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National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97)

Errata for NLSY97 Round 9 Release

Important information: Errata updates in NLS Investigator

The NLS Investigator contains the most recent public release of each NLS cohort. Corrections have been made based on the items listed below (unless otherwise noted). These older, corrected error notices are retained for archival purposes, such as enabling replication of research performed before the errors were discovered. Please contact NLS User Services for additional information. Note: Any Geocode-related errata corrections have been made to the restricted-use data file. See the Accessing Data / Cohort page for more information on utilizing restricted-use data.

Significant changes made between the October 2006 round 8 event history file release and the September 2007 round 9 file release

Dropped case and sampling weight variables - Rounds 6-7

All data for 1 case in rounds 2 through 8 have been deleted, as interviewers discovered that the wrong person had been interviewed in those rounds. As a result, the sampling weight variables for those rounds were recomputed.

Created college credits variables - Rounds 2-8

Two main changes were made to this set of variables to standardize variables across rounds:

  1. An invalid skip (-3) was assigned to rounds in which an answer of don't know (-2) or refuse (-1) was erroneously coded in the Round 2 and the Round 3 surveys.
  2. A correction was made to Round 1 and Round 2 cases in which respondents who were not enrolled in a college program were incorrectly assigned a 0 percentage rather than a valid skip (-4).

The variables and number of cases affected are the following:

  • Round 2:
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.01 - 8380
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.02 - 8321
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.03 - 8375
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.04 - 8385
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.05 - 8385
    CV_BA_CREDITS.01 - 8382
    CV_BA_CREDITS.02 - 8382
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.03 - 8151
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.04 - 8374
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.05 - 8384
  • Round 3:
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.01 - 121
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.02 - 273
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.03 - 20
    CV_BA_CREDITS.01 - 133
    CV_BA_CREDITS.02 - 645
    CV_BA_CREDITS.03 - 18
    CV_BA_CREDITS.04 - 2
  • Round 4:
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.01 - 203
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.02 - 218
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.03 - 19
    CV_BA_CREDITS.01 - 199
    CV_BA_CREDITS.02 - 645
    CV_BA_CREDITS.03 - 19
  • Round 5:
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.01 - 316
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.02 - 246
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.03 - 23
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.04 - 2
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.05 - 1
    CV_BA_CREDITS.01 - 318
    CV_BA_CREDITS.02 - 251
    CV_BA_CREDITS.03 - 23
    CV_BA_CREDITS.04 - 2
  • Round 6:
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.01 - 391
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.02 - 218
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.03 - 19
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.04 - 5
    CV_BA_CREDITS.01 - 391
    CV_BA_CREDITS.02 - 224
    CV_BA_CREDITS.03 - 18
    CV_BA_CREDITS.04 - 5
  • Round 7:
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.01 - 447
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.02 - 198
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.03 - 15
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.04 - 1
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.05 - 1
    CV_BA_CREDITS.01 - 449
    CV_BA_CREDITS.02 - 202
    CV_BA_CREDITS.03 - 15
    CV_BA_CREDITS.04 - 1
    CV_BA_CREDITS.05 - 1
  • Round 8:
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.01 - 519
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.02 - 137
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.03 - 15
    CV_ASSOC_CREDITS.04 - 1
    CV_BA_CREDITS.01 - 537
    CV_BA_CREDITS.02 - 140
    CV_BA_CREDITS.03 - 17

Created age 20 assets variables - Rounds 6-8

Due to small coding errors involving mortgages, education loans, and government loans, variables in rounds 6 through round 8 have been updated. The variables and number of cases affected are the following:

  • Round 6:
    CV_HH_NET_WORTH_Y - 2
  • Round 7:
    CV_HH_NET_WORTH_Y - 31
  • Round 8:
    CV_HH_NET_WORTH_20 - 88
    CV_ASSETS_DEBTS_20 - 31
    CV_HOUSE_DEBT_20 - 60

In addition, respondents who rented were wrongly assigned a valid skip rather than a housing value of 0 and a housing type of 6; these values were updated in the round 8 CV_HOUSE_TYPE_20 (4642 cases) and the round 8 CV_HOUSE_VALUE_20 (7173 cases) variables.

