2.3 Data Collection Instruments

Key informant interviews were conducted using discussion topics and probes. Structured questionnaires were not used because of the need to have flexibility in the discussion in order to pursue additional topics that arose. In addition, an Office of Management and Budget (OMB)-approved instrument would not permit modifications and additional questions to be included, as necessary for the intermediate site visits. Appendix A provides the actual items included in the discussion guides that were used for interviewing key informants.

Focus group discussion topics and probes were developed for the youth and parent focus groups. A different format to the questions was used for elementary students (e.g., they were asked less direct questions about drugs). High school students were asked questions about stress but the other youth groups were not. The parent focus group questions followed a line of questioning similar to that for youth but were worded in order to obtain parents' perspectives on the issues facing young people. When discussing sensitive subjects such as drugs, it was necessary to include some "warm up" questions about hobbies and free-time in order to make participants feel comfortable with the moderator and with sharing information in front of one another. For questions that addressed awareness of ads, informants and focus group participants were asked in an open-ended fashion to describe any anti-drug ads they could recall. They were not provided with a list of specific ads and asked to confirm whether they had seen the messages. The questions used in the focus groups and their underlying objectives are included in Appendix A.