Major Surveys and Training

Occupational Changes in a Generation

David Featherman and Robert M. Hauser designed and carried out this survey of social mobility among American men, their wives, and a selected brother, which was carried out as a supplement to the March 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation Survey. It repeated and extended the first large-scale American mobility survey, which was carried out by Peter M. Blau and Otis Dudley Duncan in 1962. Students who were trained on this project included Nancy D. Carter, John N. Koffel, Neil D. Fligstein, Randy D. Hodson, James N. Baron, Charles W. Mueller, William T. Bielby, Yossi Shavit, and Daphne Hsiang-Hui Kuo.

The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

The WLS is a long-term study of a random sample of 10,317 men and women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957 and of their randomly selected brothers and sisters. It is the source of the well-known "Wisconsin Model of Status Attainment." Robert M. Hauser joined the study in 1969 at the invitation of William H. Sewell, and he became principal investigator in 1980. Survey data were collected from the original respondents or their parents in 1957, 1964, 1975, and 1992 and a selected sibling in 1977 and 1993. These data provide a full record of social background, youthful aspirations, schooling, military service, family formation, labor market experiences, and social participation of the original respondents. The survey data from earlier years have been supplemented by mental ability tests (of primary respondents and 2000 of their siblings), measures of school performance, characteristics of communities of residence, schools and colleges, employers, and industries, and measures of mortality from the National Death Index. The WLS records for primary respondents are also linked to those of three, same-sex high school friends within the study population. Social background measures include earnings histories of parents from Wisconsin state tax records. In 1977 the study design was expanded with the collection of parallel interview data for a highly stratified subsample of 2000 siblings of the primary respondents. In the 1992-93 round of the WLS, the sample was expanded to include a randomly selected sibling of every respondent (with at least one brother or sister), and the content was extended to obtain detailed occupational histories and job characteristics; incomes, assets, and inter-household transfers; social and economic characteristics of parents, siblings, and children and descriptions of the respondents' relationships with them; and extensive information about mental and physical health and well-being. The next round of surveys of graduates, siblings, spouses, and widows, to begin late in 2002, will focus on retirement, health, aging, and intergenerational relationships. Students who have been trained on this project include Duane F. Alwin, Victor Jesudason, Thomas N. Daymont, Robin Stryker, Richard Williams, Shu-Ling Tsai, Peter Mossel, Brian R. Clarridge, Michael P. Massagli, Hazel Symonette, David Grusky, Jong Chun Cha, Jeffrey A. Hayes, Min-Hsiang Huang, Daphne Hsiang-Hui Kuo, John Robert Warren, Deborah Carr, Megan M. Sweeney, Diane S. Shinberg, Theresa Thompson-Colón, Jennifer T. Sheridan, Alair MacLean, Yvette Pettee, and Kristen W. Springer.

The Study of American Families

Robert D. Mare and Robert M. Hauser designed this supplement to the 1994 General Social Survey. The 1994 GSS included a module on families and social mobility, and, while he was in graduate school, John Robert Warren led a national survey of siblings of the GSS respondents.

Uniform October Current Population Surveys

In connection with the NRC study of Blacks in American society, Robert M. Hauser began to create a series of uniformly formatted October Current Population Surveys in which records were created for persons of school age, and these were linked to the characteristics of adults in the household. These files facilitate analyses of grade retention, high school dropout, and college attendance. Students who have been trained on this project include Yu Xie, Solon Simmons, Devah I. Pager, and Carl Frederick.