NCJ Number
211385
Date Published
2005
Length
492 pages
Annotation
This report documents the methodology used in the following components of the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART-2): the National Household Survey of Adult Primary Caretakers and the National Household Survey of Youth.
Abstract
The introductory chapter covers the background of the research and provides an overview of the design and other technical aspects of the surveys. Chapter 2 presents a comparative description of the design and contents of the NISMART-1 and NISMART-2 Household Surveys. Chapter 3 describes how interviewers and supervisors were recruited and trained, followed by a chapter that profiles the design and selection of the NISMART-2 sample compared with these procedures in NISMART-1. Chapter 5 outlines the data-collection procedures implemented during the 11 months of data collection, including a discussion of the challenges encountered and methods used to address them. Chapter 6 presents the response rates and other outcome statistics for the Adult and Youth Surveys, along with a comparison of sample yields for NISMART-1 and NISMART-2. Chapter 7 explains how the household survey data were evaluated, including the process used to determine whether an episode experienced by a child qualified that child to be counted in one of the NISMART-2 categories. Chapter 8 describes the statistical methods used to weight the data and compute the complex variance estimates; and chapter 9 describes the methods used to measure historical trends between 1988 and 1999, including the test results, a comparison of the NISMART-1 and NISMART-2 definitions, and a discussion of how differences in the NISMART-1 and NISMART-2 methodologies may have influenced the findings. The report concludes with two chapters that identify and define the Public Use variables created to analyze the Household Survey data, including the variables created for all children and those for the children with countable episodes. 47 tables, 9 figures, and appended NISMART-2 bulletin mapping tables and SAS variance and covariance macros