appropriate levels. Data will also be protected at all application levels through a series of username and password protections.

As necessary, data will be transmitted via secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) in encrypted files and then stored behind an enterprise‐level firewall, RTI’s Moderate Network. The Moderate Network is isolated from the internet and accessed only via two‐factor authentication (PIN plus token). Data files are protected through access restrictions on a need basis and are stored in username and password protected directories.

A11. Sensitive Information ²

Because the proposed surveys focus on instability events for youth and young adults who were/are in the child welfare system, it deals with several private and sensitive topics. This information is necessary to address the study’s core research questions and is not reliably available from other sources. The survey includes potentially sensitive questions about, for example, homelessness and runaway attempts. The contractor’s IRB has reviewed and approved all study materials and procedures.

NSCAW I and NSCAW II respondents were told that they might be contacted for participation in a future study. A consent process will be conducted for adult and adoptive parent respondents (Attachment G). Adoptive parents must also provide consent for the participation of their youth (15-17 years of age; Attachment H). Youth with parent consent, will provide assent before participating in the survey (Attachment H). Respondents are informed in the consent process that survey responses are used to improve government services and programs. Respondents are also informed that their responses are kept private to the extent permitted by the law. We keep survey responses on a secure computer and responses are attached to an ID number rather than the respondents name. Contact information and individual responses are not linked.

Participation in the study is voluntary and respondents have the right to refuse to answer any questions. Additionally, the study will offer several protocols and supports to address respondents who refuse to answer because they are uncomfortable. For example, interviewers will offer to connect them to professional assistance when needed. Support resources, like helplines, will also be offered via the web version as onscreen prompts or included as part of introductory text for sections with sensitive questions. All study participants will receive information included in the web survey to address how to get help and support for emotional or behavioral health issues. This information will list 1-800 helpline resources that we have used in past studies. These helplines are positioned to manage behavioral health crises and direct callers to local service resources. The same information about resources will be provided by telephone interviewers if required (Attachment I).

A12. Burden

Explanation of Burden Estimates

We estimate that up to 1,142 respondents will complete the one-time Survey of NSCAW Adopted Youth, Young Adult, and Adopted Parents—including youth, young adults, adults and adoptive parents. We expect approximately 548 adopted young adults and adults (15-37 years of age), 40 youth (15-17 years of age), and 554 adoptive parents to respond to the surveys. On average, the surveys are estimated to take 30 minutes for either the telephone or web-based survey. Using a standard estimated time for question completion, the project team calculated the burden by averaging the time to complete the minimum and maximum number of survey items a respondent could be asked based on varying skip patterns.

Estimated Annualized Cost to Respondents

To compute the total estimated annual cost, we multiplied the total burden hours by the average hourly wage for each participant, according to first-quarter 2020 data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.³ For adopted adults, the project team used the mean salary for full-time employees over the age of 25 who are high school graduates with no college experience ($19.20 per hour). For adoptive parents, the project team used the meant salary for full-time employees over the age of 25 who had some college or associate degree ($22.00 per hour).

Table 3 provides annual and total burden and costs to respondents.

Table 3. Estimated Annualized Burden and Cost to Respondents

Instrument	Total/Annual Number of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Avg. Burden Hours per Response	Total/Annual Burden (in hours)	Average Hourly Wage Rate	Total/Annual Respondent Cost
Survey of NSCAW Adopted Young Adults, Adults (Instrument 1)	548	1	.5	274	$19.20	$5,260.80
Survey of NSCAW Adopted Youth (Instrument 1)	40	1	.5	20	n/a	n/a
Survey of NSCAW Adoptive Parents (Instrument 2)	554	1	.5	277	$22.00	$6,094.00
Total Annual Estimates:				571		$11,354.80

A13. Costs

There are no additional costs to respondents.

A14. Estimated Annualized Costs to the Federal Government

The total and annual cost for the data collection activities under this current request will be $1,214,398.

Cost Category	Estimated Costs
Project management (including data security management and archiving)	$243,200
Instrument cognitive testing	$17,020
Instrument programming and data collection	$766,984
Analysis	$75,000
Publications/Dissemination/Stakeholder engagement	$112,194
Total costs over the request period	$1,214,398

A15. Reasons for Changes in Burden

This is a new information collection request.

A16. Timeline

Table 4 outlines the key time points for the study and for instrument programing, respondent tracing, data collection, analysis and reporting, and data delivery and archiving.

Table 4. NSCAW Study Proposed Data Collection and Analysis Timeline

Activity	Estimated Timing
Instrument cognitive testing and programming	1 month
Collect data	6 months
Clean and analyze data	3 months
Disseminate findings, including reports, practice briefs, slide decks, and manuscript(s)	About 9 months after start of data collection

A17. Exceptions

No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.

Attachments

Instrument 1: Survey of Adopted Youth, Young Adults and Adults (SAY)

Instrument 2: Survey of Adoptive Parents (SAP)

Attachment A: PAGI Project Conceptual Framework

Attachment B: Public Comments

Attachment C: NSCAW Sampling Data Elements

Attachment D: List of Sources used for Survey Question Development

Attachment E: Fact Sheets, Lead Letters and Refusal Letters (mail/email) for Youth/Young Adult/Adult and Parent Respondents

Attachment F: Contact Card

Attachment G. Consent Forms for Adult and Adoptive Parent Respondents

Attachment H: Assent Form for Youth and Parent Consent Form for Youth

Attachment I: Resource Guides for Respondents

References

Glasner, T.J., Van der Vaart, W., & Dijkstra, W. (2015). Calendar instruments 22 in retrospective web surveys. Field Methods, 27(3), pp. 265-283.

Rolock, N., & White, K. R. (2016). Post-permanency discontinuity: A longitudinal examination of outcomes for foster youth after adoption or guardianship. Children and Youth Services Review, 70, 419-427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.10.025

Singer, E., & Ye, C. (2013). The use and effects of incentives in surveys. The Annals of the American

White, K. R. (2016). Placement discontinuity for older children and adolescents who exit foster care through adoption or guardianship: a systematic review. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 33(4), 377-394. http://dx.doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10560-015-0425-1

1 . Instability is defined as including formal events, such as a child’s reentry into the foster care system, or informal events, such as a child going to live with a grandparent or running away.

2 Examples of sensitive topics include (but not limited to): social security number; sex behavior and attitudes; illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior; critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close relationships, e.g., family, pupil-teacher, employee-supervisor; mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to respondents; religion and indicators of religion; community activities that indicate political affiliation and attitudes; legally recognized privileged and analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers; records describing how an individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment; receipt of economic assistance from the government (e.g., unemployment, WIC, or SNAP); immigration/citizenship status.

3 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t05.htm

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