0990-Parent communication-FocusGroupwadolescent_10 1 10 revised Part B

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

Because this data collection uses qualitative methods, no statistical methods are used.

B.1 Respondent Universe and Sampling Methods

Adolescent participants in the focus groups will be recruited through their parents. Study panels maintained by Itracks and other vendors will be used to identify parents of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 15. Use of these panels greatly enhances the efficiency of recruitment, as only those adults with a child in the appropriate age range will be contacted, and also provides access to large and very diverse range of respondents. Recruitment will be stratified based on race/ethnicity and educational level to ensure that a range of groups are included. Adults will be contacted via email and asked to respond to a brief screener online to determine if their child is eligible for the study, and if they might be willing to allow their child to participate. If so, they will be emailed an informed consent form providing detailed information about the study, which they will be asked to read. If they agree to allow their child to participate, they will click on a link indicating their consent. Once the parents have agreed, the child will be emailed an informed assent form. If the child also agrees to participate, they will be enrolled in the study and assigned to a focus group.

A total of 160 teens will be enrolled in the study—20 per focus group. There will be eight focus groups. Groups will be stratified by gender, with 4 male groups (for a total of 80 males) and 4 female groups (for a total of 80 females). Because we want a diversity of backgrounds represented in each focus group in order to spur discussion, recruitment will also be stratified by race/ethnicity and parent’s level of education. Our goal is to have at least 25% of participants from each of the following racial/ethnic categories in each focus group: Non-Hispanic whites, Non-Hispanic blacks, and Hispanics. We will also ensure that at least 25% parents have less than a college education.

Recruitment will begin approximately 1 month before each focus group is scheduled to be held. All participants will receive a reminder call one to two days before the focus group is to take place.

B.2 Procedures for the Collection of Information

Focus groups will be held on an online bulletin board. While the study will be approved for an 18 month period, it is anticipated that the actual focus group discussions will take approximately two hours of the participants’ time over the course of 3 days, on average.

Participants will be assigned a password that they will use to enter the bulletin board they are assigned to. On the first day, participants will fill out a brief online questionnaire. Responses to the questionnaire will be private and cannot be viewed by any other study participants. On each of the three days, the RTI focus group moderator will post 2 to 3 open-ended questions that participants will be asked to respond to. Once they have responded to the questions (or indicated that they do not want to respond to the questions), they will be able to view the responses of other participants. Participants will be able to comment on the responses of other participants, or add to their own response. The moderator will also post probes at various points in the day, asking participants to elaborate on their responses, or asking them to react to particular ideas that have come up. Participants may add to their responses to any question or comment on other responses for as long as the bulletin board is open. We will close the bulletin board after 4 days.

B.3 Methods to Maximize Response Rates and Deal with Nonresponse

Itracks will call all recruited participants the day before the bulletin board opens to remind them of the study and encourage them to log on the next day. Itracks will contact any participants who do not log on the first day to determine if they had any difficulties and encourage them to participate. Itracks has technical support staff available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist any participants who may have questions or difficulties using the technology. Participants who participate in the focus groups will receive an incentive of $4025. During the test of procedures (see Section B.4), these measures were found to be adequate to ensure high rates of participation.

B.4 Tests of Procedures or Methods to be Undertaken

RTI and Itracks conducted a test of procedures prior to implementing the focus groups. Using the same methodologies envisioned for the focus groups (as previously described), Itracks recruited eight adolescents to participate in a trial focus group. After completing the questionnaire and the discussion, participants were asked about any difficulties they had with the study (questions that lacked clarity, were too sensitive, or too difficult to answer; the overall length; problems accessing the Web site; etc.). Participants did not encounter any significant difficulties with discussion guide questions and did not indicate any concerns about sensitivity of questions, difficulty of the questions, study length, or access to the Web site. The primary recommendation participants made for improving the study was to conduct it over a weekend rather than through the week as this will give them more time to provide richer discussion.

B.5 Individuals Consulted on Statistical Aspects and Individuals Collecting and/or Analyzing Data

The agency official responsible for receiving and approving contract deliverables is:

Allison Roper
240-453-2806
Allison.Roper@hhs.gov
Office of Adolescent Health/DHHS
1101 Wotton Parkway, Suite 700
Rockville, Maryland 20852

The person who designed the data collection is:

Ellen K. Wilson, Ph.D.
919-316-3337
ewilson@rti.org
RTI International
3040 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

The person who will collect the data is:

Ellen K. Wilson, Ph.D.
919-316-3337
ewilson@rti.org
RTI International
3040 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

The person who will analyze the data is:

Ellen K. Wilson, Ph.D.
919-316-3337
ewilson@rti.org
RTI International
3040 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

References

Abreu, D. A., & Winters, F. (1999). Using monetary incentives to reduce attrition in the survey of income and program participation. Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association.

Shettle, C., & Mooney, G. (1999). Monetary incentives in U.S. government surveys. Journal of Official Statistics, 15, 231–250.