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National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97)

Errata and Updates for NLSY97 Round 13 Release

Inconsistencies found in NEWSCHOOL roster and Event History variables

NLSY97 staff have recently discovered a problem which affects the NEWSCHOOL_INTERVIEW.xx and NEWSCHOOL_PUBID.xx variables in many rounds of the NLSY97 data. These variables are intended, respectively, to identify the round in which a particular school is first reported and then to assign a permanent public ID to the school within each respondent's enrollment history. This allows users to determine whether a respondent is enrolled at a school that was first reported in an earlier round, or whether a respondent has enrolled in a new school. For approximately 550 respondents, we have discovered that some colleges which appear to be newly reported colleges are in fact schools that were originally reported in an earlier round. This problem appears to have affected only colleges and is much more prevalent in the more recent rounds of data collection. These corrections will also affect the created event history array based on the college attended SCH_COLLEGE_ID_year.xx. These data will be corrected in the next release of the NLSY97 data which is scheduled for September 2012.

Recent corrections and changes to the NLSY97 data

  1. Dropped cases and sampling weight variables - Round 13

    All data for cases 8342 and 8343 in round 13 have been deleted, as interviewers discovered that the wrong persons had been interviewed in that round. As a result, the sampling weight variables for round 13 have been recomputed.

  2. Applicable Weights for ASVAB_MATH_VERBAL_SCORE_PCT (R98296.00)

    This set of weights is for the 7,093 respondents with a score on ASVAB_MATH_VERBAL_SCORE_PCT (R98296.00). The first column of the text file is the public use ID, followed by a space delimiter. The second column on each line is the weight, with two implied decimal points. The balance of respondents without a valid ASVAB_MATH_VERBAL_SCORE_PCT score should be given a missing or zero weight, depending on your statistical program.

    Warning, public id 8950. This non-black/non-Hispanic 12 year old female is from the supplemental sample. This individual represents 18,967 people, whereas the respondent with next highest representation accounts for 7,003 people. However, on ASVAB_MATH_VERBAL_SCORE_PCT this respondent is of average intelligence and falls in the mid-point of the distribution so they will not exert a huge influence on result

  3. Created relationship of the respondent to parent figures/guardians (CV_YTH_REL_HH_CURRENT)

    A small error in the round 2 created variable program caused 12 respondents to have the incorrect relationship specified in this variable. The correct relationship and the corresponding respondent pubid are listed in Table 1.

    Table 1. List of respondents with corrected relationship variable and their corresponding pubid

    PUBID

    CV_YTH_REL_HH_CURRENT

    225 10
    2560 10
    2860 10
    3298 10
    4352 10
    4901 10
    5750 10
    6481 10
    7414 10
    7634 10
    7638 10
    8505 10

    These will be updated in the next release.

  4. Month and year selected household members first started living with the respondent variables

    The following variables, which collect the month and year selected household members first started living with the respondent, have been unintentionally omitted from previous NLSY97 data releases. Click below to view the list of variables representing data collected in question YHHI-51680, found in NLSY97 questionnaire rounds two through six.

    • R1569600 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 1998"
    • R1569601 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 1998"
    • R1569700 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 1998"
    • R1569701 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 1998"
    • R1569800 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 1998"
    • R1569801 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 1998"
    • R1569900 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 1998"
    • R1569901 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 1998"
    • R1570000 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 1998"
    • R1570001 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 1998"
    • R2849800 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 1999"
    • R2849801 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 1999"
    • R2849900 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 1999"
    • R2849901 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 1999"
    • R2850000 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 1999"
    • R2850001 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 1999"
    • R2850100 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 1999"
    • R2850101 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 1999"
    • R2850200 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 1999"
    • R2850201 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 1999"
    • R2850300 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L6 1999"
    • R2850301 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L6 1999"
    • R2850400 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L8 1999"
    • R2850401 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L8 1999"
    • R2850500 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L9 1999"
    • R2850501 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L9 1999"
    • R2850600 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L10 1999"
    • R2850601 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L10 1999"
    • R4123900 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 2000"
    • R4123901 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 2000"
    • R4124000 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 2000"
    • R4124001 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 2000"
    • R4124100 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 2000"
    • R4124101 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 2000"
    • R4124200 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 2000"
    • R4124201 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 2000"
    • R4124300 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 2000"
    • R4124301 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 2000"
    • R4124400 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L6 2000"
    • R4124401 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L6 2000"
    • R4124500 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L7 2000"
    • R4124501 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L7 2000"
    • R4124600 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L8 2000"
    • R4124601 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L8 2000"
    • R5802700 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 2001"
    • R5802701 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 2001"
    • R5802800 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 2001"
    • R5802801 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 2001"
    • R5802900 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 2001"
    • R5802901 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 2001"
    • R5803000 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 2001"
    • R5803001 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 2001"
    • R5803100 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 2001"
    • R5803101 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 2001"
    • R5803200 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L6 2001"
    • R5803201 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L6 2001"
    • R5803300 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L7 2001"
    • R5803301 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L7 2001"
    • R5803400 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L8 2001"
    • R5803401 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L8 2001"
    • S0173500 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 2002"
    • S0173501 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L1 2002"
    • S0173600 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 2002"
    • S0173601 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L2 2002"
    • S0173700 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 2002"
    • S0173701 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L3 2002"
    • S0173800 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 2002"
    • S0173801 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L4 2002"
    • S0173900 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 2002"
    • S0173901 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L5 2002"
    • S0174000 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L6 2002"
    • S0174001 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L6 2002"
    • S0174100 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L7 2002"
    • S0174101 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L7 2002"
    • S0174200 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L8 2002"
    • S0174201 "MO/YR R 1ST LIVE W/ NEW HH MEMB L8 2002"

