New Questions and Lines of Inquiry

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OMB Clearance - 2012 NLSY79

Attachment 6—New Questions and Lines of Inquiry

As mentioned earlier in this document, BLS has undertaken a continuing redesign effort to examine the current content of the NLSY79 and provide direction for changes that may be appropriate as the respondents enter middle age. The 2012 instrument reflects a number of changes recommended by experts in various fields of social science and by our own internal review of the survey’s content. The major changes are described in this attachment. Additions to the questionnaire have been balanced by deletions of previous questions so that the overall time required to complete the survey should remain about the same as in 2010.

Main Youth Survey

Additions/Modifications

Childhood health and adversity. In Round 25 we introduce three new questions on childhood health (Q11-RCH-HLTH-1 to Q11-RCH-HLTH-3) and four new questions on childhood adversity (Q11-RCH-HLTH-4 to Q11-RCH-HLTH-7), to be asked of all respondents at the end of the health section. The questions on childhood health ask respondents for an overall rating of their childhood health (Q11-RCH-HLTH-1) and whether they had significant hospitalizations (Q11-RCH-HLTH-2) or illnesses (Q11-RCH-HLTH-3) as children. Q11-RCH-HLTH-1 has appeared in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the New Immigrant Survey (NIS), Q11-RCH-HLTH-2 has been asked in the British Stress and Health Study (also known as Whitehall II), and Q11-RCH-HLTH-3 was asked in the NIS. These three questions were proposed by a member of the Technical Review Committee who is an expert in childhood and adult health. The rationale for including them is that researchers seek early-childhood predictors of adult health outcomes, and analyses of data from other surveys reveal that these three questions are both easy to answer retrospectively and predictive of adult health outcomes.

The four questions on childhood adversity (Q11-RCH-HLTH-4 to Q11-RCH-HLTH-7) ask respondents whether they were raised in environments characterized by mental illness, alcoholism, physical violence, and parental affection. Q11-RCH-HLTH-4 to Q11-RCH-HLTH-6 are taken from the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACES) conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, and Q11-RCH-HLTH-7 is taken from Whitehall II. The fielding of these four questions is being funded by an R01 grant recently awarded by NIH to Barbara Abrams of the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Abrams worked with the NLSY79 design team to select these four questions, which have been found (based on analyses of other surveys) to be predictive of obesity and other health-related outcomes. These questions also will complement the three childhood health questions described above.

Traumatic Head Injury. In Round 25 we add a set of eight questions (Q11-HEADINJ-1 – Q11-HEADINJ-7) designed to identify respondents who have experienced a serious head injury or suffered a loss of smell. All respondents will be asked if they ever suffered a serious head injury (Q11-HEADINJ-1) and how they rate their sense of smell (Q11-HEADINJ-7); only those respondents who report having had a serious head injury or loss of smell will be asked additional questions in this module. Because traumatic head injury and loss of smell have been found in numerous studies to be linked to subsequent dementia, we add these questions to augment ongoing efforts to track respondents’ cognitive function as they advance into middle age and beyond. This set of questions was adapted from the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study (ADAMS), which is a supplement to the Health and Retirement Study.

Wills. As more respondents reach their 50s, we believe it is important to augment information on health, asset accumulation and retirement plans with information on estate planning. Therefore, in Round 25 we launch a new set of questions on wills (WILL_1 to WILL_16). These questions are drawn from the 2006 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, and also have overlap with questions asked in the final rounds of the NLS Women. Note that this module was originally planned for Round 24, but was deferred when pretest timings revealed that other additions to Round 24 were taking more interview time than had been anticipated.

The new questions identify whether respondents have a will, a trust, or both (WILL_1 to WILL_2), when it was established, when and why it was last modified (WILL_3 to WILL_5), whether it provides for children and for grandchildren and, if so, whether it provides for them equally (WILL_6 to WILL_13), and whether it provides for charities or nonprofit organizations (WILL_14). Respondents who report no will or trust are asked (WILL_15) whether they intend to establish one; in future rounds we will learn whether these respondents actually establish wills.

