29 June 1994                                                      COR571A.WP5

TO:         WLS
FROM:       Nadine Marks
SUBJECT:    Mailback questionnaire references, variable, and scale
creation

1)    Q7a-Q7d.  Use these 4 variables to create a "height in inches"
      variable with 2 decimal places.

2)    Tenacious Goal Pursuit(TGP)= Q20b + Q20c + Q20g + Q20i + Q20j
      Flexible Goal Adjustment(FGA)= Q20a + Q20d + Q20e + Q20f + Q20h 

The entire section was left as raw then recoded before being summed to
create the scales.  For the reverse codes: 1=5, 2=4, 3=3, 4=2, 5=1, so
that a higher score on Q20b+Q20c+Q20g+Q20i+Q20j=HIGH tenaciuos goal
pursuit ( and a lower score indicates LOW tenacious goal pursuit). 
Likewise higher score then on Q20a+Q20d+Q20e+Q20f+Q20h=HIGH flexible
goal adjustment, low score = LOW flexible goal adjustment.

Source:     Short versions of Brandstadter scales (Brandstadter and
            Renner 1990, "Tenacious Goal Pursuit and Flexible Goal
            Adjustment," Psychology and Aging, 5, 58-67).    

3)    Family stress spillover to work index= Q22a + Q22c + Q22d + Q22e
      Work stress spillover to family index= Q22g + Q22h + Q22k + Q22i

      Family enhancement spillover to work index= Q22b + Q22f + Q22j

Items 22a-22k were left as raw and then recoded before being summed
for creation of the scales (1=5,2=4,3=3,4=2,5=1).  This was done in
order to have scales where a higher score indicates MORE of the
construct--i.e., MORE FAMILY STRESS SPILL OVER TO WORK, MORE WORK
STRESS SPILLOVER TO FAMILY, MORE FAMILY ENHANCEMENT SPILLOVER TO WORK. 
 
Source:     MacArthur Research Network on Successful Midlife Development
            (MIDMAC)

4)    Hostility Index = Q18u + Q18v + q18w

Source:     National Survey of Families and Households, Wave 2 (New
            index created by William Aquilino and Nadine Marks)

5)    Social Support items (Q24-Q28).  We will not create additional
      scales for these.

Source:     Q24, Q25, Q28. Modified from National Survey of Families and
            Households.

6)    Health and menopause items: 

Source:     British Medical Research Council National Survey of Health
            and Development and Alice Rossi of MIDMAC for additional
            women's health items.

7)    Organization items.  

Source:     Replication of WLS 1975.

NOTE:       There is not an established way to create scales for these
            items either so I suggest we leave these mainly "raw." 
            However, one thing we might consider is recoding into the
            established list some of the "other specify" responses that
            respondents have given that actually fit our list-- e.g.,
            respondent who answered "tennis club" to Q29q1 might have
            this recoded to "sport club" with the amount of involvement
            also recoded to that item.

I do not believe we should CREATE new categories at this point based
on open-ended responses, because it is inappropriate for analysts to
believe that if the new categories were presented to ALL respondents
there would only be the number of cases indicated.  For example, if we
created a new category for National Rife Association, and recoded 4
people who indicated this affiliation into this new category, it is
incorrect to assume that none of the other 8,XXX people polled
wouldn't have indicated "yes" to this, too, if they had SEEN the
category on their questionnaire.  

In short, my suggestion would be:

a. recode as many of the open-ended questions as possible into other
categories given in the questionnaire, and recode the level of
involvement also up into that category, too, when doing so.

b. retain what cases remain in the "other" categories.

In our documentation notes we can explain what we have done here, and
also let interested analysts know that they can find more information
about the "other" cases in our archive if they truly desire it.  We
will also explain in our documentation that for the sibling
questionnaire we actually did ADD a category to the questionnaire.