The Parent Gap: Teen Pregnancy and Parental Influence (continued)

Methodology and Sample

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy's survey, The Parents Gap: Teen Pregnancy and Parental Influence, is based on two national surveys, one of young people aged 12-19 and the other of adults age 20 and over. Of the adults interviewed, 79 percent were parents. The survey was designed by the National Campaign with assistance from International Communications Research (ICR).

The teen survey is weighted to provide a nationally representative estimate of young people aged 12-19. Field work for this survey was conducted between August 21 and September 10, 2003. Telephone interviews were conducted by ICR with 1,000 young people. The sample for this study was drawn using using two different methods. The first sample source used random Digit Dial (RDD). RDD numbers are drawn from telephone households throughout the continental United States. As a second sample source, a database of households with teenagers 12-19 year old was tapped. All interviews were conducted using the Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system. The CATI system ensures that all questions were rotated and that when answer options were presented, they were also rotated. This rotating eliminates "question position" bias. The margin of error for this survey is +/- 3.10%.

The adults survey is also weighted to provide a nationally representative estimate of the adult population, 20 years and older. Field work for this survey was conducted between August 20-24. Telephone interviews were conducted by ICR with 1,008 adults. This survey was done as part of a national, twice-weekly telephone omnibus survey using a fully-replicated, stratified, single-stage RDD sample of telephone households. Sample telephone numbers are computer-generated. The margin of error for this survey is +/- 3.09%.