    These variables will be included in all future NLSY97 data releases.

  5. Recently created variables that represent the unique ids for all freelance jobs reported in NLSY97 rounds 1 and 2

    The following variables have been recently created and will be added to future NLSY97 data releases. These variables represent the unique ids for all freelance jobs reported in NLSY97 rounds 1 and 2 and can be used to track those jobs in rounds 3 through 5. Click the round number below to view each list of variables.

    Round 1 freelance job variables:

    • R1489700 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L1 1997"
    • R1489800 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L2 1997"
    • R1489900 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L3 1997"
    • R1490000 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L4 1997"
    • R1490100 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L5 1997"
    • R1490200 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L6 1997"
    • R1490300 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L7 1997"
    • R1490400 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L8 1997"

    Round 2 freelance job variables:

    • R5538800 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L1 1998"
    • R5538900 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L2 1998"
    • R5539000 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L3 1998"
    • R5539100 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L4 1998"
    • R5539200 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L5 1998"
    • R5539300 "FREELANCE JOB UID (ROS ITEM) L6 1998"
  6. Created Marriage variables (CV_MARSTAT, CV_MARSTAT_COLLAPSED, MAR_STATUS, MAR_PARTNER_LINK)

    After a review of the marriage data, a few inconsistencies were found and will be corrected on the round 14 release. Due to the respondents reporting inconsistent dates in different rounds, the following edits in table 2 need to be made.

    Table 2. Inconsistent marriage dates by PUBID

    PUBID

    QNAMEs

    VALUES

    1388

    MAR_STATUS_2005.12-MAR_STATUS_2006.11

    2

    1843

    MAR_STATUS_2002.05-MAR_STATUS_2005.07

    2

    1928

    MAR_STATUS_2001.01

    2

    3427

    MAR_STATUS_1999.11

    2

    3427

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_1999.11

    301

    3830

    MAR_STATUS_2000.01-MAR_STATUS_2000.02

    2

    3830

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2000.01-MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2000.02

    301

    4007

    MAR_STATUS_1999.03-MAR_STATUS_1999.05

    2

    4007

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_1999.03-MAR_PARTNER_LINK_1999.05

    201

    4430

    MAR_STATUS_2001.03-MAR_STATUS_2001.06

    2

    5556

    MAR_STATUS_2000.03-MAR_STATUS_2000.07

    2

    5556

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2000.03-MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2000.07

    301

    5637

    MAR_STATUS_2000.12-MAR_STATUS_2001.07

    2

    5637

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2000.12-MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2001.07

    301

    5757

    MAR_STATUS_1999.04-MAR_STATUS_1999.08

    2

    5757

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_1999.04-MAR_PARTNER_LINK_1999.08

    201

    5757

    MAR_STATUS_2000.03-MAR_STATUS_2001.04

    2

    5757

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2000.03-MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2001.04

    201

    6468

    MAR_STATUS_2001.01-MAR_STATUS_2001.06

    2

    6468

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2001.01-MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2001.06

    401

    6616

    MAR_STATUS_2001.12

    2

    6616

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2001.12

    501

    6616

    MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2002.02- MAR_PARTNER_LINK_2002.09

    501

    Table 3 consists of respondents that reported legal separation dates after a cohabitation spell and need to be edited.

