Gender
Household, Geography & Contextual Variables
Gender
Child
Created variables
CSEX (C00054.00). SEX OF CHILD
The official fertility record in the mother's main Youth record is reconciled with reports in the child interview to ascertain the best determination of the child's gender. The gender of each child CSEX (reference number C00054.00) is created as a cross-round (XRND) key variable for all children regardless of age. CSEX is assigned to the CHILD BACKGROUND area of interest. A comparable variable (YASEX), just for children ever interviewed as Young Adults, can be found in the YA COMMON KEY VARIABLES area of interest.
| Survey Instruments | Child's gender is determined using information from Mother's main Youth interview and reports in the Child interview. |
| Areas of Interest | CHILD BACKGROUND |
Young Adult
Created variables
YASEX (Y06774.00). Sex of Young Adult
The Young Adult cohort includes both male and female offspring of the NLSY79 mothers. The Y06774.00 XRND variable indicates a sex of Young Adult composition of 4409 males and 4215 females.
Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Questions
While the Young Adult survey has allowed for the reporting of same-sex dating and relationships and has included questions about attitudes towards gender roles, gender identity and sexual orientation have not been directly addressed. With the growing openness about and awareness of these issues and how they might affect the lives of respondents, questions about gender identity and sexual orientation have been added to the self-report section of the YA2018 survey. Although asked in the same section of the survey, these two topics are not asked back to back.
There are three gender identity questions, one of which asks whether the respondent considers themselves to be a man, a woman, transgender, or something else (YASR-GENID-1). The other questions ask the respondents to rate how other people see them in appearance (YASR-GENID-2) and mannerisms (YASR-GENID-3) on a masculinity/femininity Likert scale. The sexual orientation question (YASR-SEXOR-1) asks if respondents consider themselves to be Lesbian or gay, straight, bisexual, or something else.
Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts: Information on sex is available in the NLSY79. Sex for all biological children born to female members of the NLSY79 is available. Information on sex is also available for the NLSY97. Sex is implicit by membership in the Original Cohorts. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort's User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.
| Survey Instruments | Gender is created as a single cross-round variable for all Young Adults. |
| Areas of Interest | YA Common Key Variables |