WLS Codebooks

Note: Codebooks contain frequency data from the private data release. For some variables, these differ from the frequencies in the public release. Variables that differ between the public and private versions include "(not available on public release)" as part of the variable description, or a note indicating the difference between the public and private versions.

In Person: Children

KKID Children Module
            
OVERVIEW

In the 2011 interview, we preloaded all children the participants had
ever reported and asked the participants to confirm each child before
the interview proceeded to more detailed information about the
child. In the rostered section of the module, the participants were
asked about each child's current employment status, martial status or
cohabitation, and number of children. Participants who had been in a
new relationship since the time of the last interview were also asked
to provide information about children of current spouse or partner.
After being asked about all the preloaded children, and step-children
from a new relationship, if any, the participants were also given a
chance to add any children that had not been mentioned.

For previously reported step-children, we asked if the participant was
still married to each child's parent, and if not, we asked when and why
the marriage ended, and whether or not the participant was still in
contact with the step-child. For deceased children, we collected
information on the causes and circumstances of the death. We also
updated the deceased child's educational attainment. While the
educational attainments of living children were not updated in the
in-person interview, information about their college attendance was
collected in the mail questionnaire (see Mail: Children).

In the 2011 interview, the meaning of "child" was not explicitly
defined, and therefore was subject to each participant's, and
sometimes, the interviewer's, own interpretation. This is in contrast
to the information collected in the previous interviews, where the
participant was instructed to include biological, adopted, step or
foster children as well as other children the participant considered
to be a part of his/her family. In the 2011 interview, many
participants seemed to think the interview was only about their "own
children". As a result, some of the children reported in the previous
interviews were not confirmed by some of the participants. When a
participant answered "no" to the question about whether s/he had a
specific child (either by name or by date of birth), it could be
because (1) information (such as name or relationship) about the child
was incorrect, (2) the participant's or the interviewer's
interpretation of "child" differed from what was defined in the
previous interview(s), (3) previously coresident child (mostly
grandchild or niece/nephew, foster child etc.) no longer lived with or
had contact with the participant, or (4) the relationship with
previously reported (step)child changed because of divorce or the
death of the spouse. On the other hand, there were also instances
where the participants started to add and enumerate step-children or
grandchildren, but were instructed by the interviewer to include only
their "own children". As a result, some of the coresident "children",
as defined by the broader definition used in the previous interviews,
were not entered into the child roster. These omitted "children" might
include step-children, grandchildren, foster children, nieces/nephews
and sometimes, newly adopted children. In current data release,
these omitted coresident "children" are added to the child roster if,
during the CAPI interview, they were not preloaded or added in the
Children Module, but were enumerated in the Household Module. These
additional roster entries will retain their Household Roster ID Number
(501-507) as their Child Roster ID Number, and include only limited
information, such as gender, relationship and date of birth.

Because of the various ways/sources that we learned about the
participants' children, and the cumulative nature of the child roster,
a set of new roster variables, KD00101-KD00117, has been created to
indicate if each child was (1) reported in 2011 Children Module (2)
reported only in the 2011 Mail-Only SAQ, (3) reported only in the 2011
Household Module, or (4) reported in the previous interview but not
confirmed in 2011 interview. All the preloaded children in (1) and
(2), and all children in (4) should have a valid value in at least one
of the rostered variables KD120, KD220 and KD320, which link the
the roster entry to those in the previous waves.

At the end of each CAPI interview, the interviewer also copied the
names of all qualified living children reported in the Children Module
to the child roster section of the mail self-administered
questionnaire (SAQ), in which additional information about the
children was collected (see Mail: Children). A small group of
participants who could not be interviewed in person were given the
Mail-Only SAQ (MOSAQ), which is a modified version of the SAQ. The
names of all children known to be alive as of last interview were also
copied to the child roster section of the MOSAQ. Additional question
was asked in the MOSAQ to confirm if each child was still avlie at the
time of the interview. This piece of information has been incorported
into the rostered variable KD005 in the CAPI Children Module. Fixed
biographical information such as sex, birth date and relationship to
the participant, was carried over from previous waves for children
reported in MOSAQ. The link to previous waves for these children are
also available in the same rostered variables, KD120, KD220 and
KD320. Occationally, the respondent appended additional children's
names to the mail questionnaire. These children are added to the CAPI
child roster as well. However, biographical information for these
newly added children would only be limited to what was voluntarily
provided by the respondents in the SAQ/MOSAQ.

Different summary measures on the number of children are created from
KD00101-KD00117. KD001KD is the number of children reported in the
2011 Children Module (KD001 = 1). KD201KD is the number of children
reported from all sources in the 2011 interview (KD001 = 1,2,and
3). KD301KD is the number of all children ever reported by the
participant from all sources since 1977 as of the 2011 interview
(KD001 = 1,2,3,and 4).