    Table 3. Reported legal separation dates by PUBID

    PUBID

    QNAMEs

    YEARS

    VALUES

    385

    MAR_STATUS_2006.08-MAR_STATUS_2007.02

    XRND

    0

    385

    CV_MARSTAT

    2006

    2

    385

    CV_MARSTAT_COLLAPSED

    2006

    0

    7493

    MAR_STATUS_2003.08-MAR_STATUS_2006.01

    XRND

    0

    7493

    CV_MARSTAT

    2003-2006

    2

    7493

    CV_MARSTAT_COLLAPSED

    2003-2006

    0

    Table 4 consists of respondents that have been edited for missing divorce dates or spouse information.

    Table 4. Missing divorce dates or spouse information by PUBID

    PUBID

    QNAMEs

    VALUES

    3353

    MAR_STATUS_2006.01-MAR_STATUS_2006.03

    4

    8637

    MAR_STATUS_2005.12-MAR_STATUS_2006.04

    4

    3620

    MAR_STATUS_2006.01

    4

    3993

    MAR_STATUS_2005.07-MAR_STATUS_2007.02

    -3


Significant changes made between the July 2010 round 12 and the June 2011 round 13 data files

  1. Created marriage and cohabitation variables - Round 2 through Round 12
    Due to additional information gathered during the round 13 marriage section, a number of updates were made to created marriage and cohabitation variables. Table 5 consists of the variables, rounds, and number of affected respondents.

    Table 5. Number of affected respondents by marriage variable and round

    Variable Name

    R3

    R4

    R5

    R6

    R7

    R8

    R9

    R10

    R11

    R12

    CV_COHAB_TTL

    -

    2

    1

    1

    1

    1

    2

    2

    2

    -

    CV_FIRST_MARRY_DATE~M

    -

    2

    3

    3

    5

    4

    7

    12

    12

    -

    CV_FIRST_MARRY_DATE~Y

    -

    2

    3

    3

    5

    4

    7

    12

    12

    -

    CV_FIRST_MARRY_MONTH

    -

    2

    3

    3

    5

    4

    7

    12

    12

    -

    CV_MARRIAGES_TTL

    2

    2

    4

    4

    6

    5

    8

    14

    13

    12

    CV_MARSTAT

    1

    2

    3

    5

    6

    6

    7

    11

    14

    16

    CV_MARSTAT_COLLAPSED

    1

    2

    3

    4

    5

    5

    7

    11

    14

    16

  2. Created education variables - Round 5 through Round 12
    We continue to conduct checks on the consistencies among the created education variables and across different survey years. When inconsistencies were found, we incorporated the information collected from all rounds to arrive at the created variables. These checks resulted in the following hand edits for the created variables listed below:

    • Round 5:
      CV_ENROLLSTAT_EDT - 1
    • Round 6:
      CV_ENROLLSTAT_EDT - 2
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_0203 - 1
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_EVER_EDT - 
      CV_HS_DIPLOMA - 1
    • Round 7:
      CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.01 - 1
      CV_ENROLLSTAT_EDT - 3
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_0304 - 3
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_EVER_EDT - 3
      CV_HS_DIPLOMA - 1
    • Round 8:
      CV_ENROLLSTAT_EDT - 4
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_0405 - 3
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_EVER_EDT - 3
      CV_HS_DIPLOMA - 1
    • Round 9:
      CV_BA_CREDITS.01 - 2
      CV_ENROLLSTAT - 5
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_0506 - 4
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_EVER_EDT - 4
    • Round 10:
      CV_ENROLLSTAT - 5
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_0607 - 6
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_EVER_EDT - 6
      Round 11:
      CV_ENROLLSTAT - 4
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_0708 - 5
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_EVER_EDT - 5
    • Round 12:
      CV_ENROLLSTAT - 7
      CV_HGC_0809 - 1
      CV_HGC_EVER_EDT - 1
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_0809 - 7
      CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_EVER_EDT - 7

    3) Created child birth date/residence status - Round 12
    Data from the current round led to updated information on the children of respondents. The affected variables and number of respondents are the following:

    • CV_BIO_CHILD_HH - 3
    • CV_CHILD_BIRTH_DATE.01~M - 2
    • CV_CHILD_BIRTH_DATE.01~Y - 4
    • CV_CHILD_BIRTH_DATE.02~M - 3
    • CV_CHILD_BIRTH_DATE.02~Y - 2
    • CV_CHILD_BIRTH_MONTH.01 - 5
    • CV_CHILD_BIRTH_MONTH.02 - 3

Corrections to the NLSY97 Technical Sampling Report

The numbers in the last two columns (DEFF and DEFT) of tables 5.37-5.48 were incorrect (Table 5.49, which summarizes these tables, was also incorrect) in the NLSY97 Technical Sampling Report. These tables have been corrected.