Created unemployment spells - Round 8

In round 8, CV_UI_SPELLS_YR.96 was incorrectly coded as a 0 for 2940 respondents; this variable was updated to the correct code of a valid skip (-4).

Created transcript variables - Round 3

The construction of TRANS_ACAD_CONC and TRANS_ACAD_SPEC were not consistent with the construction of TRANS_VOC_CONC and TRANS_VOC_SPEC. As a result, 802 TRANS_ACAD_CONC cases were recoded to 'yes' because they also met the requirements for one of the vocational categories (specialist or concentrator). In the TRANS_ACAD_SPEC variable, the change reclassifies to 'yes' 475 cases that had been classified as 'no' because they also met the requirements for one of the vocational categories.

Created wage, compensation and job length variables - Rounds 2-6

The deletion of duplicate job information from the employer supplements led to deletions in the created wage compensation and job length variables. The variables and number of cases affected are the following:

  • Round 2:
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.02 - 2
    CV_HRLY_PAY.02 - 2
    CV_JOB<13WKS.02 - 2
  • Round 3:
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.02 - 1
    CV_HRLY_PAY.02 - 1
    CV_JOB<13WKS.02 - 1
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.03 - 1
    CV_HRLY_PAY.03 - 1
    CV_JOB<13WKS.03 - 1
  • Round 4:
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.01 - 1
    CV_HRLY_PAY.01 - 1
    CV_JOB<13WKS.01 - 1
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.02 - 2
    CV_HRLY_PAY.02 - 2
    CV_JOB<13WKS.02 - 2
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.03 - 2
    CV_HRLY_PAY.03 - 2
    CV_JOB<13WKS.03 - 2
  • Round 5:
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.01 - 2
    CV_HRLY_PAY.01 - 2
    CV_JOB<13WKS.01 - 2
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.02 - 10
    CV_HRLY_PAY.02 - 10
    CV_JOB<13WKS.02 - 10
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.03 - 6
    CV_HRLY_PAY.03 - 6
    CV_JOB<13WKS.03 - 6
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.04 - 1
    CV_HRLY_PAY.04 - 1
    CV_JOB<13WKS.04 - 1
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.05 - 1
    CV_HRLY_PAY.05 - 1
    CV_JOB<13WKS.05 - 1
  • Round 6:
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.01 - 4
    CV_HRLY_PAY.01 - 4
    CV_JOB<13WKS.01 - 4
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.02 - 16
    CV_HRLY_PAY.02 - 16
    CV_JOB<13WKS.02 - 16
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.03 - 6
    CV_HRLY_PAY.03 - 6
    CV_JOB<13WKS.03 - 6
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.04 - 1
    CV_HRLY_PAY.04 - 1
    CV_JOB<13WKS.04 - 1
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.05 - 2
    CV_HRLY_PAY.05 - 2
    CV_JOB<13WKS.05 - 2
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.06 - 1
    CV_HRLY_PAY.06 - 1
    CV_JOB<13WKS.06 - 1
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.07 - 2
    CV_HRLY_PAY.07 - 2
    CV_JOB<13WKS.07 - 2
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.08 - 2
    CV_HRLY_PAY.08 - 2
    CV_JOB<13WKS.08 - 2
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.09 - 1
    CV_HRLY_PAY.09 - 1
    CV_JOB<13WKS.09 - 1
    CV_HRLY_COMPENSATION.10 - 1
    CV_HRLY_PAY.10 - 1
    CV_JOB<13WKS.10 - 1

Created household size variables - Rounds 2-8

In round 3, the household roster used to create the created household size variables was not fully cleaned; as a result a number of updates were made to the round 3 household size variables. In addition, a small programming error that affected all rounds was corrected. The variables and number of cases affected are the following:

