SSB - Formative Prog Supp GenIC - Youth Survey of Relationships, Education, and Behavior

Alternative Supporting Statement for Information Collections Designed for

Research, Public Health Surveillance, and Program Evaluation Purposes

Youth Survey of Relationships, Education, and Behavior

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970–0531

Supporting Statement

Part B

May 2021

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 Officer:

Caryn Blitz

Part B

B1. Objectives

Study Objectives

The objective of the Youth Survey of Relationships, Education, and Behavior is to collect data from high school–age youth about changes in parental relationships, sex education, and sexual behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The data collected from the surveys will:

• Provide the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) with current information from youth on the relationship between high school–age youth and their parents, the ways in which sex education was delivered to teens, how much was learned, and how engaged they were with the sex education they received, and the types of sexual risk behaviors youth have engaged in during the pandemic.

• Help to identify particular areas of need related to adolescent pregnancy prevention and optimal health development to inform future ACF programming and research. ACF can use the data to provide evidence-informed technical assistance to PREP and SRAE grantees operating programs in the next year, something over three-quarters have requested from ACF (based on feedback received through the Grantee COVID Survey, Fall 2020¹).

Generalizability of Results

Because this is a non-probability sample, the survey data will not be used to generate generalizable statistics for high school–age youth.

Appropriateness of Study Design and Methods for Planned Uses

The data collected with the survey will be used to help identify changes in parent-child relationships, youth sexual behaviors, and the receipt of sex education programming to inform future ACF programming and research. As the data collected will be analyzed in the aggregate, Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel® (see Study Design section of A.2) is a convenient way to collect descriptive data from youth across the country. Key limitations, described in A2, will be included in written products associated with the study.

As noted in Supporting Statement A, this information is not intended to be used as the principal basis for public policy decisions and is not expected to meet the threshold of influential or highly influential scientific information.  

B2. Methods and Design

Target Population

The survey will be administered via the internet to a non-probability sample of English and Spanish speaking high school–age students in the United States who are 14-19 years old and have parental consent, if under 18, to participate. Youth participants will be recruited through their parents, who are participants of the KnowledgePanel®. All eligible youth will be recruited to participate in the study. The online panel is maintained by Ipsos. Because this is a non-probability sample, the survey data will not be used to generate generalizable statistics for high school–age youth.

Sampling (Respondent Recruitment)

Ipsos uses an Address-Based Sampling (ABS) methodology to recruit new members into the KnowledgePanel®. For this study, we will be drawing on members of the panel who have high school–age children for respondent recruitment. A geographically diverse sample of parents of 14-19 year old high-school students will be sent consent forms (Appendix A: Parent Consent Form) for their child to participate in the survey. While panel members are recruited through ABS methodology, youth participants for this study will be recruited through a convenience sample of panel members who provide consent for their child to participate. Since several items were new or adapted for this study, we pilot tested the full instrument with nine youth to gain a clear understanding of participants’ comprehension, recall, judgment, and response strategies for items and confirm the time needed for youth to complete the survey.

B4. Collection of Data and Quality Control

ACF is contracting with Mathematica for this data collection. The researchers at Mathematica have extensive experience conducting survey data collections for prior studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies. Data will be collected using one survey instrument, the Youth Survey of Relationships, Education, and Behavior (Instrument 1), a 25-minute web-based survey of youth ages 14-19 and currently in high school. As discussed in SSA and section B2, Mathematica will use the Ipsos KnowledgePanel® for data collection. Ipsos will begin by obtaining parental consent, by sending an online consent form (Appendix A: Parent Consent Form) to parents with youth meeting the target population. Once consent is obtained, Ipsos will send a survey invitation email containing a link to the web-based survey (Instrument 1: Youth Survey of Relationships, Education, and Behavior) to youth whose parent or guardian has provided consent. Youth will provide their assent to participate in the survey (Appendix B: Youth Assent) by responding to a survey question. The remaining survey questions will only be shown to those providing assent. Ipsos will send follow-up reminder emails to the youth during the three-week data collection period.

To program the survey, Ipsos uses Qualtrics, a state-of-the-art survey software platform that the vendor uses to build and launch multimode surveys. Qualtrics offers several advantages for respondents, including enabling web respondents to participate on their own time and using their preferred electronic device (smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computers). The software has built-in mobile formatting to ensure that the display adjusts for device screen size. If needed, respondents can pause and restart the survey, with their responses saved.

Quality control (QC) will be embedded in the design and programming of the survey instrument, and during data collection through study staff ongoing and real-time review of incoming data, as described in section B7.

B5. Response Rates and Potential Nonresponse Bias

Response Rates

The survey is not designed to produce statistically generalizable findings and participation is wholly at the respondent’s discretion.

Response rates will not be calculated or reported.

NonResponse

As participants will not be randomly sampled and findings are not intended to be representative, non-response bias will not be calculated. Respondent demographics will be documented and reported in written materials associated with the data collection. We will work with the panel vendor to obtain a diverse sample of survey participants, demographically and geographically.

B6. Production of Estimates and Projections

The data will not be used to generate population estimates, either for internal use or dissemination.

B7. Data Handling and Analysis

Data Handling

Prior to the start of data collection, the study team will conduct testing of the web survey to ensure the survey functions correctly and that data are stored properly. The web testing occurs in two stages; first the instrument design team thoroughly tests every survey question to confirm that all response options function as expected, item skips are programmed correctly, and that all soft and hard checks are working as specified. Next, the study team conducts a comprehensive testing of every possible path in the survey instrument using randomly generated data. The study team also reviews data storage, to ensure the data are being saved correctly and securely.

During data collection, the web surveys are programmed to include specific and tailored checks on each item, to ensure that responses are within expected and logical ranges, do not contradict prior responses given, and to encourage item response for items respondents do not answer. During data collection, Mathematica will review incoming data at multiple time points, to check that the survey is functioning as expected and to check for issues that might need immediate resolution. The data will be checked within the first two days of the release of the web survey, and then checked two additional times before the end of data collection.

Data Analysis

The survey instrument included in this OMB package will produce quantitative data that will allow for a descriptive analysis of the survey results. The analyses will only be conducted at the aggregate level; there will be no subgroup analyses. The analyses will examine frequencies of responses to the survey questions related to relationships and communication between the youth and their parents during the pandemic; whether youth received sexual education during the pandemic, and if so what topics were covered and what topics would youth like to have covered in the future; and the extent to which responding youth engaged in sexual risk behaviors during the pandemic. The descriptive analyses will serve to inform future ACF programming and areas of potential research. ACF may also use information learned from the descriptive analysis to provide technical assistance to PREP and SRAE grantees.

Data Use

The survey data will be used to help inform ACF youth programming and research agendas both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic to provide targeted training and technical assistance to better serve youth. ACF can use information from this data collection effort to understand if youth received sexual education during the 2020-2021 school year, what they learned and how engaged youth were with the sexual education received. This will allow ACF to tailor training and technical assistance opportunities for SRAE and PREP grantees to better serve youth related to sex education programming. As noted in SSA, ACF will develop a memo that summarizes key themes and lessons. We may also develop a public facing document in order to share findings with grantees and stakeholders, this will include a discussion of the limitations (see A2) and information on how it should be used and interpreted.

B8. Contact Persons

Table B8 lists the federal and contract staff responsible for the study, including each individual’s affiliation and email address.

Table B8. Individuals Responsible for Study

Name	Affiliation	Email address
Caryn Blitz	Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation Administration for Children and Families U.S. Department of Health and Human Services	[email protected]
Kathleen McCoy	VPD Government Solutions Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation Administration for Children and Families U.S. Department of Health and Human Services	[email protected]
Susan Zief	Mathematica	[email protected]
Tiffany Waits	Mathematica	[email protected]
Jennifer Walzer	Mathematica	[email protected]

Attachments

Appendices

Appendix A: Parent Consent Form

Appendix B: Youth Assent

Appendix C. Item by Item Source Crosswalk for Survey

Instrument

Instrument 1: Youth Survey of Relationships, Education, and Behavior

1 Information collection activity approved under OMB #0970-0401.

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