Generic Clearance Request

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 2127-0682)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: ONLINE FOCUS GROUPS TO TEST CREATIVE CONCEPTS TO REDUCE MARIJUANA IMPAIRED DRIVING

PURPOSE:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was established by the Highway Safety Act of 1970 (23 U.S.C. 401) 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 proposes to conduct information collection to assess public attitudes, understandings and perceptions about advertising ideas designed to discourage driving after consuming marijuana/cannabis products.

Marijuana usage is on the rise as more U.S. states continue to legalize the drug for medicinal and/or recreational purposes, while penalties for possession are declining. The 2019 NIDA Cannabis (Marijuana) Research Report revealed that there are 22 million Americans who use marijuana.¹ Additionally, studies performed in several states (including Colorado and Washington) show marijuana-related fatalities have increased significantly.²

In 2019, it was reported that nearly 15 million people drove a vehicle while under the influence of marijuana, according to a study performed by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, and those who drive while impaired by marijuana are twice as likely to be in a car crash. The challenge is many of these drivers actually feel marijuana improves their driving ability. Another challenge in addressing the dangers of driving while impaired by marijuana is that most Americans (70%) believe they are not likely to be caught by law enforcement while driving under the influence.³

Studies show that young males are more likely to engage in risky driving behaviors, such as driving while under the influence of alcohol and speeding according to IIHS.⁴ The study performed by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety further corroborates this statement by stating, “Millennials (nearly 14%) are most likely to report driving within one hour after using marijuana in the past 30 days, followed by Generation Z (10%)” and “men (8%) are more likely than women (5%) to report driving shortly after using marijuana in the past 30 days.”³

NHTSA is seeking approval for an information collection effort to evaluate potential advertisement concepts designed to educate those males ages 18- to 34-years-old about the consequences of driving after using marijuana/cannabis products. Knowledge gained from this research will improve the Agency’s ability to deliver effective communications to influence people to not to drive after they have consumed marijuana/cannabis products by highlighting the active enforcement of DUI laws in communities nationwide.

Online focus groups will play an important role in gathering this information because they allow for a more in-depth understanding of people’s attitudes, understandings and motivations than other kinds of studies. If such information is not collected, it will be more difficult and less cost-effective for NHTSA to develop and distribute potentially life-saving messages to its target audience.

One of the biggest advantages of using an online format is the ability to draw upon a wider geographic range rather than being limited to a specific geographic region. This will allow NHTSA to include participants from multiple states.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Online focus group respondents will align with the primary demographic target for the creative campaign and will include U.S. males 18- to 34-years-old who drive regularly, and either have used marijuana or cannabis products (e.g., smoking, vaping, edibles or transdermals such as oils or creams) in the past 30 days for English language groups or personally know someone who has used marijuana in the past 30 days for Spanish language groups. Given the difficulty of recruiting foreign-born, native Spanish-speaking participants, the criteria for the Spanish-language groups is relaxed from “having used marijuana or cannabis products in the past 30 days” to “personally knowing someone who has used marijuana or cannabis products in the past 30 days.” In addition, participants will be screened to ensure a good mix of key demographic criteria (census region, suburban/urban area, race/ethnicity and employment status) as well as specific socioeconomic factors (household income and education). Based on NHTSA communications experience, rural audiences have different points of view on all traffic safety issues than the general population and different messaging needs. We only have the resources to create a national campaign for the general population at this time so we are excluding rural participants from this study.

The proposed design includes 12 online focus groups (eight in English and four in Spanish) among participants from across the United States. The Spanish online focus groups will have additional screening criteria to recruit participants who are foreign-born, speak Spanish in their homes and consume Spanish-language media. Focus groups will be completed over a one-week period. Past experience has shown it is necessary to over-recruit to achieve the desired number of completes. Our plan is to recruit 12 participants per group with the intention of six participants (i.e., a total of 72 participants for this study) joining to complete the 75-minute online focus group.

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: Susan McMeen

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

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [X] Yes [ ] No
   
   

The third-party vendor collects information from the research participants in order to provide them with the incentive. No PII is reported to NHTSA. In the event there is difficulty meeting the desired number of completes, the third-party vendor will often recruit from other sources (purchasing lists, referrals, etc.). In which case, they will collect the participant’s contact information only to send them their incentive. PII is stored in accordance with DOT’s procedures.

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

Each respondent will be provided with $75 following their participation in an online focus group session. It is standard practice to provide a basic incentive in order to avoid bias of receiving responses only from individuals generally predisposed to be helpful. The use of stipends is an industry standard and it will help ensure efficient recruitment of respondents as well as timely arrival and participation in the groups. Pre-screened and invited respondents who log in to the online platform on time, but are released prior to the group will also be awarded their stipends (also in keeping with marketing research industry standards).

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Pre-Screen Completes (Individuals/Households) (Initial outreach from facility to their proprietary database of respondents who have opted in to participate in research to find respondents who meet screening requirements and are interested and available to participate in the research —estimated 12.8% incidence*)	1,125	3.5 minutes	65.6 hours
Validation Screener (Individuals/Households) (Follow-up among those who qualify and fit quota targets for screening)	144	1.5 minutes	3.6 hours
Seated Respondents (Individuals/Households) (Execution of the groups among those who are interested, qualify and are available the date/time of the groups)	72	75 minutes	90 hours
GRAND TOTAL BURDEN HOURS			159.2 hours

*According to the CDC, 18% of U.S. residents report they have consumed marijuana at least once in 2019.⁵ Based on prior experience, our recruiting partner estimates that 75% of those who have opted in to participate in research and qualify would agree to participate based on the incentive and of those who agree 95% would make themselves available to participate at one of the scheduled sessions. Final incidence (12.8%) is estimated based on marijuana-impaired drivers (18%) multiplied by respondents who agree to participate (75%) multiplied by respondents who can plan to be available to participate in a scheduled session (95%).

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the federal government is $166,570.86.

If you are conducting a focus group or 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.

NHTSA plans to work with existing contractor, Stratacomm, who will hire professional recruiters and online focus group platforms (third-party vendors) to recruit individuals that meet the criteria for each audience. The recruiters maintain databases of potential participants that will serve as the sample frames for this research. Convenience samples of research participants from the recruiter databases will be screened and recruited to reflect the target audience.

Recruitment will include an initial pre-screening email outreach to find potential participants. After being pre-screened online, the recruiter will follow up with a call to complete screener and schedule the participant. Additionally, the recruiter will email an invitation and reminder to individual qualified participants, followed by additional instructions to access the online focus group. Recruitment will be monitored to ensure screening requirements are met and that respondents include a mixture of demographics, such as region, race/ethnicity, employment, income and education.

Administration of the Instrument

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

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[X] Telephone (pre-screening)

[ ] In-person (validation screening at facility & participant discussion)

[ ] 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.

1 NIDA. 2021, August 3. References. Retrieved from

https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/references on 2022, February 3

2 Americanbar.org. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.americanbar.org/groups/criminal_justice/publications/criminal-justice-magazine/2020/spring/the-legalization-marijuana-and-its-impact-traffic-safety-and-impaired-driving/

3Gross, Andrew (2019, June 19). Americans don't think they’ll get arrested for driving high. newsroom.aaa.com. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://newsroom.aaa.com/2019/06/americans-dont-think-theyll-get-arrested-for-driving-high/

4 Fatality facts 2019: Males and females. IIHS. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/males-and-females

5 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, June 8). Data and statistics. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/data-statistics.htm

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