BRIEF VARIABLE DESCRIPTIONS

    
    KKIDSTAT-KKIDREL:   Module-Level Status Variables.

    KD001KD:            Total number of children reported in 2011 CAPI
                        Children Module.

    KD201KD:            Total number of children reported in 2011 CAPI
                        Children Module, Household Module or in Mail-Only
                        SAQ.
 
    KD301KD:            Total number of children ever reported since
                        1975.

    KD104KD-KD107KD:    Interaction with child(ren) age 16 or older.
                        (How much Respondent's Children: Make
                        Respondent Feel Loved/Cared for, Make Too
                        Many Demands on Her/Him, Willing to Listen,
                        Are Critical of What Respondent's Does).
                        See KJ040SK for sampling.

    KD018SK:            Roster ID Number of Selected Child in 2011.

    KJ040SK:            Flag for 25% sub-sample selected to received 
                        questions about how they interact with their
                        children.

    KJ047SK-KJ048SK:    Similarity of Outlook on Life and Closeness
                        of Respondent and Selected Child.

    KJ057SK:            State of Selected Child's Death

    KJ059SK-KJ068SK:    For Deceased Selected child: Ever Worked,
                        Class of Work, Detailed and Major 1990
                        Census Occupation and Industry Codes, Nakoa-
                        Treas Prestige Rating, 1990 Occupational
                        Education and Occupational Income Scores,
                        Year Stopped Working.

    KJ161SK-KJ166SK:    Detailed and Major 2000 Census Occupation and
                        Industry Codes, NAICS and SOC codes.

    KJ085SK-KJ095SK:    Frequency of Contact with Selected child.
                        (Contact In Person, Talking on the Telephone,
                        Sending and Receiving Email in the Last 12
                        Months; Year of Last Contact if No Contact
                        in the Last 12 Months)
                         

    KJ097SK-KJ098SK:    How Many Miles Away Does the Selected Child
                        Live from the Participant? State of Residence
                        of the Selected Child If the Respondent Did
                        Not Answer the Mileage Question.

    KJ099SK-KJ100SK:    The Participant's Rating on the Selected
                        Child's Health and Financial Situation.

    KJ301SK-KJ307SK:    College Attendance and Degree of the Selected
                        Child's Other Parent.



    Roster entries, one for each of up to 17 children.  Last two
    digits indicate the roster position (different from the 3-digit
    Roster ID number).  Only the prefix is specified in the following
    variables list.

    While the children's roster was preloaded as a list of biological
    children from the oldest to the youngest followed by 
    step-children, also ordered from the oldest to the youngest,
    the roster in the final data set was re-ordered by birth date
    regardless of the child's relationship to the participant.
    Children of unknown age are listed at the end.

    Due to additions and deletions of children from the roster, the
    same roster position may refer to different children in different
    interviews. Please use KD120, KD220 and KD320 to find the roster
    positions of the same child in prior interviews. In the 2011
    interview, if the participant denied the existence of a child due
    to incorrect preloaded information, the interviewer was instructed
    to mark the preloaded roster entry for deletion and enter the correct
    name as a new roster entry. As a result, in the preliminary release,
    some of the previously reported children might appear as new children
    in 2011 child roster and cannot be linked back to the data from
    previous interviews. In current release, such discrepancy has been
    resolved.

    _____________________________________________________________________
    KD001:              Is the Child Reported in 2011?

    KD003:              Sex of the Participant's child.                    
    
    KD004:              Relationship of Child to Participant. 
    
    KD005:              Is the Child Alive?     
    
    KD006-KD007:        Month and Year of Child's Death.   
    
    KD107:              ICD-9 Cause of Child's Death

    KDA07:              Collapsed ICD-9 Cause of Child's Death

    KD207:              Was the Deceased Child's Illness Long-Term 
                        or Sudden?

    KD009-KD209:        Child's Marital Status.

    KD014:              Date of Child's Birth.

    KD015:              Year of Survey When Child was First Reported.

    KD016-KD216:        Is Child Currently Working?

    KD017:              Does Child Currently Live with Participant?

    KD018:              Roster ID Number of Child.

    KD019:              Entity Number of Child.

    KD070-KD072:        Participant's Marriage to Step-child's
                        Parent.

    KD073:              Participant's Contact with Step-child.         

    KD074:              Would Child Prefer to Work More Hours?               

    KD075:              Is Child Not Working by Choice?

    KD076-KD077:        Children of the Participant's Child.

    KD080-KD084:        Deceased Child's Mental Health Problem

    KD120:              Child's Roster Position/Birth Order in 1977

    KD220:              Child's Roster Position/Birth Order in 1993-1994

    KD320:              Child's Roster Position/Birth Order in 2004-2007

    KD510-KD513:        Updates of the Deceased Child's Schooling