Errata for 2010 Child/Young Adult Release

The Investigator contains the most recent release of each NLS cohort. Known problems with the current release of the Child-Young Adult are found below. Corrections have been made to items noted in the Errata of prior releases. For further questions, please contact NLS User Services.

Important note: NLSY urban/rural residence variable

Users are cautioned that we have discovered an error in the NLSY urban/rural residence variable. This error affects variables in the following rounds:

• NLSY79: rounds 21-22 (2004-2006)
• NLSY79 young adult: rounds 21-22 (2004-2006)

The revised NLSY79 urban/rural variables will be released on this errata page as soon as they are created. We suggest that researchers using this variable obtain the revised data before concluding their research.

The error stems from a change in the Census Bureau's definition of an urban area. The 1990 Census criteria used in creating the NLSY urban/rural residence variable used the population of a place to determine the correct classification. People who lived in urbanized areas or places with a population of 2,500 or more were considered urban; everyone else was rural. The 2000 Census criteria changed the method of determining whether a particular point was urban or rural to one that relied on population density within an area. Areas of higher population density are called Urbanized Areas (UA) and Urban Clusters (UC). Residence in either is now considered urban.

From 2003 (the first year the new definition could be implemented), the NLS geocoders used a hybrid approach that considered respondents living in either an Urbanized Area (but NOT an Urban Cluster) or a place with a population of 2,500 or more to be urban. Otherwise the code is rural. A preliminary estimate of the differences between using this hybrid code and the 2000 Census definition indicates that 6% to 7% of respondents may be affected.

The Census Bureau website provides additional explanation about the Difference Between Urbanized Area Criteria from the 1990 Census and Census 2000.

R24-2010 NLSY79 Child-Young Adult Release

1) YA incorrect variable titles (September 2012)

The following variables were inadvertently assigned incorrect titles. Below are the corrected titles:

2) NLSY79 Child Survey: BPI Externalizing/Internalizing scales (Sept 2012)

The NLSY79 Child survey dataset provides users with two sets of scores based on the Behavior Problems Index items, administered to mothers of children age 4-14. One set of scores is based on binary recoded items (Often or Sometimes true, 1,2 = 1; Not true, 3=0). The second set, based on trichotomous inputs, is constructed from items that are recoded from 1 (Often True), 2 (Sometimes true), 3 (Not true) to 0, 1, 2 with the following recoding: 3=0, 2=1, 1=2 before summing. These "trichotomous-based" BPI scores are designed to measure a child's tendency to internalize or externalize behaviors. The composition of both types of scales can be found in Appendix D-1 of the NLSY79 Child/YA Data Users Guide.

A file that documents the norms for the external/internal BPI scores can be found here. In the next updated NLSY79 Child data users guide, the external/internal norms will be included as a table in Appendix D. The norms for the dichotomous-based BPI scores are available in Appendix D-2 of the NLSY79 Child/YA Data Users Guide.

3) R24-2010 Child Supplement Interviewer ID (January 2013)

The following variable, from the R24-2010 NLSY79 Child Supplement, was inadvertently excluded from the 1986-2010 NLSY79 Child/YA public data release:

C51327.01 CSIR-IDNUM-REV INT REMARKS: INTERVIEWER ASSIGNMENT IDENTIFICATION NUMBER FOR CASE 2010

4) First cohabitation/First marriage transposition (May 2013)

The data for first cohabitation and first marriage, in the YA FERTILITY AND RELATIONSHIP DATA - CREATED area of interest, are transposed. The corrected data will be available on the next data release.

Below is a crosswalk indicating which variables are transposed:

Errata folder last updated 11/22/2019