On the advice of experts on aging-related issues, we end this section by asking whether respondents have long-term care (LTC) insurance (WILL_16). While relatively few respondents are expected to have LTC insurance at this stage in the life-cycle, planning for costly health care expenses is intrinsically linked to bequest planning. We hope to provide valuable information to researchers by tracking the existence of both LTC insurance and wills/trusts over subsequent rounds.

Financial Literacy and Practices. In Round 25 we introduce eight new questions on financial literacy and practices (FIN_LIT_1 to FIN_LIT_8), to be asked of all respondents. These questions ask respondents about their preparedness for financial emergencies, their ability to monitor financial matters, and their knowledge of core financial concepts. Three of these questions (FIN_LIT_4 to FIN_LIT_6) were originally asked in the Health and Retirement Study in 2004, and also appeared in Round 11 of the NLSY97; the remaining five questions in this module are taken from the Financial Capability Study. The module was designed with input from a member of the Technical Review Committee who is an expert on the collection and analysis of financial literacy data. This short module complements the new questions on wills and estates, and is consistent with our ongoing plans to learn more about respondents’ financial literacy, practices, and preparedness as they enter their 50s and begin planning in earnest for retirement.

Business Ownership. The most significant addition for Round 24 was an extensive set of retrospective questions on lifetime business ownership. For Round 25, we make the following modifications to this module, all of which were part of its original design:

Respondents who were not interviewed in Round 24 will be asked the complete business ownership retrospective that was asked of all respondents in Round 24. This retrospective identifies all businesses owned by respondents since age 18 (BUSOWN-1 to BUSOWN-22), asks about businesses owned by family members (BUSOWN-23A to BUSOWN-24B), asks about patent applications (BUSOWN-25 to BUSOWN-28B) and asks respondents if they consider themselves to be entrepreneurs (BUSOWN-29). These questions are found in the business ownership section of the instrument.

For respondents who went through the entire business ownership retrospective in Round 24, the employer supplement has been modified to follow-up on previously-reported, ongoing businesses and to track new businesses going forward. For all newly-reported businesses, we ask an extensive series of questions including when the business was established and when respondents acquired ownership (SES-BUSOWN-5 and SES-BUSOWN-6), how and why the business was acquired (SES-BUSOWN-7 and SES-BUSOWN-8), sources and amounts of money used for acquisition (SES-BUSOWN-10 and SES-BUSOWN-11), and characteristics of the business including legal classification (SES-BUSOWN-12), nature of the business (SES-BUSOWN-13), and size/scope of the business (SES-BUSOWN-14 through SES-BUSOWN-16). We then ask respondents who are no longer working at the business why they stopped. Respondents are asked if they still maintain ownership in the business (SES-BUSOWN-17) and, if not, when and why ownership ended (SES-BUSOWN-18 and SES-BUSOWN-19). Questions about the process of liquidation and/or sale of the business, and whether the respondent had another job lined up after stopping work at the business (SES-24 through SES-25) are asked of respondents who are no longer working at the business. Note that these questions have been moved from earlier in the Employer Supplement where they have been for several previous rounds. The question sequence ends with questions about respondents’ current/final ownership share (SES-BUSOWN-20 and SES-BUSOWN-21) and whether the business is/was owned exclusively by family members (SES-BUSOWN-22). For each business that was reported to be ongoing in Round 24, we follow-up by asking whether respondents still own the business (SES-BUSOWN-17) and, if not, when and why ownership ended (SES-BUSOWN-18 and SES-BUSOWN-19); we also ask about respondents’ current/final ownership share (SES-BUSOWN-20 and BUSOWN-21) and whether the business is/was owned exclusively by family members (SES-BUSOWN-22). By asking these questions in Round 25 and beyond, we will maintain a uniform, longitudinal record of all businesses held by respondents since age 18.

