NLSY79 Child and Young Adult

Prior to 2000, the Current Labor Force Status (CPS) questions in the Young Adult were very similar to those asked of the NLSY79 main Youth, as Young Adults not currently serving in the active military were asked about work activities during the last week. The survey determined if the respondent did any work for pay or profit, or unpaid work in a family business or farm. There were questions on whether respondents had a disability that prevented them from doing work, the number of jobs held or businesses worked at, and hours per week usually worked at each job. If they were currently laid off, they were asked about the duration of the layoff and job search activities engaged in. Those not working were asked about when they last worked, if they were searching for a job, and whether they were using active and/or passive job search methods. In 2000, the CPS section was eliminated. An official Labor Force Status variable for the week of the survey interview has not been created for Young Adults.

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts: The NLSY79 surveys have included a "Current Labor Force Status" (CPS) section in all survey rounds. Data are available on the work activity of those NLSY79 children who were age ten and over at the interview date as well as on each mother's survey week activity and work history during quarterly periods preceding and following the child's birth. 

Current labor force status is determined for all respondents in the NLSY97 and the four Original Cohorts for each survey year. However, the current labor force status questions were changed for the women's cohorts in 1995 to reflect the redesign of the CPS. Users should use caution when comparing labor force status from surveys before these years to the NLSY79. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort's User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.

Verbatim responses to questions such as "What kind of business or industry is this?  What do they make or do?" have been recorded within the Young Adult questionnaire in the Employer Supplements during each year's survey. These verbatims are then coded into various versions of the Census Bureau's industrial classification system which consists of 14 industry groups, representing more than 19,000 industries.

A set of variables, 'Type of Business or Industry Job #1-5,' codes the industry of up to five jobs in which the respondent worked since he or she was last interviewed. 

In 1994, the decision was made to use the 1970 coding frame, which was still in use in the main Youth data, to make the Young Adult data as directly comparable to the mother's data as possible. In addition, the CPS job, defined as the current or most recent primary job of the respondent, was coded using the 1990 coding frame. This pattern of coding was used for the 1996 and 1998 surveys as well.

For the 2000 survey, the 1994-1998 industry verbatims that had previously been classified using only the 1970 coding frame were coded again using the 1990 frame. As of the 2000 release, all industry verbatims, except for father's occupation, had both 1970 and 1990 Census codes available (YA 1970 1990 Census Occ and Ind Codes is a downloadable Word file with these codes).

Beginning in 2002, all jobs were coded using the 2000 Census industry coding frame. Switching to the 2000 coding frame allowed for greater accuracy in industry coding given the changes in job structure over time. Although this represents a disconnect from previous years, crosswalks between the 1990 and 2000 coding frames are available. Beginning in 2004, all industries are coded with the Census 4-digit, NAICS-based codes.

Note: For Census industrial and occupational codes go to NLSY79 Attachment 3.

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts: Information has been collected in all NLSY79 surveys on the type of industry for all jobs that respondents have worked. Industry is collected each year from NLSY97 respondents for both employee (respondents age 14 or older) and self-employed jobs (respondents age 16 or older) according to the industrial classification system. For the Mature and Young Women, industry has been coded using 1960, 1980, and 1990 systems. The industries of Older and Young Men were recorded using 1960 codes for all years; in the final two Older Men surveys, industry was doublecoded using the 1980 system. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort's User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.

Young Adult respondents provide the number of hours they usually work for each job reported, as well as the number of hours their spouse/partner usually worked per week at all jobs in the past 12 months.

Shift and Times Worked 

From 1994 to 1998, the Young Adult survey included questions about the usual start and stop times, as well as the type of shift, for all of the respondent's jobs plus their spouse/partner's main job during the last year. These questions were eliminated in 2000 and 2002. Since 2004, type of shift has been asked about all of the respondent's jobs and their spouse/partner's main job in the last year.

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts: The NLSY79 survey has collected extensive data on hours and shifts worked. Since 1988, NLSY79 surveys have differentiated the number of hours worked at home from the hours worked at the place of employment. Until 1993, information on shift and clock hours worked was collected only for the main job in the CPS section. From 1994 on, this information is gathered in the Employer Supplements for all jobs.

