Principal Investigator(s): Ohio State University. Center for Human Resource Research

Summary: The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) is one of six surveys, designed by the United States Department of Labor, comprising the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) Series. Created to be representative of United States residents in 1997 who were born between the years of 1980 and 1984, the NLSY97 documents the transition from school to work experienced by today's youths through seven rounds of data collection spanning the time period 1997-2003. The majority of the olde... (more info)

Series: National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) Series

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Ohio State University. Center for Human Resource Research. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997. ICPSR03959-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2007-06-04. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03959.v2

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03959.v2

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This survey was funded by:

• United States Department of Education. National School to Work Office (J-9-J-9-0007)
• United States Department of Defense
• United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Summary:   The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) is one of six surveys, designed by the United States Department of Labor, comprising the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) Series. Created to be representative of United States residents in 1997 who were born between the years of 1980 and 1984, the NLSY97 documents the transition from school to work experienced by today's youths through seven rounds of data collection spanning the time period 1997-2003. The majority of the oldest cohort members (age 16 as of December 31, 1996) were still in school during the first survey round and the youngest respondents (age 12) had not yet entered the labor market. The NLSY97 addresses eleven main topics of interest including: employment, schooling, vocational training, income and assets, family formation, family background, future expectations, attitudes, behaviors, and time use, health, political participation, and environmental characteristics. Respondents were asked about their employment status including hours worked per week, job history, benefits, job satisfaction, freelance employment opportunities, occupation and pay during military service, and periods of unemployment. Respondents were also asked about their education history, current enrollment status, high school curriculum, whether they received a diploma or GED, participation in any school-based learning programs, whether they attended college or university and whether or not they graduated, the cost of tuition, their grade point average, and field of study. Respondents were asked to give information about training programs in which they had participated such as the type of training program, amount of time spent in training, skills obtained, and whether or not the training programs were completed. The survey also addressed the topic of income and assets with questions focusing on the respondents' wages or salary, other sources of income, assets such as real estate, stock or mutual funds, retirement plans, and income from sources such as workers compensation, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and Food Stamps. Respondents were asked about their family including their marital status, number, sex, and ages of any biological or adopted children, outcomes of pregnancies not ending in live births. Respondents were asked to answer a series of questions pertaining to their family history such as their parents nationality and place of birth, grandparents place of birth, native language spoken by parents, parents education, whether or not the respondents lived with their parents, other relatives living in the household, as well as questions about the household environment. Respondents were asked about their expectations for the future and specifically, where they expected to be in the next year, in the next five years, by the age of 20 and by the age of 30. Respondents were asked about their attitudes, behaviors, and time use. They were asked about their perception of teachers, school, peers, as well as their sexual activity, drug and alcohol use, crimes committed, and how much time they devoted to homework, classes, reading, and watching television. Respondents were asked questions about their general physical health, mental health, any chronic health conditions, and any health conditions that limited school or work activities. Respondents were asked if they were interested in government and public affairs, whether they were registered to vote, and whether they voted in recent elections. Finally, respondents were asked questions about their living environment, residential moves, whether their current residence was urban or rural, whether their current residence was in a metropolitan area, and the region of residence.

Subject Terms:   attitudes, demographic characteristics, economic indicators, educational background, expectations, family background, health, high school students, household composition, income, job history, job training, labor (work), labor force, labor markets, occupational mobility, political participation, secondary education, time allocation, training, wages and salaries, work experience, young adults, youths

Geographic Coverage:   United States

Time Period:  

• 1997--2003

Date of Collection:  

• 1997--2003

Unit of Observation:   individual

Universe:   All household residents aged 12 to 16 as of December 31, 1996, in the United States.

Data Types:   survey data

Data Collection Notes:

(1) The data belonging to the NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEY OF YOUTH, 1997, was previously archived as part of the NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEYS OF LABOR MARKET EXPERIENCES, 1966-1992 (ICPSR 7610). In an effort to make the NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEY (NLS) SERIES data more usable, the six cohorts comprising the NLS have been reorganized so that data and documentation for each study can now be found under the following ICPSR study titles: NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEY OF YOUTH, 1979 (ICPSR 4683), NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEY OF OLDER MEN, 1966-1990 (ICPSR 4675), NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEY OF YOUNGER MEN, 1966-1981 (ICPSR 4678), NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEY OF MATURE WOMEN, 1967 (ICPSR 4681), and NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEY OF YOUNG WOMEN, 1968 (ICPSR 4680). (2) The original NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEYS OF LABOR MARKET EXPERIENCES data and documentation files remain available in their original form. Please see ICPSR 7610. (3) Due to the size of the data files Stata setup files and system files are not available for the years 2001, 2002, and 2003. (4) Additional information pertaining to the NLSY97 can be found at the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site for NLS497.

Sample:   During the initial NLSY97 interview period, interviewers visited randomly selected households to identify all youths eligible for the NLSY97. All household residents aged 12 to 16 as of December 31, 1996, were considered eligible. The sample included those who usually resided in a household in the sample area but were away at school or college, as well as those in a hospital, correctional facility, or other type of institution. If an eligible youth lived in the household, the interviewer also asked one of the youth's parents to participate. To draw the sample of 8,984 respondents, interviewers screened 75,291 households in 147 nonoverlapping primary sampling units. Two samples were drawn -- a cross-sectional sample representative of the United States population born between 1980 and 1984 and a supplemental sample of Black or Hispanic youths in that age range. This oversample allows for analysis across race or ethnicity. Individual sample weights created by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago permit comparisons between the full NLSY97 sample, which includes both the cross-sectional sample and the oversample, and the national population in the same age range. In the NLSY97 cohort, 8,984 respondents originated from 6,819 unique households. Because the sample design selected all household residents in the appropriate age range, 1,862 households included more than one NLSY97 respondent. Sibling was the most common relationship between multiple respondents living in the same household during the initial round. The NLSY97 does not contain nationally representative samples of siblings of all ages and living arrangements. Users should exercise caution when generalizing from the findings of NLSY97 sibling studies.

Mode of Data Collection:   face-to-face interview, self-enumerated questionnaire

Original ICPSR Release:  2004-08-02

Version History:

• 2007-06-04 This study has been updated to include the data and documentation from rounds 6 (2002) and 7 (2003) of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) 1997. In addition, data from previous rounds (1-5) have been updated and now include the SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files and SAS (XPORT), SPSS portable, and Stata system files when possible (please see COLLECT.NOTE for more information).

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