The second change to the business ownership section is that in Round 25 we include follow-up questions for a subset of respondents who reported having owned “old” (not ongoing) businesses in Round 24. This follow-up section is part of a broader data creation task in which we use names of businesses and employers, start/stop dates, and other information to link each business reported retrospectively in the Round 24 business ownership module with employers reported in earlier rounds of the NLSY79. For example, in Round 24 a respondent might have reported that he owned a business called Acme Construction from March 1988 to March 1994. During the 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994 interview, this same respondent is likely to have reported Acme Construction as his employer (or perhaps as one of multiple employers) while proceeding through the employer supplements. Our plan is to use company names (which are not available to public users) and other information to form linkage variables that will identify for users which previously-reported employer correspondents to which business reported in Round 24. To assist with this linkage task, questions BUSOWN-MATCH-3A_1 through BUSOWN-MATCH-4 in Round 25 will ask select respondents to confirm whether a given business is the same as a particular employer reported in an earlier round. Comments will be solicited as well in order to clarify situations which remain unclear. This set of questions (along with the broader linkage task) is funded by a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Assets. After Round 19, we determined that it was unnecessary to ask an extended series of assets questions in every survey round. The assets module was excluded for Rounds 20, 22, and 24 and included in Rounds 21 and 23. It will again be rotated into the survey in Round 25, using the same questions as Round 23. These questions, which appear after income in the survey, are numbered SC.1-SC.12B, FA.1-FA.11a, Q13.116-Q13.116A, NFA.0-NFA.2C, Q13.127A-Q13.132D, NFA.4-NFA.7D, DEBT.1-DEBT.4, Q13.141-Q13.142, and PS.1-PS.6.

Religion. Questions about the respondent’s religion were last fielded in 2000 (Round 19). In Round 25 we add several questions on religion. The first question asks about religious affiliation (R_REL-2). Several subsequent questions will serve to clarify the response to question if necessary (R_REL_2_A1, R_REL-2_A2, R_REL-2_A3_1, R_REL-2_A3_2, R_REL-2_B1). The large majority of respondents will be asked only one follow-up question. These questions are based on those previously fielded in several rounds of the NLSY79, and on questions used in the General Social Survey to clarify religious affiliation. The last question focuses on frequency of church attendance (R_REL-3). Users have asked us to re-field questions pertaining to religion to inform research on changing religious affiliation and church attendance over the life-course—a request that is consistent with our original design plan to re-field these questions on an occasional basis.

Mirroring the questions about the respondent’s religion, we will also ask about the religion of the respondent’s spouse or partner. These questions are: Religion spouse/partner raised with (SP_REL-1, SP_REL_1_A1, SP_REL-1_A2, SP_REL-1_A3_1, SP_REL-1_A3_2, SP_REL-1_B1), spouse/partner’s current religion (SP_REL-2, SP_REL_2_A1, SP_REL-2_A2, SP_REL-2_A3_1, SP_REL-2_A3_2, SP_REL-2_B1), and spouse/partner’s frequency of attendance (SP_REL-3).

Risk Preference. In Round 24, we fielded a set of questions on risk preference that included three questions from Rounds 15 and 20-22 (RISK_1 to RISK_3) and several new questions adopted from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (RISK_4 to RISK_5H). This expanded module was designed to be fielded on a one-time basis although, after evaluating the data, we will re-field a subset of questions in future rounds to maintain our longitudinal collection of risk preference data. As we have often done in the past with “one-time” modules, we keep RISK_1 through RISK_5H in Round 25 to be asked only of respondents who were not interviewed in Round 24.

Philanthropy. Round 24 included an extensive set of new questions on both volunteer activity and monetary donations to charitable causes (PHIL_1 to PHIL_18B). As with the risk preference questions described above, this was a “one-time” module that we keep in Round 25 to be asked only of respondents who were not interviewed in Round 24.

Stock Options. In Round 24 we added a short series of questions on stock options (STOCK_OPTIONS_1 to STOCK_OPTIONS_10). As with the risk preference and philanthropy questions described above, these questions were not intended to become part of the longitudinal core; in Round 25, they are only asked of respondents who were not interviewed in Round 24.

