• Household and family composition
• Household identification and linkages: Multiple respondent households

This section describes variables related to household and family composition, household identification, linkages between members of multiple respondent households, and household residence. Some familiarity with the following survey instruments which gather information on households is necessary: the Original Cohort Household Record Cards, the Original Cohort "Household Roster," and the household screeners that were used to select respondents for the various cohorts. The "Survey Instruments and Other Documentation" section provides detailed descriptions of each of these instruments. This section does not delineate variables pertaining to characteristics or experiences of household members, the presence of partners within the household, or geographical areas of residence. Those interested in information collected specifically on household members should explore the individual topic of interest, e.g., age, sex, educational status, etc. The availability of information on partners is discussed in the Marriage & Fertility section. Finally, those interested in information detailing respondents' geographic residence, e.g., state, county, or SMSA, should reference the Geographic Residence & Environmental Characteristics topical discussion.

Household and family composition

During each survey year except the 1968 Older Men mail survey, a complete listing of family or household members is available from the "Household Roster" or household enumeration section of the questionnaire. This household section listed household/family members and, for each member, specified information such as that member's relationship to the respondent, his/her age, school enrollment status, and highest grade completed, and work experience information such as number of weeks worked, hours worked per week, and occupation. In general, household record items were transcribed from the Household Record Cards, documents that were completed before the interview began. As an exception, certain telephone interviews did not update all information on the Household Record Cards; new information was collected directly on the household roster.

Older Men

Table 1 provides a list of the types of information collected in the household roster in each interview. In addition, it depicts whether the roster referred only to members related to the respondent or to all household members. During earlier survey years of the Older Men, only family members (i.e., related household members) were included on the household roster; in more recent years, all household members were listed. However, variable titles were not changed to reflect this difference. Thus, 'Household Record - Family Member # 5: Relationship to R,' may actually provide a relationship to the respondent of an unrelated household member. Users should examine the household roster section of the questionnaire to determine whether unrelated household members were listed in a given year.

In addition to the information depicted in the table, the 1981 Older Men household roster included a question asking whether the respondent and each household member were living together in 1976. If not, a follow-up question asked why they decided to live together (e.g., marriage, health, financial help, share expenses, etc.). These questions were repeated in 1983 with a reference date of 1981.

The 1990 survey design includes more than one household roster. In the sample person questionnaire, Older Men respondents living at home responded to roster questions as in past surveys. In addition to the data in Table 1, this roster asked whether the respondent and each household member were living together at the date of the last interview and, if not, why they decided to live together. If the Older Men respondent was living in a long-term care institution, a similar but separate roster asked him to report characteristics of the members of his household just before he entered the institution. An additional question inquired whether each member was still living in that household at the interview date. Finally, the respondent reported whether he had lived with each member at the date of his last interview, but the follow-up question was not asked of institutionalized respondents.

The same pattern was repeated in the widow questionnaire, addressed to widows of Older Men respondents. Widows living at home were asked about their current household, including the questions on whether they had lived with each member at their husbands' last interview date. Widows living in long-term care institutions answered the same questions about their former household that appeared in the sample person questionnaire.

Young Men

Table 2 lists the information gathered in the various Young Men household roster in each interview. In all surveys of the Young Men, the actual household roster included only family members. However, in later surveys, some information about unrelated household members was collected on a separate but similar roster. These data are included in the table below and can be located in the data set by searching for the phrase "household members not related to R" in variable titles.

Users should be aware that relationship codes for family and household members varied across survey years. Figure 1 below provides information about the relationship codes used in different surveys to classify relationships between the respondent and members of his household.

Household identification and linkages

The sampling design used to select respondents often generated more than one NLS respondent from the same household. More than three-quarters of the respondents from the Young Men cohort and one-third of the respondents from the Older Men cohort shared the same household with at least one other respondent from the same or another cohort at the time the screening was performed (see Tables 3 and 4). To facilitate use of this unique aspect of NLS data, constructed variables link respondents sharing the same household at the time of the 1966 screening.

Variables specifying common relationships are available within each Original Cohort data set. These variables provide the identification codes of other respondents originating from the same household by relationship and cohort, e.g., 'Identification Code of 1st Sister.' The following relationship linkages are available for the applicable cohorts: spouses, mothers/fathers and children, and siblings. Table 5 depicts the numbers and types of pairs among Original Cohort members during the initial survey years.

CHRR staff developed relationship codes based on a Census tape that included the identification numbers of all individuals who shared a household during the screening procedure. The following logic was used in assigning relationship codes: if a 47-year-old man from the Older Men cohort said he had a 38-year-old wife and a 38-year-old woman from the Mature Women cohort with the same household ID said she had a 47-year-old husband, husband-wife relationships were assigned. A one-year difference was allowed between the reported ages; three years of interview information were checked.

Although other types of relationships may have existed, only spouse, sibling, or parent/child relationship codes were assigned. However, identification of other relationship types is possible through use of created variables (R00003. to R00021.) that provide, by cohort, both the ID numbers of other respondents in the household (e.g., 'Identification Code of 1st Older Male in R's Household') and of the household ('Identification Code of R's Household'). To determine the nature of other relationships, users can match characteristics of household members from the first respondent's information (e.g., the age he claims for a cousin) with characteristics of household members on the second respondent's household roster (e.g., the age reported for a cousin), as was done for the development of the relationships described above.

Note that phrases such as "Younger Female," "Older Male," etc., within the variable titles refer to the cohort--not to the relative age to the respondent. For example, a 14-year-old male has a 17-year-old sister; both are respondents. On his record, she would be called a "Younger Female" because she is in the Young Women cohort.