08-555. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Proposed Project:

Title: Building Strong Families (BSF) Demonstration and Evaluation—Impact Study Second Follow-up

OMB No.: New Collection.

Description: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is proposing a data collection activity as part of the Building Strong Families (BSF) Demonstration and Evaluation. The proposed collection will consist of two elements: (1) A telephone survey to be administered to both partners in couples enrolled in the BSF research sample about 36 months after enrollment, and (2) observational assessments of BSF families and their children.

These data collections are part of the BSF evaluation, which is an important opportunity to learn if well-designed interventions can help low-income couples develop the knowledge and relationship skills that research has shown are associated with healthy marriages. BSF programs provide instruction and support to improve marriage and relationship skills and enhance couples' understanding of marriage. In addition, BSF programs provide links to a variety of other services that could help couples sustain a healthy relationship (e.g., employment assistance). The BSF evaluation uses an experimental design that randomly assigns couples who volunteer to participate in BSF programs to a program or to a control group.

The 36-month data collection effort draws heavily from the 15-month survey conducted in BSF sites. Materials for the 15-month data collection effort were previously submitted to OMB and were approved under OMB Control No. 0970-0304.

Respondents: The respondents for the telephone questionnaire will be all couples in the BSF evaluation. The respondents for the observational assessments will be a sub-sample of children of the couples.

Annual Burden Estimates

Instrument	Annual number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Average burden hours per response	Estimated annual burden hours
36-month telephone survey (female partner)	2,099	1	.9166666 (55 minutes)	1,924
36-month telephone survey (male partner)	1,978	1	.8333333 (50 minutes)	1,648
Child/family observations	1,125	1	.6666666 (40 minutes)	750

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 4,322

Additional Information: Copies of the proposed collection may be obtained by writing to the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Administration, Office of Information Services, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW., Washington, DC 20447, Attn: ACF Reports Clearance Officer. All requests should be identified by the title of the information collection. E-mail address: [e-mail].

OMB Comment: OMB is required to made a decision concerning the collection of information between 30 and 60 days after publication of this document in the Federal Register. Therefore, a comment is best assured of having its full effect if OMB receives it within 30 days of publication. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent directly to the following: Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project, FAX: [phone], Attn: Desk Officer for ACF.

Dated: February 1, 2008.

Brendan Kelly,

Reports Clearance Officer.