Spanish-Language Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement

Spanish-Language Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement

Revision history:

May 24, 2013, original document.
November 21, 2013, Revised after review by bilingual CPS field interviewers.Minor changes were made to improve flow throughout. Salient revisions made universally were to change “casa” to “hogar,” “comestibles” to “comida,” and “niños o jóvenes” to “niños/jóvenes” (leaving final wording to interviewer judgment).

This document includes both English and Spanish versions of each question in the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS), along with specifications for skips and variable fills in English. (Some questions, follow-up questions, and entire sections of the questionnaire are skipped based on response to previous questions or on the age and sex of household members. The exact wording of some questions is variable depending on household composition and responses to previous questions.) The CPS-FSS is conducted using computerized interviewing instruments (CAPI and CATI). Some questions may need to be modified or omitted if the survey is administered by interviewers using paper and pencil questionnaires. The document is based on the December 2013 questionnaire; the questionnaire has changed little in recent years except to update State names for SNAP and the calculation of the “POORCK” variable.

RELATED DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATION NOTES:
The CPS-FSS questionnaire includes five sections:

1. 
   Food Expenditures
   
2. 
   Minimum Spending Needed to Have Enough Food
   
3. 
   Food Program Participation
   
4. 
   Food Sufficiency and Food Security
   
5. 
   Ways of Coping with Not Having Enough Food
   

Translation and cognitive testing of sections I, II, III, and V were conducted by Mathematica Policy Research under a contract with Economic Research Service, USDA. A report on the translation and cognitive testing is available by email request from Economic Research Service (contact information at http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us.aspx). Wording of some questions was modified from that recommended by Mathematica Policy Research after consultation with Census Bureau bilingual field interviewers.

Translation of Section IV was based on earlier Spanish translations and cognitive testing, including Harrison et al. (“Development of a Spanish-Language Version of the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module,” by Gail G. Harrison, Ame Stormer, Dena R. Herman, and Donna M. Winham, Journal of Nutrition 133(4): 1192-1197, April 2003), National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (National Center for Health Statistics), and National Health Interview Survey (National Center for Health Statistics). Adaptation from the source translations and translation of the follow-up questions on frequency of occurrence were carried out by Mark Nord, Economic Research Service, USDA, and Adriana Zorrilla, Chris Kocsis, and Maria Riegger, Food and Nutrition Service, USDA. Reviews were provided by Winna T. Rivera Soto, University of Puerto Rico, and by bilingual Census Bureau field interviewers.

English and Spanish versions of the core food security module—the questions used to assess the food security of households—are available at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/survey-tools.aspx.