NLSY97 respondents age 14 and over with employee jobs and all respondents with freelance jobs provide information about the number of hours worked each week. The Mature and Young Women regularly reported the number of hours usually worked per day and per week; they reported exact times shifts begin and end starting in 1995. Older and Young Men reported the usual number of hours per week only.

Between-Job Gaps

Young Adult respondents provide dates for the beginning and ending of each job reported in a survey round or carried over from a previous round. From 1994 through 1998, the Young Adult survey included a section called "Gaps When Not Working or in Military." Respondents were asked the main reason they did not work during any gaps in employment: on strike, on layoff, quit job but returned to same employer, job ended for a period of time but began again, or some other reason. If the respondents were on unpaid vacation or leave, they provided details for that leave: going to school, in the Armed Forces, pregnancy, had health problems, had problems with child care, had other personal or family reason, school shut down (for school employees only), or did not want to work. In addition, respondents provided the number of weeks they were looking for work or on a layoff. If they were not looking for work during the gap, they provided the main reason (for instance: ill, in jail, transportation problems). The "Gaps When Not Working or in Military" section was eliminated in 2000. Researchers can still determine when such gaps appear, however, by using information collected on start and stop dates for both jobs and military service.

Within-Job Gaps

From 1994 to 1998, the Young Adult survey included the same detailed questions about within-job gaps as did the NLSY79. From 2000 to 2014, only two questions about within-job gaps were asked: has the respondent taken any unpaid leave of one week or more, and, if so, the total number of weeks of unpaid work.

Maternity Leave

Beginning in 2008, the Young Adult survey has included a series of questions for female respondents on work experiences around the birth of each child. These questions were modeled on the 1983 maternity leave questions in the NLSY79. In 2008, this series was asked retrospectively about leaves surrounding the births of all children. Beginning in 2010, maternity leave questions are only asked of YA mothers for whom these data had not been previously collected or if they had not returned to work as of the date of the last interview.

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts: The NLSY79 has collected detailed information about both within-job and between-job gaps. These time and tenure questions provide information on a respondent's time spent with an employer, time spent away from an employer during which the employment contract was maintained or renewed, and periods of time when the respondent was neither working for an employer nor serving in the active forces. Prior to 1998, with the exception of the 1983 maternity leave questions, maternity leave was not explicitly collected. Since 1988, female respondents (only) are asked for information on the total number of separate periods of paid leave from an employer which were taken due to either pregnancy or birth of a child. Start and stop dates are collected for each period of leave.

NLSY97 respondents provide the start and stop dates of each employee and freelance job, as well as military service. The survey also collects information about periods of a week or more when the respondent was not working at a given job. Tenure at current or last job is available for the Older Men for 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1971, and for the Younger Men for 1967, 1969, and 1971. For the Mature and Young Women, users may be able to create tenure variables for the later survey years by combining start and stop dates and data on within-job gaps. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort's User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.

From 1994 on, Young Adult respondents who have worked at least 20 hours a week as a regular employee have answered questions about employer-provided fringe benefits. These benefits include paid vacation and sick days, health insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, maternity/paternity leave, retirement, flexible hours, profit sharing, training or educational opportunities, and subsidized child care. The 1994 to 1998 survey years asked these fringe benefit questions for all jobs lasting 10 weeks or more. Starting in 2000, respondents answered these questions only for Job #1, the current or most recent primary job.

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts: Data have been collected during each NLSY79 survey on the availability of benefits provided by employers.  Questions on benefits for the NLSY97 cohort are only asked of respondents who report an employee job lasting at least 13 weeks that ended after the date of their 16th birthday, or who are age 16 and over and report an on-going employee job at which they have worked at least 13 weeks. Information on benefits has been collected for the Mature Women in 1977, 1982, 1987, 1989, and 1995-2003; for the Young Women in 1978 and each survey since 1983; and for the Young Men in 1976 and 1981. The exact categories of benefits for which information was recorded may vary; generally, less information was collected in earlier years. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort's User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.

The Young Adult survey originally collected information about training received outside of regular schooling or the military, as well as about certificates, licenses and journeyman's cards. 

