Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS–4)

SENTINEL AGENCY RECRUITMENT The sentinel agency sample in the NIS–4 was twice as large as that in the NIS–3.The project team developed the NIS–4 Sample Tracking and Recruitment System (STARS) tomanage and support this large-scale effort. Recruiters used STARS to receive their assignments,maintain and update agency contact information, record all communications and any specialrequirements or arrangements, document progress in finalizing participation agreements, andidentify or sample the individual staff who would serve as sentinels within the agency.The NIS–4 used professional-level hourly staff to recruit sentinel agencies, a provencost effective strategy in previous Westat studies. Recruiters were male and female with stronginterviewing skills and work experience in many of the sentinel categories—police, teachers, daycare providers, and juvenile probation officers. The work team ranged from 10 to 20 recruitersover the course of recruitment. Recruiters were hired in waves, in response to variations inworkload and recruiter attrition over time. New recruiters were trained over an intensive 2-weekperiod. Training sessions first provided an overview of the study, administrative procedures,recruitment goals and objectives, and the use of the computerized tracking system. Next,training focused on strengthening their interviewing skills and recruitment strategies,understanding the different agency structures, and detailed procedures for sampling agency unitsand individual sentinels. Finally, new trainees were carefully observed to ensure theircompetency in all aspects of the recruitment process.The first set of columns in Table A–2 show the number of NIS–4 agencies originallysampled, number of agencies in-scope in the original sample, the number of replacements forrefusals, and the number of agencies agreeing to participate. Out-of-scope agencies were thosewho did not qualify as representatives of their category for various reasons (e.g., they no longerexisted, were not located in the sampled county or PSU, or had no staff with direct contact withchildren or families). Note that some in-scope replacement agencies also refused, which is whycolumn C plus column D does not equal column E.The last series of columns in Table A–2 give unweighted and weighted participationrates. The different participation rate computations correspond to different response rateformulas (see the table footnotes). The weighted response rates are higher than the unweightedresponse rates for all agency types except social service/mental health agencies and shelters,indicating that sample agencies with larger weights were more willing to participate. AgenciesA-10