Survey Instruments

 

The primary variables found within the main data set are derived directly from one or more survey instruments.  This section explains the conventions used in the NLSY97 documentation to identify questionnaire items from some of the primary survey instruments.

The term "survey instrument" is used to refer to the NLSY97 questionnaires that serve as the primary source of information on a given respondent.  In round 1, there were separate and distinctly different questionnaires for the household informant (the Screener, Household Roster, and Nonresident Roster Questionnaire), the NLSY97 respondent (the Youth Questionnaire), and the responding parent (the Parent Questionnaire).  In each subsequent round the Youth Questionnaire has been used to collect information from respondents.  A Household Income Update, used in rounds 2-5 supplemented the Youth Questionnaire with information on household income collected from a parent.  Each questionnaire is organized around a set of topical subjects, the titles of which usually appear on either the first page of each section of the questionnaire or as a header.  The various survey instruments are described in detail in Interview Methods.

User Notes: The questionnaires are critical elements of the NLSY97 documentation system and should be used by researchers to determine the wording of questions, response categories, and the universe of respondents asked a given question. Also, be aware that while the source of the majority of variables in the main data sets is the questionnaire, certain variables are created either from other NLSY97 variables or from information found in an external data source (see Types of Variables).

For each round, NLSY97 questionnaires record (1) interview dates; (2) responses to the topical survey questions; (3) locating information which will assist NORC in finding the respondent for the next interview (not available to users); and (4) interviewer remarks on such topics as the race and gender of the respondent, language in which the interview was conducted, interviewer's impressions, etc.  The show card, an interviewing aid used in conjunction with the questionnaire, lists the possible response categories for select questions and helps the respondent keep the more complicated response categories in mind.

Questionnaire Item or Question Name:  This generic term identifies the source of data for a given variable.  A questionnaire item may be a question, a check item, or an interviewer's reference item appearing within one of the survey instruments.  These items have question names that begin with an abbreviation of the section where each is located.  Following the section abbreviation, the question name includes a combination of numbers and letters that identify it within the section.  Many questions simply have numbers in numerical order.  Some questions, as in the examples in the tables below, have a decimal extension that indicates the question is repeated or looped during the survey.  For example, a question about hours worked would be repeated for each employer, with decimal extensions .01 through .09 indicating employers 1-9.  Another common extension in question names is ~D, ~M, ~Y (or _D, _M, _Y ), indicating that the variable reports the day, month, or year of a date.  If a question is repeated in more than one round, it will have the same question name in each round so that users can easily locate identical questions in the data set across survey years.

Table 1. Sample Question Names by Youth Questionnaire Section

Section

Sample Question Names

Rounds Included

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

 11

12

 13

Youth Questionnaire
  Information

YINF-1700

*

               

 

  

 

  
  Household Information YHHI-50510.04, YHHI-4100.07~M

 

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Childhood Retrospective YCHR-1080

 

        

*

*

*

*

 

  

 

  
  CPS

YCPS-14400

*

    *          

*

  

 

  
  Schooling YSCH-22800.01, YSCH-26500

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Peers/Opportunity Sets

YPRS-800

*

               

 

  

 

  
  Time Use

YTIM-2200

*

               

 

  

 

  
  Employment YEMP-103500

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Training

YTRN-770, YTRN-3600.01

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Health

YHEA-100

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Self-Administereda YSAQ-373, YSAQ-447.03

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

 

 Marriage YMAR-11200.02

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Fertility YFER-700.04

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Child Care YCCA-450

 

      

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Self-Administered 2 YSAQ2-284, YSAQ2-298D1

 

      

 

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Best Friend YFRD-110

 

      

 

*

 

*

 

 

  

 

  
  Program Participation YPRG-1900

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Incomeb YINC-2000, YINC-1400

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Assetsb YAST-3310

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Assets 25 (asset questions asked as respondents turned 25) YAST25-1600                

*

*

*

*

*
  Expectations YEXP-900

*

    * *        

 

 

    
  PIAT Math YPIA-100

*

* * * * *      

 

 

    
  Locator YLOC-1500, YLOC-2200

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Interviewer Remarks YIR-1600

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Domains of Influence YDOM-300

 

           *   *

 

 

    
  Knowledge of Welfare (available only on geocode CD) YWEK-950

 

           *    

 

 

    
  College Choice YCOC-050A.01.01

 

           *

*

*

*

*

*

*
  Political Participation YPOL_130

 

            

*

 

*

  

*

  
Household Income Update HIU-5

 

 * * * *        

 

  

 

  
 
aSection called Self-Administered 1 beginning in round 6, but question names remain unchanged.
bSections were combined in round 1. All questions in that round start with YINC.

 

Table 2. Sample Question Names in Screener and Parent Questionnaires

Section

Round 1 Question Names

Screener, Household Roster, and Nonresident Roster Questionnaire
 

Screener

Household Roster

Nonresident Roster

SE-9, SE-31B.01

SH-1B, SH-103.05

SN-225.04, SN-337A.02

Parent Questionnaire
 

Information

Family Background

Calendars

Parent Health

Income and Assets

Self-Administered

Child Calendar

Child Health

Child Income

Expectations

Family

Parent Locator

Parent Interviewer Remarks

PINF-015_D, PINF-297.01

P2-029, P2-108B.01

P3-051.01_M, P3-137

P4-027

P5-073.02, P5-136

P6-021B, P6-036

PC8-009_Y, PC8-025, PC8-086.01

PC9-014, PC9-039.04

PC10-025

PC11-013

PC12-010, PC12-012A

PLOC-018

PIR-007, PIR-009K

 

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