Prior to 2000, this section collected detailed questions on up to six training experiences. From 2000 through 2006 detailed questions were asked only about the current or most recent training program, if applicable. Respondents were asked to identify the type of training and the duration of the program, as well as the source of money used to pay for the training. Respondents were also asked for a total number of additional training programs they had attended either ever or since the date of last interview. Beginning in 2008, the only training questions retained were those pertaining to certificates, licenses and journeyman's cards for practicing professions and what professions these are for. Young Adults who are still in high school do not enter this section. 

Users should note that the questions pertaining to certificates, licenses and journeyman's cards have been asked every round since 1994, and Census occupation codes are available for each certificate, license or journeyman's card reported.

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts. Information has been collected during all NLSY79 survey years on the type of organization providing the training in which respondents participated. In addition to regularly fielded general training questions, special data collections have focused on government training administered in the early years of the NLSY79, high school courses, degrees and certifications, and time use.

The NLSY97 asks all respondents who were at least 16 years old whether they had ever participated in any occupational training programs outside of their regular schooling. For each program, the survey then collects basic information, including the type of program, start and stop dates, time devoted to the training, periods of nonattendance lasting a week or longer during training sessions of at least two weeks, and whether the program was completed (and if not, the reason). In each round, respondents were asked about whether they participated in government training programs. Additional questions asked for specific programs and their duration.

Original Cohort respondents were asked questions about training both on and off the job and focused on government training programs. For the Young Men, details concerning training received in the military (other than basic training) were gathered in the 1966, 1969, 1971, 1976, and 1981 surveys. In 1975, among other additions, a new provider, "government program or agency", was added to the "Training" section of the Young Women survey. Beginning in 1984, a new category, "government agency", was added to the "Training" section of the Mature Women survey. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort's User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.

Sample & Survey Design

A separate, one-time survey was conducted in 1995-1996 of the schools attended by NLSY79 children (over the age of five) in the 1994 and 1995 school years. The survey collected information about the characteristics of the school, graduation rate, ethnic and sex composition of student body and staff, school policies and practices, and community involvement. Information was also obtained about the child's academic success, social adjustment, participation in school activities, the child's grade level, attendance record, and involvement in special programs. The third part of the survey collected standardized test scores from student transcripts for each child. 

Data Collection & Instrumentation

The Child School Survey data collection had several components. The Principal Questionnaire, completed by the principal of the school, included information about characteristics of the school, school policies and practices, and school-community interfaces. A second Child Schooling Questionnaire, filled out by school office personnel for each child, included grade, attendance, involvement in special programs and grade level information. Requests for transcripts yielded standardized test scores for about 34 percent of the children.

The Child School Survey Data

The Child data file contains 375 Child School Survey variables for a sample of about 3,000 children. Due to confidentiality restrictions, not all the items that were asked in each Child School Survey questionnaire appear on the public file. The original eligible universe of children consisted of those enrolled between grades one and twelve in the 1994-1995 school year. For a few children, enrollment status referred to their 1993-1994 school year, but for most the reference period was the 1994-1995 school year. Children under the age of 15 as of the end of 1994 were eligible for data collection if they were living with their mother; older children could be living either with their mother or in other types of residence. Children also needed to be at least age 5 at the time of interview. An estimated 4,441 children met these eligibility criteria.

For 334 children, information was obtained from more than one school, since the child attended more than one school during the interview window.  Additionally, some children were eligible for inclusion in only one of the two years, so the data collection window encompassed only that one school year. The data file includes information for these children for up to two schools. Information collected during the 1995-1996 year could only be collected for schools attended during the preceding two years as the waiver formed signed by the parent only permitted access to records available in the schools the children had attended during that period.

Documentation

The Child School survey variables are assigned to the CHILD SCHOOL SURVEY area of interest. Unlike all the other Child variables, the school survey variables are identified by reference numbers that begin with the letter "S." The question names for variables from the Child Schooling Questionnaire are prefixed with a "C" following by the school number (1 or 2), while those from the Principal Questionnaire begin with a "P". The question items in the file are named according to the sequence in which they appeared in the field questionnaires. Users are encouraged to access copies of the actual instruments (see the Questionnaires page).

• Child
• Young Adult

Child

School Behavior

Information about child behavior at school is collected from the mother, starting with the 1988 survey. The mother reports, for all school age children, whether the child has ever had any behavior problems at school resulting in a note or being asked to come in and talk to the teacher or principal. She also reports, in each survey round, whether the child has ever been suspended or expelled from school and the grade in which the event first happened. These items are assigned to the year-specific MOTHER SUPPLEMENT area of interest and can be found in the Child documentation as follows: 

In 2000 only, the above items were asked in the Child Supplement and therefore assigned to the year-specific CHILD SUPPLEMENT area of interest. In all other survey rounds, they are found in the MOTHER SUPPLEMENT area of interest.

