CHANGE NOTICE #7 - 3/26/97

Change Notice #7 - Updates to New Edition of Wave 2 (1992/93) WLS Data.

A new edition (DPLS edition 5) of the second wave WLS data has been released.

All of the pages for WLS: 1992/93 telephone and mail surveys now reflect this new edition.

If you received second wave data before March 26, 1997, please read this notice.


Summary of the Wave 2 - 3/97 update (see below for details):

The FIFTH edition of the 1992/93 WLS differs from previous releases in the following way:

  1. Telephone Questionnaire Updates:
  2. The section on depression and alcohol (HPER) that was updated on 8/1/96 is included in this 3/97 release. See Change Notice #5 for details. There have also been additional updates to the documentation for HPER since 8/1/96.
  3. New flag variables have been added to the assets section (ASST) to indicate number of missing asset amounts included in two of the summary variables.
  4. In the selected sibling section (SSIB), a flag has been added to indicate if the selected sibling in the 1992/93 data is the same as the sibling asked about in the 1975 survey.
  5. In the current job section (JOBC), the wage rate variable and corresponding flag (RG021JJD and RG022JJD) have been replaced with corrected versions. Additional minor errors have been corrected in the JOBC section in RG006JJC-RG020JJC, and RG039JJG..
  6. Updates have been made to correct minor errors in the data and documentation for the introductory variables, assets, contact and closeness, health insurance, and selected sibling - BEG, ASST, CNCL, HLIN, and SSIB.
  7. Updates have been made to the documentation only for some variables in personality and selected sibling - PERS and SSIB.
    Mail Questionnaire Updates:
  8. All summed variables or "measures" created from the mail questionnaire in personality were incorrectly calculated and have been replaced. This involves variables MH001REC, MH009REC, MH017REC, MH025REC, MH032REC.
  9. The summary score for psychological distress/depression (CES-D) created from the mail questionnaire items (MU001REC) is incorrect and has been replaced in this release. The process for computing the sum and number of responses in MU002RE has also been updated.
  10. Fifteen caregiving variables have been replaced. A code has been added to each variable along with a more detailed description describing the nature of item non-response.
  11. Minor changes were made to the data and documentation for the social participation variables from the mail questionnaire items.

Details of the Wave 2 - 3/97 updates: