OMB Memo

2030 Decennial Uses of Administrative Data

Submitted Under Generic Clearance for Questionnaire Pretesting Research

Request: The Census Bureau’s Center for Behavioral Science Methods (CBSM) plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for Questionnaire Pretesting Research (OMB #0607-0725). We plan to conduct 10 in-person focus groups and 20 qualitative interviews to assess public attitudes and opinions related to the proposed uses of administrative data for the 2030 Census. Results from this study will be used to develop a questionnaire for a national survey data collection for quantitative data to further inform stakeholder decisions about uses of administrative data, potential public response to those uses, and messaging and communication strategies about proposed changes to decennial operations.

Purpose: The United States Census Bureau (USCB) used administrative records in the 2020 Census to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of operations and reduce respondent burden. The USCB has continued research into additional uses of administrative records for the 2030 Decennial Census. Early decade proposals for uses of administrative data include the following:

• Reducing invitations to respond for those who have good administrative data

• Using alternative data sources to determine occupancy status

• Using administrative data to correct, revise, or supplement self-response data (e.g., addresses, characteristics, household counts)

• Using administrative data to tailor contact strategies to different groups

This request is to conduct focus groups to gather contextual and qualitative information about public perceptions and opinions around these proposed uses of administrative data for improving the operation of the 2030 Census. To accomplish this, RTI International (RTI) will partner with Research Support Services (RSS) to recruit participants for and conduct 10 in-person focus groups and 20 virtual qualitative interviews. The focus group discussions will be conducted in three locations across the United States: Phoenix (Maricopa County), AZ, Houston (Harrison County), TX, and Chicago (Cook County), IL. The focus groups will be administered in English, using one moderator guide.

After more than 60% of the focus groups are completed, we will conduct preliminary analysis to develop content for the qualitative interviews. Once development is completed, we will submit the interview protocol to OMB for approval. Interview content will include preliminary survey questions for a larger collection that will be pretested in early 2024.

Population of Interest: A convenience sample of adult residents of the United States who reside in the surrounding metropolitan area of Phoenix, Houston and Chicago will be recruited to participate in the focus groups. Specific focus will be placed on the following recruitment criteria: respondents with good administrative records (such as homeowners); respondents with lower quality administrative records (such as renters who moved frequently), respondents more likely to respond to an interviewer, and respondents living in complex households. We will develop an online eligibility survey to include screening questions to gather information from prospective participants to determine their eligibility. For the qualitative interviews, we will us the same recruitment criteria.

Timeline: We intend to conduct these focus groups between November 2023 and February 2024.

Sample: This research will use a convenience, opt-in sample of US adults. We will recruit participants who align with the geographic and demographic targets and the focused eligibility for a given focus group in Phoenix, AZ, Houston, TX, and Chicago, IL. For qualitative interviews, there are no restrictions on participants’ geographic location, given the mode of virtual interviews.

The project seeks to complete 10 in-person focus groups (approximately 90 minutes in duration), in total, with 6-10 participants per group, followed by 20 qualitative interviews (approximately 60 minutes in duration) with another 20 participants.

Focus Group Administration: All 10 focus groups will take place in person, at a meeting facility or local community center that can support focus group discussions. All efforts will be taken to centralize the location to allow for easy access by participants (see Attachment 1: CO13 Moderator Guide - 2030_AdminData for details).

Qualitative Interview Administration: All 20 interviews will take place virtually using Census Bureau’s Microsoft Teams. As mentioned earlier, the interview protocol will be submitted to OMB for approval in a later time.

Screening questionnaire: The screening instrument will take respondents 5 minutes or less to complete (see Attachment 2: CO13 Recruitment Screener). These questions will be used to assign participants to a group and to ascertain eligibility. We will use the same screening questionnaire to recruit participants for the qualitative interviews.

Recruitment: To seek a diverse pool of participants, RTI will recruit participants using several approaches. We will recruit participants from community organizations, Facebook ads and posts, Craigslist ads, flyers and using respondent driven sampling. Recruitment materials can be found in Attachments 3, 4a, 4b, and 5 (CO13 Recruitment Online Ad Templates and Flyer, CO13 FG Recruitment Email Templates, CO13 Interview Recruitment Email Templates, and CO13 Recruitment Talking Points, respectively).

Informed Consent: Participants who participate in the focus groups and the qualitative interviews will provide informed consent and will sign the consent form before the discussion begins. The informed consent form can be found in Attachment 6: CO13 Consent Form.

Incentive: For completion of the focus group discussion, participants will be provided an incentive of $90 cash. For completion of the virtual qualitative interview, participants will be provided an incentive of $40 electronic gift cards.

Length of Screening and Discussion: Participants who respond to recruitment ads will be routed to an online eligibility survey in Qualtrics to determine eligibility and fit with the recruitment profile of groups. We anticipate screening up to 400 people to achieve 100 eligible and available participants for focus groups. Furthermore, we anticipate screening up to 100 people to achieve 20 eligible and available participants for qualitative interviews.

We estimate that the focus group discussion will take no longer than 90 minutes. We expect up to 100 participants to complete the focus group discussion for a total of about 180 hours. Similarly, we expect 20 participants to complete the 60-minute qualitative interviews for a total of 20 hours. The total estimated burden of this research is 195 hours.

Table 1. Total Estimated Burden

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Focus group screening instrument	400	3 minutes	20 hours
Focus group discussion	100	90 minutes	150 hours
Qualitative interview instrument	100	3 minutes	5 hours
Qualitative interview	20	60 minutes	20 hours
Survey respondent totals			195 hours

The following documents are included as attachments:

Attachment 1	CO13 Moderator Guide-2030_AdminData
Attachment 2	CO13 Recruitment Screener
Attachment 3	CO13 Recruitment Online Ad Templates and Flyer
Attachment 4a	CO13 FG Recruitment Email Templates
Attachment 4b	CO13 Interview Recruitment Email Templates
Attachment 5	CO13 Recruitment Talking Points
Attachment 6	CO13 Consent Form
Attachment 7	CO13 Respondent incentive Voucher

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and the design of this research is listed below:

Aleia Clark Fobia

Center for Behavioral Science Methods

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(202) 893-4091

[email protected]

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