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Home ›Topics Covered in NLS Surveys
The NLS surveys contain a wide array of topics. The general categories are shown below with some examples of the variables included in the surveys:
- Education, Training, and Achievement Scores: information about high school and college experience, types of training, and cognitive test scores
- Employment: extensive history of employment over time, including wages, hours, occupation, industry, and job search.
- Household, Geography, and Contextual Variables: household composition, location, and demographics
- Dating, Marriage, and Cohabitation: dating history, marital status and changes, and cohabitation history
- Sexual Activity, Pregnancy, and Fertility: contraceptive use, pregnancy details, and child birth dates
- Children: number of children, birth dates, characteristics, and residence status
- Parents, Family Process, and Childhood: information about respondents' parents, parenting behaviors, and childhood
- Income, Assets, and Program Participation: household income, types of assets, and participation in government assistance programs
- Health: Health status, weight, and health conditions
- Attitudes, Expectations, and Non-Cognitive Tests: personality traits, expectations about the future, locus of control
- Crime and Substance Use: criminal behavior, alcohol, and drug use
- Survey Methodology: Sampling weights, interviewer characteristics, sample type
Each cohort has an on-line User's Guide, which describes the topics covered in the surveys. These guides are a good place to start to find out the general information available in each of the surveys. The guides are available here:
Within these guides, see the cohort-specific asterisk tables, which provide the variables available within a topical area, and the years the questions were asked.