  • Round 2:
    CV_HHSIZE - 72
    CV_HH_UNDER_18 - 178
    CV_HH_UNDER_6 - 125
  • Round 3:
    CV_HHSIZE - 75
    CV_HH_UNDER_18 - 1229
    CV_HH_UNDER_6 - 275
  • Round 4:
    CV_HHSIZE - 2
    CV_HH_UNDER_18 - 85
    CV_HH_UNDER_6 - 81
  • Round 5:
    CV_HHSIZE - 2
    CV_HH_UNDER_18 - 2
    CV_HH_UNDER_6 - 2
  • Round 7:
    CV_HHSIZE - 1
    CV_HH_UNDER_18 - 4
    CV_HH_UNDER_6 - 3
  • Round 8:
    CV_HH_UNDER_18 - 4, CV_HH_UNDER_6 - 3

Created highest degree received variables - Round 2

In the round 2 data, the values for a small number of respondents were reversed in the following variables:

  • CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_EVER - 34
  • CV_HIGHEST_DEGREE_YEAR - 31

Created parent distance variables - Round 8

The prior round's address for deceased parents was mistakenly coded to determine the distance between the parent and the respondent. The affected variables were updated to a valid skip (-4) for the following cases:

  • CV_DISTANCE_MOM_COL - 13
  • CV_DISTANCE_MOM_QUALITY - 202
  • CV_DISTANCE_DAD_COL - 62
  • CV_DISTANCE_DAD_QUALITY - 504

Created fertility variables - Rounds 4-8

New data led to updated information on the children of 4 respondents. The affected variables and respondent ids are the following:

  • 1 case in round 4 through round 8:
    CV_CHILD_DEATH_DATE.01~M
    CV_CHILD_DEATH_DATE.01~Y
    CV_CHILD_DEATH_MONTH.01 CV_CHILD_STATUS.01
    CV_BIO_CHILD_HH
    CV_BIO_CHILD_NR
  • 3 cases in round 6 through round 8:
    CV_BIO_CHILD_HH
    CV_BIO_CHILD_NR

Created marriage variables - Rounds 3-8

New data led to updated information on the marital and cohabitation status of 39 respondents. The affected variables and respondent ids are the following:

  • 1 case in rounds 3 to 8:
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~M
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~Y
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_MONTH
  • 1 case in rounds 5 to 8:
    CV_MARRIAGES_TTL
  • 1 case in rounds 6 to 8:
    CV_FIRST_MARRY_DATE~M
    CV_FIRST_MARRY_DATE~Y
    CV_FIRST_MARRY_MONTH
  • 3 cases in rounds 6 to 8:
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~M
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~Y
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_MONTH
  • 1 case in rounds 6 and 7:
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~M
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~Y
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_MONTH
  • 1 case in rounds 6 to 8:
    CV_MARRIAGES_TTL
  • 1 case in rounds 6 to 8:
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_MONTH and in rounds 7 & 8: CV_FIRST_COHAB_MONTH~M/Y
  • 1 case in rounds 6 to 8:
    CV_MARSTAT
    CV_MARSTAT_COLLAPSED
  • 1 case in round 7:
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~M
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~Y
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_MONTH
  • 6 cases in rounds 7 and 8:
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~M
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~Y
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_MONTH
  • 1 case in rounds 7 and 8:
    CV_MARSTAT
    CV_MARSTAT_COLLAPSED
  • 1 case in round 8:
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~M
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE~Y
    CV_FIRST_COHAB_MONTH
  • 1 case in round 8:
    CV_MARRIAGES_TTL
  • 16 cases in round 8:
    CV_MARSTAT
    CV_MARSTAT_COLLAPSED
  • 3 cases in round 8:
    CV_FIRST_MARRY_DATE~M
    CV_FIRST_MARRY_DATE~Y
    CV_FIRST_MARRY_MONTH