Deletions

As noted above, the retrospective module on business ownership since age 18 and the sections on risk preference, philanthropy, and stock options remain in Round 25 only so we can ask these questions of respondents who were not interviewed in Round 24. Respondents who answered these questions in Round 24 will skip them in Round 25.

Young Adult Survey

Based on feedback from Young Adult advisory board members, users of the young adult data, and discussions with various people associated with the design of the main NLSY79 youth and the NLSY97 cohort, we are suggesting the following changes to the Young Adult instrument for 2012. Some were written into the NLSY79 Young Adult Grant proposal that was submitted to NICHD in November 2010 and received a score from study section of 13 (3^rd percentile). All the changes proposed below apply to both contract and grant cases:

Section 4: Regular Schooling

1. Augmented wording on Q4-18A and Q4-19. This was to make sure respondents understand the definition of “regular school.”

2. Added internal functions Q4-0A through Q4-0C: to set up text substitution and dynamic pick list for Q4-1 to accommodate home schooling as an option. Modified Q4-1: to have a text fill for home schooling and a pick list that allows for that option.

3. Added Q4-1A: a follow-up to ascertain grade equivalency for home schooled kids.

Section 13: Children in the Household

Researchers have asked us to a) provide more data on parenting and b) provide information on the children of the Young Adults (or the grandchildren of the NLSY79 women). We already asked some questions from the various age appropriate sections of the Home Environment (the same questions that are asked of the NLSY79 women about their children) and we now propose to include additional questions to more fully capture ways in which both male and female Young Adults parent and interact with their biological children. These questions mirror those that their mothers answered about them. Although we are unable to directly interview the children of the 3^rd generation, we propose to incorporate the set of items that make up the Behavior Problems Index that again were asked of NLSY79 mothers about their children’s behavior and that are again currently in the NLSY79.

1. Added Q13-2A0 to branch 6-9 year olds into Q13-2A1 (how often reads for pleasure). Added Q13-2A1A to branch 6-9 year olds back to correct path.

2. Added Q13-2ABB (how much choice in food at meals) and Q13-2ABA to branch the 2 to 5 year-olds into it.

3. Added Q13-2AE1 through Q13-2AM to encompass the remaining new questions to be added from the home scale of the mother supplement. Modified Q13-2AD to have correct age branching into these new items.

4. Added Q13-3A to Q13-3G, which is the BPI as currently in the mother supplement, plus Q13-2K to branch the 4 and older kids into it.

Section 14: Health

1. Changed wording on Q14-10JA through Q14-10JD from “more than 15 minutes” to “30 minutes or more.” This change brings our questions into alignment with current CDC exercise recommendations for young adults.

2. Q14-8A -- Created a revised pick list of health limitations. We performed an in-house review of the answer patterns to this question from all prior Young Adult survey rounds, plus coded the “other specify” answers to study the frequency with which certain ailments were listed. Our revised pick list reflects common answers previously given, plus answers that would appear to be becoming more common as the young adult population ages. Consequently certain categories have been dropped (for example, gallstones) and others added (for example, ADD/ADHD) resulting in a list half as long as before.

3. Updated wording on Q14-10KB to capture a fuller, more updated set of activities.

4. Updated wording on Q14-10KA to include mobile devices.

Section 15: Income and Assets

1. Added Q15-145B. This question comes from the NLSY79 R25 Proposed Module on Financial Literacy and Practices and is listed as question F1 in the NLSY79 main youth document.

2. Added Q15-147AA and Q15-147E through Q15-147G: to make the text fills used in the foreclose sequence reference the date of last interview for those who were interviewed in 2010.

Section 16: Attitudes

1. Added Q16-9-CHECK and Q16-9A. Q16-9A is the mini-IPIP, which has been recommended to us as a better measure of the Big 5 Personality Factors than the TIPI (currently in as Q16-9). Our plan is to ask a subset of respondents both the TIPI and the mini-IPIP to see how closely related the two scales are. This presents a unique research opportunity and a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the field.

2. Made Q16-0A unreachable: all respondents will therefore be asked the Pearlin, the Rosenberg, and risk-taking questions.