School Survey

As part of the 1995-1996 Child School Survey, there is information on the number of times the child was suspended in 1993-1995 and the number of students suspended from the same school at the same grade level. The School Survey also reports the number of times the child was expelled and the number of children at the same grade level expelled in the child's school. These items, documented as follows, are assigned to the CHILD SCHOOL SURVEY area of interest:

Table 1. Variable titles and question names for school discipline questions from Child School Survey

For some children, information was obtained from more than one school, since the child attended more than one school during the interview window. The question names for variables from the Child Schooling Questionnaire are prefixed with a "C" following by the school number (1 or 2). Titles for questions from the first school begin wtih "SCHOOLING #1", and titles for questions from the second school begin with "SCHOOLING #2".

BPI Scale

As part of the antisocial subscale of the Behavior Problems Index, completed by mothers in all survey years for children ages 4 and older, there are two items related to school discipline:

BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS INDEX: CHILD IS DISOBEDIENT AT SCHOOL
BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS INDEX: CHILD HAS TROUBLE GETTING ALONG WITH TEACHER

The BPI items are assigned to the MOTHER SUPPLEMENT area of interest for each survey year. Since 2008, the BPI items are also assigned to the ASSESSMENT ITEMS area of interest.

Young Adult

While Young Adult respondents are not asked explicitly about any school discipline, they do provide information about the main reason they left school, as well as the main reason for any gaps in secondary school attendance, with one of the answer categories for those questions being suspension/expulsion.

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts: The 1980 NLSY79 survey included several questions on school discipline problems: whether respondents had ever been suspended or expelled from school, and if so, the number of times, date of most recent disciplinary action, and when/if the youth had returned to school. Similar to the Young Adult, the questions in the NLSY79 schooling section about reasons for nonenrollment include expulsion/suspension. Information was collected on behavior problems evidenced by children of NLSY79 respondents that resulted in either the parent's notification or disciplinary action. NLSY97 respondents are asked whether they have been suspended and, if so, for what periods. The Young Women and the Young Men surveys ask respondents whether they have ever been suspended or expelled from school. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.

The NLSY79 Child surveys contain a wide range of detailed assessment information about the children of female respondents. From 1986 through 2014, a battery of child cognitive, socio-emotional, and physiological assessments were administered biennially for age-appropriate children. Assessments related to aptitude, achievement, and cognitive ability are listed below. Each individual assessment is discussed in more detail in the Assessments section of the topical guide. Users may also wish to review the Introduction to the Assessments section, which contains general information about the administration of the child assessments.

1. Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) Math - (American Guidance Service), a PIAT subtest that offers a wide-range measure of achievement in mathematics for children with a PPVT age of five years or older.
2. PIAT Reading Recognition and Reading Comprehension - (American Guidance Service), PIAT subtests that assess the attained reading knowledge and comprehension of children with a PPVT age of five and older.
3. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R), Form L - (American Guidance Service), a wide-range test used to measure the hearing vocabulary knowledge of children whose PPVT age is three and above.  Administered to children age 4 and 5 or 10 and 11 starting with the 1996 survey round.
4. Parts of the Body - ten items, developed by Kagan, that measure the ability of children aged one or two to identify various parts of their bodies. This assessment was not administered after 1988.
5. Memory for Locations - an assessment, developed by Kagan, that measures the ability of children eight months of age through three years to remember the location of an object which is subsequently hidden from view. This assessment was not used after 1988.
6. Verbal Memory - a subtest of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (Psychological Corporation) that assesses short-term verbal memory of children aged three through six years to remember words, sentences, or major concepts from a short story. Part C, the story, was not used after the 1990 survey. This assessment was not administered after 1994.
7. Memory for Digit Span - a component of the revised Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (Psychological Corporation) which assesses the ability of children seven through eleven years of age to remember and repeat numbers sequentially in forward and reverse order.

