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

strategy, additional follow-up questions asked how changes in key features of the base vignettewould affect the sentinel’s response; specifically, would their answers be different depending onwho the perpetrator was (not a parent but another adult left in charge of the child, or anadolescent left in charge, or another person not responsible for the child’s care) or would theiranswers differ depending on features such as the child’s age, the harm or injury that resulted,whether there was a history of similar events, the duration or frequency of the maltreatmentevent, or the family’s financial resources.Samples and method. The SDS included all 60 SPS vignettes. However, in orderto reduce respondent burden, the SDS used a factorial design in which each questionnaireincluded only a subset of 10 of the 60 vignettes. Thus, the 60 vignettes were divided into 6groups of 10 vignettes each. The allocation of vignettes across these subsets attempted todistribute examples of the major categories of maltreatment (physical, sexual and emotionalabuse, and physical, educational, and emotional neglect). Also, in order to minimize anyinfluence that unique combinations of vignettes might have, 4 different divisions of the 60vignettes were constructed. Thus, there were 24 unique versions of the questionnaire (4divisions of the set of 60 vignettes, with 6 groups of 10 vignettes in each division).Respondents for the SDS were actual sentinels who had participated in the NIS–4.They were eligible for the SDS if they had participated during the last two weeks of the NIS–4reference period and the sentinel sampling system included their name and address information.Survey questionnaires were mailed to all eligible sentinels in all agencies except schools.Because there were many more school sentinels (see the Samples section) and because thesecond reference period in spring 2006 ended just before the start of summer break, schoolsentinels were sampled from those eligible in the first reference period (fall 2005). Sentinelswere classified into the four main groups listed in Table A–13, which also gives the sample sizeof each group.To avoid any potential influence on sentinels’ submissions during the NIS–4 mainstudy, SDS questionnaires were mailed after the end of the sentinels’ reference period. Themailings ensured that the 24 questionnaire versions were evenly distributed across the 4 sentinelgroups. The instructions assured sentinels that, after they returned their completed questionnaire,their names and addresses would be destroyed, so their survey responses would be anonymous.Until then, their contact information was used to send follow-up mailings to those who had notyet responded. The initial mailing was followed by a series of follow-ups (a postcard reminder,another full mailing containing a paid Fed-Ex return envelope, and a final postcard reminder).A-37