Feb 6 -- The Census Bureau invites comments by April 7, 2023 regarding the proposed new Military Panel.
Early research and development work has demonstrated the value of a high-quality panel to improve representativeness and significantly reduce burden on respondents in the interest of collecting high-frequency data. The Military Panel is a national survey panel by the U.S. Census Bureau (Census) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Data collected from service members and their spouses on a variety of topics through the Panel will be used to improve military life and policies affecting active-service members and their families. The panel will consist of active-duty service members and spouses of active-duty service members that have agreed to be contacted and invited to participate. The goal for the overall panel project is to recruit at least 2,000 panel members (1,000 service members and 1,000 spouses), with data collection taking place once every two months, through fiscal year 2025.
A sample of 2,000 active-duty military members (1,000) and active duty military spouses (1,000) will be recruited from a frame provided by the Department of Defense. Potential panelists will be mailed invitations and asked to participate in an online or inbound telephone screener. If the respondent qualifies, they will be invited to join the panel by completing the baseline questionnaire in the same mode (online or inbound telephone). Households who do not respond to the mailed invitation will be in sample for telephone nonresponse follow up. In these cases, an interviewer would administer the screener and the baseline questionnaire. Once they join the panel, panelists will be eligible for online topical surveys every other month for up to 3 years.
The Census Bureau will conduct this information collection online using Qualtrics as the data collection platform. Qualtrics currently is used at the Census Bureau for research and development surveys and provides the necessary agility to deploy the Household Pulse Survey quickly and securely. It operates in the Gov Cloud, which is FedRAMP authorized at the moderate level, and has an Authority to Operate from the Census Bureau to collect personally identifiable and Title-protected data.
Responses will be collected using Qualtrics and panelists will be able to respond online. Panel recruitment will consist of mail, SMS and email contacts.
Draft data collection instrument and technical documentation requested from Census by AEAStat.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-02475
