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.

Phone: Psychological Well-Being

This section contains total scores and number of questions answered for 
the Psychological Well-Being Scale: autonomy, environmental mastery, 
personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and
self-acceptance.

NOTE: Most variables in this section were recreated for the 3/98 release 
      of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study: 1992/93 Telephone and Mail 
      Surveys - WLS23R_5

NOTE: If using the psychological well-being items from both the telephone
      and mail surveys (WLS23M), note the different coding schemes used for 
      the two instruments.

rn001re            Sample selection
rn002red,rn003red  Total score for autonomy and number of autonomy questions
                   answered.
rn004red,rn005red  Total score for environmental mastery and number
                   of environmental mastery questions answered.
rn006red,rn007red  Total score for personal growth and number of 
                   personal growth questions answered.
rn008red,rn009red  Total score for positive relations with others
                   and number of positive relations questions answered. 
rn010red,rn011red  Total score for purpose in life and number of
                   purpose in life questions answered.
rn012red,rn013red  Total score for self-acceptance and number of
                   self-acceptance questions answered.
rn014red,rn015red  Total score for psychological well-being
                   and number of psychological well-being questions answered.
rn016rec-rn027rec  Individual questions for the psychological well-being
                   scale.

NOTE:  In releases prior to 3/98, if the respondent answered "neither agree 
       or disagree" to an individual component of the well-being scale, 
       it was treated as missing data along with "don't know", or refused.
       The updated total scores (rn002red-rn015red) assign a mid-point (4) to 
       the "neither agree or disagree" response.  The individual questions 
       (rn016rec-rn027rec)  have also been recoded to reflect this change;
       "neither agree not disagree" is coded 4 for rn016rec-rn027rec. See 
       Change Notice #12 for details.  Also note that coding was done
       differently for the items in the PERS module.    

NOTE:  See Appendix K - COR574A for details regarding creation of the
       psychological well-being scores.

NOTE:  Variables mn001rec-mn068rer in WLS23M contain more detailed
       variables measuring the same concepts.

NOTE:  Because the unfolding technique was used to ask these questions (see
       flowchart for question format) there are a few cases where someone
       initially answered agree or disagree but in the follow up question
       did not state an intensity of this dis/agreement.  In these cases,
       the response was coded as either "don't know" or "refused" depending
       on the resondent's answer.

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