Assessments

Introduction

 

Assessment Completion Rates

Table 6 provides estimates of the number of children who were administered each assessment in the current survey round and the completion rate for each assessment. (Similar completion rate tables showing the distribution of NLSY79 children with valid assessment scores in earlier survey rounds can be found here.) The number of children who complete each assessment continues to be substantial, so that reasonably high numbers of black, white, and Hispanic children are available for separate analyses by race/ethnicity. Sufficient sample sizes are particularly important for those assessments where there are major differences in outcome by race/ethnicity, or more importantly, where the linkages between critical explanatory inputs and assessment outcomes vary by race/ethnicity.

Table 6 shows that the percent of children receiving valid scores is quite high. Since the mother-reported assessments (Behavior Problems Index (BPI), Motor and Social Development scale (MSD) and the Temperament Scale) were integrated into the mother's main interview starting in 2006, mothers completed these assessments for nearly all age-eligible children. However, because no imputation of scores is performed either for the MSD or Temperament scores, any "Don't Know" or "Refused" responses for individual items will result in a missing value for the corresponding overall scale score.

Table 6. NLSY79 children with valid assessment scores: Children interviewed in 2016

Assessment Child age All children Race/ethnicity
Hispanic Black Non-Black/ Non-Hispanic
   # % # % # % # %
Child social and emotional development
  Temperament Scale* 2 to 6 years 4 80.0 0 0 2 100.0 2 66.7
  Motor and Social Development Scale Under 4 years 1 100.0 0 0 0 0 1 100.0
  Behavior Problems Index 4 to 13 years 81 96.4 22 100.0 18 94.7 41 95.3
  Self-Perception Global** 12 to 13 years 48 98.0 17 94.4 8 100.0 23 100.0
  Self-Perception Scholastic** 12 to 13 years 48 98.0 17 94.4 8 100.0 23 100.0
 

*The Temperament Scale score reported is "Compliance," administered for children ages 2-6.

**In 2016, the Self-Perception Profile was administered as part of the Young Adult survey.

NOTE: Of the 7479 children born to mothers interviewed in 2016, 85 were age-eligible and interviewed or assessed in 2016. The "%" valid column indicates children with a valid score of those age-eligible for a particular assessment.