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, revised edition (PPVT-R) "measures an individual's receptive (hearing) vocabulary for Standard American English and provides, at the same time, a quick estimate of verbal ability or scholastic aptitude" (Dunn and Dunn, 1981). The PPVT-R was designed for use with individuals aged 2½ to 40 years. The English language version of the PPVT-R consists of 175 vocabulary items of generally increasing difficulty. The child listens to a word uttered by the interviewer and then selects one of four pictures that best describes the word's meaning. The PPVT-R has been administered, with some exceptions, to NLSY79 children between the ages of 3-18 years of age until 1994, when children 15 and older moved into the Young Adult survey. Variations in the patterns of administration are somewhat complex for this assessment so the user is encouraged to examine Table 4 in the Child Assessments—Introduction section in order to understand which samples of children took this test over the various survey years. The last survey round to include the PPVT-R was 2014.

Description of the PPVT

The PPVT-R consists of 175 stimulus words and 175 corresponding image plates. Each image plate contains 4 black-and-white drawings, one of which best represents the meaning of the corresponding stimulus word. There are also 5 training words and image plates. Readers who wish to examine more than a single example of the actual images (or "plates") presented to the child, should access the PPVT-R Manual and materials (Dunn and Dunn, 1981) or contact NLS User Services. There are two parallel forms of the PPVT-R; Form "L" has been used by the NLSY79 Child at all assessment rounds. PPVT-R items are numbered in order of increasing difficulty.

In 1986, the PPVT assessment was administered only in English. A Spanish version of the PPVT-R, the Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody or "TVIP," was introduced into the child survey in 1988 and used through the 2000 survey round for a small number of children who preferred to answer the Spanish version.  For this reason, post-1986 assessment results may be less culturally biased than the 1986 version. After 2000, the Spanish version of the PPVT-R was no longer administered.

Administration of the PPVT

Prior to 2000, the child viewed the images on the PPVT easel. Starting in 2000 the interviewer read from a laminated PPVT word list while the child matched the word by selecting one of four on-screen images designed to reproduce the pictures from the original PPVT easel.

Five training items were administered at the beginning of the PPVT assessment in order to familiarize children with the task. The first item, or starting point, was determined based on the child's PPVT age. Starting at an age-specific level of difficulty is intended to reduce the number of items that are too easy or too difficult, in order to minimize boredom or frustration. The suggested starting points for each age can be found in the PPVT-R manual (Dunn and Dunn, 1981).  

Testing began with the starting point and proceeded forward until the child made an incorrect response. If the child  made 8 or more correct responses before the first error, a "basal" was established. The basal is defined as the last item in the highest series of 8 consecutive correct answers. Once the basal was established, testing proceeded forwards, until the child made six errors in eight consecutive items. If, however, the child gave an incorrect response before 8 consecutive correct answers had been made, testing proceeded backwards, beginning at the item just before the starting point, until 8 consecutive correct responses had been made. If a child did not make eight consecutive responses even after administering all of the items, he or she was given a basal of one. If a child had more than one series of 8 consecutive correct answers, the highest basal was used to compute the raw score. 

A "ceiling" was established when a child incorrectly identified six of eight consecutive items. The ceiling was defined as the last item in the lowest series of eight consecutive items with six incorrect responses. If more than one ceiling was identified, the lowest ceiling was used to compute the raw score. The assessment was complete once both a basal and a ceiling had been established. The ceiling was set to 175 if the child never made six errors in eight consecutive item

Scoring the PPVT

A child's raw score is the number of correct answers below the ceiling. Note that all answers below the highest basal were counted as correct, even if the child answered some of these items incorrectly. The raw score can be calculated by subtracting the number of errors between the highest basal and lowest ceiling from the item number of the lowest ceiling.

As with PIAT Math and Reading Comprehension, it was possible, primarily in the pre-CAPI years, to improve the overall quality and completion level by utilizing information on the actual responses where "correct-wrong" check items had inadvertently been skipped by the interviewer. For a precise statement of the scoring protocol and the norm derivations, the user should consult the PPVT-R Manual (Dunn and Dunn, 1981, pp. 96-110, 126).

Age eligibility for the PPVT

Variations in the patterns of administration are somewhat complex for this assessment so the user is encouraged to examine Table 4 in the Child Assessments—Introduction section in order to understand which samples of children took this test over the various survey years.