3. Added Q16-11A through Q16-11K. These are questions about day-to-day discrimination. These questions were originally developed by Dr. David Williams, Professor of Public Health, African and African American Studies, and Sociology at Harvard University for the Detroit Area Study. They have since been incorporated into MIDUS and the National Survey of American Life. Research has linked people’s perceptions of discrimination to various areas of the later life course including mental and physical health problems and to academic performance.

4. Added Q16-5I-G as a new skip for who will go into the CESD. Based on preliminary research by Olsen and Cooksey that shows that the CESD need not be repeated on as frequent a basis as previously, we decided to administer the CESD yearly through age 23/24, and thereafter only in the health modules at ages 29/30 and roughly age 40. In this round the skip pattern will need to accommodate everyone 29 and older going through the health module as we are still getting the baseline for older YAs.

5. Added Q16-5H-JB, a matrix screen comprised of nine questions. These questions will be asked of a subset of 1000 young adults ages 14-24 who have previously been asked these questions when they were 10-14 in order to construct equivalent psychometric scorings for the two batteries of items.

6. Made Q16-6H reachable so that only those not interviewed in 2010 would be asked women’s roles in 2012; changed default next to Q16-7HAA so that questions we added in 2010 would be re-asked.

7. Made Q16-8G reachable but altered the skip patterns: of those who were last interviewed in 2010, a random 25% will be selected to repeat the TIPI as well as taking the mini-IPIP. For those not interviewed in 2010, a random 25% will be selected to take the mini-IPIP but all will be branched in to take the TIPI. Having 25% of those last interviewed in 2010 take both the TIPI and the mini-IPIP ensures that we have all age ranges represented in the experiment to compare the two.

Young Adult Self Report Section:

1. Updated wording on YASR-10-1: to capture wider range of viewing activities.

2. Updated wording on YASR-10-2: to include e-readers.

3. Added two questions on suicidal ideation, plus an information screen for interviewers to give follow-up information to respondents who have considered suicide (YASR-72B, YASR-72C, and YASR-72D). As described in the “Sensitive Questions” section of this submission, these questions will fill a gap in the research by allowing the estimation of suicidal ideation in the general young adult population. These questions are taken from CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior survey. As mentioned above, if a respondent reports seriously considering suicide, the interviewer will provide them with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number.

Additions to Young Adult Grant cases only

Section 14: Health

1. Added Q14-55 through Q14-55D to the age 29/30 health module. These questions correspond to the first five questions in the NLSY79 R25 Proposed Questions on Head Injury and given current awareness of, and research into head injuries and their effects, we believe they are important to add to our health module questions too. We will considering adding the last two main youth questions when we have an age 40 health module in 2014.

Section 16: Attitudes

We have added a series of questions to get at major instances of discrimination. These questions were originally developed by Dr. David Williams, Professor of Public Health, African and African American Studies, and Sociology at Harvard University for the Detroit Area Study. They have since been incorporated into MIDUS and the National Survey of American Life. Research has linked people’s perceptions of discrimination to various areas of the later life course including mental and physical health problems and to academic performance.

1. Added Q16-10 through Q16-11K. Q16-10A through Q16-10J are questions about major instances of discrimination.

Young Adult Self Report Section:

1. Added YASR-4NA through YASR-4NF, directed at YAs who are 21 or older. These questions come from the NLSY79 R25 Proposed Module on Childhood Health and Adversity and are therefore described more fully in the Main Youth section. In future rounds these will be asked only to YAs 21 and over who have not already answered them.

2. Added YASR-75A to YASR-75C to set up text fill for YASR-76 so that YAs 35 and over no longer have “by age 35” as part of the question text.

3. Added YASR-95. We propose adding a single open ended question to young adult grant respondents. This kind of approach has been used in the British cohort studies and gives respondents an opportunity to have more of a voice. The 1970 British Cohort study found that respondents liked being given the opportunity to answer a very similar open ended question and that it helped in respondent retention. We propose asking this question of all young adults ages 25 and older.