China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) (ICPSR 36524)

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Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes

Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

To document changes in Chinese society, economy, population, education, and health, so as to provide data for academic research and public policy analysis.

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CFPS implemented Probability-Proportional-to-Size Sampling (PPS) with implicit stratification. Administrative units and socioeconomic status (SES) are used as the main stratification variables. Within the administrative unit, local GDP per capita was used as the ordering index for SES. If the GDP per capita in the administrative unit is not available, the proportion of nonagricultural population or population density is used alternatively.

The original target sample size was 16,000 households. Half of the sample (8,000) was generated by oversampling with five independent sampling frames (called "large provinces") of Shanghai, Liaoning, Henan, Gansu, and Guangdong. Each of the sub-samples had 1,600 households. The other 8,000 households were from an independent sampling frame composed of 20 provinces (called "small provinces"). The "large provinces" were representative at the regional level, which could contribute to provincial population inferences and cross-region comparisons. With a second-stage sampling, the five "large provinces", together with "small provinces", made up the overall sampling frame representative of the national population. All the sub-sampling frames of CFPS were obtained through three stages: the Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) was administrative districts/counties, the Second-stage 18 Sampling Unit (SSU) was administrative villages/neighborhood communities, and the third-stage (Ultimate) Sampling Unit (TSU) was households. In the first and Second stages, CFPS used official administrative divisions for the sample selection. The third sampling stage is a systematic selection of housing units from street listing with random starting point and equal probability method.

The target sample of CFPS consists of 16,000 households in 25 provinces/municipalities/autonomous regions in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Hainan), representing 95% of the Chinese population. All eligible households and household members are subjects of the survey. An eligible household refers to an independent economic unit that lives in a residential community and one or more family members are of Chinese nationality. Family members are defined as financially dependent immediate relatives, or non-immediate blood/marital/adoptive relatives who have lived with the household for more than three consecutive months and financially related to the sampled household. All members over age 9 in a sampled household are interviewed. These individuals constitute core members of the CFPS and children are also considered core members of the CFPS. Follow-up of all core members of the CFPS is designed to take place on a yearly basis. Five provinces are chosen for initial oversampling (1600 families in each) so that regional comparisons can be made. The remainder of the CFPS sample (8000 families) is drawn from the other provinces so as to make the overall CFPS sample representative of the country through weighting (except for remote areas).

Time Method View help for Time Method

Universe View help for Universe

Individuals over the age of 9 in households within one of 25 regions in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Hainan), with at least one family member of Chinese nationality.

Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation

Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

In 2010, the household level response rate was 81.25% and the individual level response rate was 84.14%.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

K6, CESD20, Big Five Questionnaire for Children, HOME Scale, The value of children to parents, Nowicki-strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children, Rosenberge Self Esteem Scale, Inter-personal Trust from World Value Survey

Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2016-07-21

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Weight View help for Weight

This study provides several weights at the individual, household, and community level that should be used in analysis, including sampling design weights, non-response adjustments weights, and post-hoc stratification adjustment weights. For detailed information on weights, please visit the China Family Panel Studies Web site.