In 1986, all children age three and over were given this assessment. In 1988, all ten- and eleven-year-olds (our "index" population) as well as other children age three and over who had not previously completed the assessment in 1986 were given this assessment. In 1990, all children age ten and eleven as well as all other children age four and over who had not previously completed the assessment were eligible for the PPVT-R assessment.  In the 1992 survey round, all children age three and over were eligible to be assessed. Thus, there are at least two survey points (1986 and 1992) in which all age-eligible children who were still being interviewed had a PPVT-R score. Of course, many of these children may also have had an intervening (at age 10 or 11) PPVT-R score. Starting in 1998, the administration of the PPVT-R was largely limited to 4- and 5-year-old children who had not been previously administered the test as well as the index group of children 10-11 years old. In 2004, 2006 and 2010-2014, a small number of children outside of the age range for PPVT assessment but who did not have prior valid scores were administered the PPVT. The last survey round to include the PPVT-R was 2014.

Norms for the PPVT

The PPVT-R was standardized on a nationally representative sample of children and youth. The norming sample included 4,200 children in 1979, and norms development took place in 1980 (Dunn and Dunn, 1981). For a comprehensive discussion of this norming procedure, researchers should refer to the PPVT-R Manual for Forms L and M (Dunn and Dunn, 1981). Age-specific standard scores (with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15) and corresponding percentile ranks are provided in the PPVT-R Manual.

Beginning in 1990, the procedure used to create the NLSY79 Child PPVT-R normed scores was refined in two important ways. First, children with raw scores that translated into standard scores between 20 and 39 are now normed using the PPVT-R Supplementary Norms Tables (American Guidance Service, 1981).  Second, raw scores that would translate to normed standard scores above the maximum provided are assigned standard scores of 160, and raw scores translating to standard scores below the minimum are now assigned standard scores of 20. Prior to 1990, children with these scores were assigned a standard score of zero.  The revised 1986-1988 normed scores are available in the current public data release.

Users may note one important distinction between the PPVT-R and PIAT scores--a difference of particular interest to those who plan to use both assessments concurrently. Whereas the PIAT assessments show relatively high mean scores (see discussions of the PIAT in the PIAT Math and Reading sections of this users guide), the PPVT-R mean scores are more comparable to those of the norming sample.

Completion rates for the PPVT

Table 6 in the Child Assessments—Introduction section contains the completion rate for the PPVT-R in 2014, the last survey round to include the PPVT-R.

Validity and reliability of the PPVT

The PPVT-R is among the best-established indicators of verbal intelligence and scholastic aptitude across childhood. It is among the most frequently cited tests in Mitchell's (1983) "Tests in Print." Numerous studies have replicated the reliability estimates from the PPVT standardization sample. The NLSY Child Handbook: 1986-1990 synthesizes much of this work. This report also provides cross-year (1986-1990) reliability and validity evaluation using the NLSY79 Child data. The NLSY Children, 1992: Description and Evaluation contains an evaluation of the quality issues for the 1992 PPVT-R sample, which included the full spectrum of children age three and over. These analyses show strong associations between a full range of social and demographic priors and 1992 PPVT-R scores. The report also documents strong independent linkages between PPVT-R scores in 1986 and PPVT, PIAT Reading and Mathematics, and SPPC scores in 1992. Typically, stronger associations are found for white and Hispanic than for black children. Both of these documents are available on the Research/Technical Reports page.

Age and racial differences on the PPVT

The youngest children administered this test historically scored the poorest, probably reflecting their unfamiliarity with a testing environment. Their lower scores did not reflect lower status as these younger children have parents with more education than do the older children.

More than for any of the other assessments, substantial racial and ethnic variations exist for the PPVT, and these variations remain in multivariate analyses even with demographic and socio-economic controls. The reader is referred to The NLSY Children, 1992: Description and Evaluation for a more comprehensive evaluation of racial, ethnic, and socio-economic differentials in PPVT-R scores using the 1992 NLSY79 data which included PPVT-R assessment scores for all children age 3 years and over. This document is available on the Research/Technical Reports page.

PPVT scores in the database

Three types of PPVT scores are provided in each survey round from 1986 through 2014: a raw score, a standard score, and a percentile score. Documentation of the PPVT scores for 2014, the most recent round to include the PPVT, can be found in Table 1 in the Child Assessments—Introduction section.