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Codebooks and Data Access |
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SAMPLE DESIGN
NSFH WAVE 1: 1987-88
Working Paper 1 - The Design and Content of the National Survey of Families and Households
The national sample of 13,007 includes a main cross-section of 9,637 households plus an oversampling of blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, single-parent families, families with step-children, cohabiting couples and recently married persons. One adult per household was randomly selected as the primary respondent. Several portions of the main interview were self-administered to facilitate the collection of sensitive information as well as to ease the flow of the interview. The average interview lasted one hour and forty minutes. In addition, a shorter self-administered questionnaire was given to the spouse or cohabiting partner of the primary respondent.
A considerable amount of life-history information was collected, including: the respondent's family living arrangements in childhood, departures and returns to the parental home, and histories of marriage, cohabitation, education, fertility, and employment. The design permits the detailed description of past and current living arrangements and other characteristics and experiences, as well as the analysis of the consequences of earlier patterns on current states, marital and parenting relationships, kin contact, and economic and psychological well-being.
This study has been undertaken explicitly to provide a data resource for the research community at large and was designed with advice from a large number of consultants and correspondents. The substantive coverage has been kept broad to permit the holistic analysis of family experience from an array of theoretical perspectives.
NSFH WAVE 2: THE FIVE YEAR FOLLOW-UP (1992-94)
personal interviews with the original
respondents (N=10,007); personal interviews with the current
spouse or cohabiting partners, almost identical to the interview with the main
respondent (N=5624); personal interviews with NSFH1 spouses
or partners for relationships that had ended (N=789); telephone interviews with "focal
children" who were ages 13-18 at the first wave and 18-23 at the second (N=1090); shorter telephone interview with "focal
children" who were originally ages 5-12 and 10-17 at NSFH2, with somewhat
different content for the two age ranges (N=1415); short proxy interviews with a spouse
or other relative in cases where the original respondent had died or is too
ill to interview (N=802); telephone interviews with parents-one
randomly selected parent per respondent (N=3348).
NSFH WAVE 3: 2001-2002
primary respondents;
NSFH1 spouses
or cohabiting partners, irrespective of the current statuses of the unions;
eligible focal "children," now
ages 18-33, irrespective of whether they were interviewed at NSFH2;
For those with no focal children eligible for the NSFH2 focal-child interviews, NSFH3 telephone interviews include:
primary respondents
age 45 or older at NSFH3
NSFH1 spouses
or cohabiting partners of primary respondents age 45 or older at NSFH3, irrespective
of the current statuses of the unions
Proxy information
Proxy
information about a seriously ill or deceased main respondent was gleaned
from an interview with the respondent’s NSFH 1 spouse unless that
spouse was too ill or the couple was no longer together at NSFH 2.
If the spouse was too ill or
no longer with the main respondent at NSFH 2, a proxy interview with
a third party was attempted unless the NSFH 1 spouse refused the interview
or was unavailable.
CITATIONS
The NSFH1 citation is:
James Sweet, Larry Bumpass, and Vaughn Call, "The Design and Content of The National
Survey of Families and Households." Center for Demography and Ecology, University
of Wisconsin-Madison, NSFH Working Paper #1, 1988.
The NSFH2 citation is:
James A. Sweet and Larry L. Bumpass, The National Survey of Families and Households
- Waves 1 and 2: Data Description and Documentation. Center for Demography
and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison (http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/nsfh/home.htm),
1996.
The NSFH3 citation is:
James A. Sweet and Larry L. Bumpass, The National Survey of Families and
Households - Waves 1, 2, and 3: Data Description and Documentation. Center
for Demography
and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison (http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/nsfh/home.htm),
2002.
FUNDING
The funding agency for NSFH1 was NICHD, grant # HD 21009.
Helpline: nsfhhelp@ssc.wisc.edu . More information on USER SUPPORT.