NLSY26 NLS Listening Sessions Protocol Child & Family

NLSY26 Needs Assessment Listening Session (90 minutes)
Discussion Guide- Childhood and Family Retrospective
Introduction — ~5 Mins
Welcome the group.
Let them know they’ve been invited to this session to provide feedback on a potential new
NLSY26 cohort. Go over general ground rules below.
o Reminder: Session is being recorded
o Your participation in this survey is voluntary. We are collecting this information under
OMB Clearance Number 1225-0088. Without this currently approved number, we could
not conduct this information session.
o We are doing this as a series of 6 listening sessions. This session will focus on childhood
and family retrospectives. We expect this session will be about 90 minutes. We have a lot
to get through so we will be moving along at a quick pace.
o Additionally, we want to hear from everyone. If you notice that you haven’t spoken up in
a while, please do so. I may call on you to get your opinion.
o There will be additional opportunities to provide feedback so do not worry if we are not
able to get to everything you would like to discuss today. We will discuss those
opportunities at the end of the session.
Introduce the NLS— ~ 5 Mins
There are currently two active cohorts in the NLS program.
• The first cohort, the NLSY79, consists of about 10,000 men and women who were born in
the years 1957-64. They were ages 14-22 when first interviewed in 1979 and are still being
interviewed today.
o Children of NLSY79 respondents were interviewed starting in 1986. The NLSY79 Child
and Young Adult surveys contain extensive information about the biological children of
women in the NLSY79-including various child assessments.
•

The second cohort, the NLSY97, consists of nearly 9,000 men and women who were born in
the years 1980-1984. They were 12-16 when they were first interviewed in 1997.
o The NLSY97 contained a parent questionnaire in round one that gathered extensive
background information about parents, the child’s schooling, child health,
expectations for child’s future (youth also received these questions), parental
employment, and the family’s financial situation, among other topics.

•

There is a free public-use NLS dataset.

Why we’re collecting feedback— ~ 3 Mins
•

A lot has changed about family context and child and family policy, as well as about how
we collect survey information, since the 1997 cohort was launched. We want to ensure

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that we are measuring the important aspects of childhood and families as they exist now.
We also want to ensure that we are using state-of-the-art methodology to do so. That is
what we’ll be talking about today.
o Examples of changes to family context and child and family policy:
 The growth of pre-kindergarten programs
 Wider variety in family structures
 High levels of parental investments of time and resources in some families
 Implications of the Coronavirus pandemic
o Examples of changes to survey methods:
 Collecting administrative records on parents could fill in some information
that a parent interview might be able to obtain (these records would
themselves come with their own restrictions).

NLSY26 Questionnaire Content — ~35 Mins
[Quick introductions for moderator, NORC facilitator, and participants only. Say name,
organization, and participants will also say their experience with the NLSY.]
1. Content Questions
Primary
• Which measures are essential to capture in the early rounds of the NLSY26 to
enable life-course research about the effects of childhood and family on later
outcomes?
• Over what age range should the NLSY26 collect child and family data, keeping in
mind that the NLSY serve the BLS’ mission to measure labor market activity?
• *moderator note: If respondents are getting hung up on age range and siblings, probe
with the questions below*
o How important is information about the child’s parents prior to the child’s
birth? Why?
o What prenatal information should be collected? Why is such information
important?
o What information should be captured about the children’s lives prior to the
start of the survey?
o Who is likely to be the best reporter of such information?
• Where can the NLSY26 provide the greatest value for child and family researchers?
• What new concepts need to be added to the new NLSY26 cohort so that researchers
can study the effects of childhood and family experiences on later outcomes?
Secondary
• For those who are familiar with the previous NLS surveys, What content (if any)
regarding childhood and families should be kept the same for comparison to prior

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NLS cohorts? Why?
For those who are familiar with the previous NLS surveys, what are some family
and childhood-related topics or questions that are currently in the NLSY79 and
NLSY97 surveys that should NOT be included in the new cohort? Why?

2. Additional questions to ask if they don’t arise during the discussion and time permits:
• What information should a potential NLSY26 collect about parents?
• What are the roles of assessments and standardized test scores in a new cohort?
• What information is important for studying how family wealth/inequality affects later
outcomes?
NLSY26 Sampling and Methodology— ~10 Mins
Primary
• What subgroups are particularly important for child and family research, and
should be oversampled to ensure sufficient sample size for research?
Secondary
• What types of sampling and methodology should the new NLSY26 cohort consider
when collecting child and family information?
• What are some measurement challenges in child and family research that the
NLSY26 will need to consider?
• Any other methodological concerns or new advances in how we might collect
information about child and family context that the NLSY26 should be considering?
NLSY26 Data Linkage— ~10 Mins
•

Which datasets would be the most important to consider linking to the NLSY26 to
study the far-reaching implications of childhood circumstances?

* Moderator, if needed: Examples could be K-12 administrative records, parental wage data,
electronic health records/Medicaid/CHIP, vital statistics.
Note: This topic may arise in the discussion of content or methodology. In that case, there’s no
need to raise it separately.
NLSY26 Final thoughts or concerns— ~5 Mins
•

Do you have any final comments on the child and family data to be collected in the
potential new NLSY26 cohort or what we have discussed today?

Close out
MODERATOR:

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Conclusion and thanks
Provide other info on other feedback resources (FRN, user survey, informational
materials, email, etc.)
As we mentioned previously, this is part of a series of six listening sessions. The other
session topics include Employment, Jobs, and the Future of Work; Health, Environment,
and Climate; Mental Health; Innovations in International Surveys; and Think
tanks/Research organizations/Non-profits. If you have feedback on other aspects of the
NLSY that we did not have time to cover in this session, we will be posting a user survey
soon that you can submit responses too. We will also send you a thank you email which
will have an opportunity for you to provide additional feedback.