Introduction

Official Title. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), part of the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) program

Age of cohort. Born between 1957 and 1964. At the time of first interview, respondents' ages ranged from 14 to 22. The respondents were 51 to 60 at the time of their 2016 interviews (the most recent survey year).

Number of respondents in survey. 12,686 individuals initially interviewed in 1979.

Gender. 6,403 (50%) males and 6,283 (50%) females in initial survey

Race/ Ethnicity (in initial survey)

• Non-black/non-Hispanic: 7,510
• Black: 3,174
• Hispanic or Latino: 2,002

Subsample design. Three subsamples comprise the NLSY79 cohort (see variable denoted as R01736 in NLS Investigator). With a few exceptions, all members of the cross-sectional sample have been eligible for interview during each round of the NLSY79.

• a cross-sectional sample of 6,111 respondents designed to represent the noninstitutionalized civilian segment of people living in the United States in 1979 and born between January 1, 1957, and December 31, 1964 (ages 14-21 as of December 31, 1978)

• a supplemental sample of 5,295 civilian Hispanic or Latino, black, and economically disadvantaged nonblack/non-Hispanic respondents living in the United States in 1979 and born between January 1, 1957, and December 31, 1964

• a sample of 1,280 respondents designed to represent the population serving in one of the four branches of the U.S. military as of September 30, 1978, and born between January 1, 1957, and December 31, 1961 (ages 17-21 as of December 31, 1978)

Following the 1984 interview, 1,079 members of the military sample were no longer eligible for interview; 201 respondents randomly selected from the military sample remained in the survey. Following the 1990 interview, none of the 1,643 members of the economically disadvantaged, nonblack/non-Hispanic sample were eligible for interview.

Types of information gathered in survey

• Labor market behavior
• Educational experiences (high school, college, training)
• Family background (including data collected from parent in round 1)
• Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (measures knowledge and skills including reading and mathematics)
• High school information received from respondents' schools and from respondents' school transcripts
• Government program participation
• Family life (marital status, fertility, and child care)
• Health issues
• Assets and income

Table 1. NLSY79 Sample Sizes by Subsample, Race/Ethnicity & Gender

Funding Sources for the NLSY79

Funding to collect data on labor market experiences, human capital investments such as education and training, and information that affects or is affected by labor market behaviors is through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Throughout the survey, various agencies have funded special sets of questions. Funding has been provided by several agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Examples of other topical areas include:

1. Military participation-Support from the Department of Defense made possible the 1979-84 interviews of 1,280 youth enlisted in the military. 
2. Vocational aptitude-The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), a study which was jointly sponsored by the Departments of Defense and Labor, was administered to the civilian and military youth samples in 1980.  
3. High school performance-Beginning in 1979, a five-year cooperative effort of the National Center for Research in Vocational Education and The Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research resulted in a survey of the high schools of civilian NLSY79 respondents and the collection of detailed transcript information on potential high school graduates.
4. Time use-In 1981, the National Institute of Education sponsored a set of time-use questions.
5. Alcohol and substance use-Funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse has made possible expanded sets of alcohol and substance use questions.  
6. Department of Justice-A self-report supplement to the 1980 survey collected data on the respondent's participation in and income from various delinquent and criminal activities. 

NLSY79 Children

The child sample includes children born to female NLSY79 respondents. The child sample began in 1986, and the expanded mother-child data collection has occurred biennially since then.

• The number of children born to interviewed mothers has increased from 5,255 in 1986 to 7,482 in 2016. 
• Interviews were completed during 2016 with 5,437 children (including 5,352 young adult children), or 72.7 percent of children born to mothers interviewed in that survey round.  
• Starting with the 1994 survey, the children are treated as two separate groups.
• The first includes children who were under age 15 (as of December 31 of the survey year). These children completed one or more of the assessment instruments, and information about each child was obtained from the child's mother. [Starting in 2016, children under 15 were no longer interviewed)
• The second group comprises NLSY79 children who are at least 15 years of age by the end of the survey's calendar year. These "Young Adults," most of whom were assessed during earlier child surveys, are administered a separate NLSY79-style questionnaire that gathers information on a wide range of topics.