This is the first phase of a research project to study Puerto Rican national and political identity and how these affect political behavior. The study will examine how Puerto Ricans conceptualize their national identity through exploring questions about customs, way of life, and attitudes and opinions about this topic. To date most of the research conducted on Puerto Rican national identity has been qualitative and not representative of the Puerto Rican population. The infrastructure (i. e., Island wide sampling frame) does not exist to support large-scale nationally representative surveys. This project will develop a sampling frame that will later be used to conduct a national representative survey of Puerto Rican attitudes about national and political identity in phase two of the project. Sampling selection procedures consist of three stages that include municipalities, census tracts and census blocks. The sample will consist of 2,500 households with approximately 5 households per census block. Approximately 500 blocks throughout the Island will be sampled. Other activities included in phase one are the conduct of focus groups with citizens living throughout the Island and the development of a survey instrument for phase two using information gathered in the focus groups.
