Summary
This survey was undertaken to record changes in views about aging among older people as well as younger adults. In the seven years after the benchmark study MYTH AND REALITY OF AGING, 1974 (ICPSR 7657) was conducted, a number of significant social and demographic changes occurred in American society, some profound economic trends continued, suspicions grew about an impending financial crisis in the Social Security system, and new priorities emerged at both the national and local political levels. AGING IN THE EIGHTIES updates topics from MYTH AND REALITY OF AGING with items relating to the experience of aging, social activities and the involvement of the elderly, expectations and attitudes about retirement, and preparation for retirement. Other major issues were explored for the first time, including the economics of aging and retirement, the changing face of retirement and employment after 65, Social Security and the role of government, health status, and health care.
Citation
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Funding
Atlantic Richfield Foundation
Equitable Life Assurance Company of the United States
Exxon Corporation
Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company
Levi Strauss Foundation
Bankers Life and Casualty Company
Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage
Time Period(s)
1981
Date of Collection
1981-06-15 -- 1981-07-31
Data Collection Notes
(1) The data contain blanks. (2) The sample of 3,452 includes N = 1,098 persons ages 18-54, N = 492 ages 55-64, N = 675 ages 65-69, N = 845 ages 70-79, and N = 317 ages 80 and over. The total sample contains N = 2,482 white, N = 491 Black, and N = 454 Hispanic persons.
Sample
This data collection employed a multistage random cluster sampling procedure. The total number of 3,452 interviewed persons was drawn from two national cross-sectional samples, an oversample of persons aged 55 to 64 drawn from one of the two national samples, an oversample of persons 65 years and over from two other national samples, and oversamples of Hispanic and Black populations drawn from special stratified multistage cluster national samples.
Universe
Americans aged 18 years and over.
Data Source
personal interviews
survey data
Original Release Date
1988-01-06
Version Date
2005-11-04
Version History
1998-05-11 SAS data definition statements have been provided for this collection. Also, the SPSS data definition statements were replaced and the codebook and questionnaire were converted to PDF files.
2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
This study is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), the aging program within ICPSR. NACDA is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Heath (NIH).