The National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH)
series was designed and carried out at the Center for Demography and
Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the direction
of Larry Bumpass and James Sweet with the aim of providing improved
understanding of both the structure and functioning of American families
in order to overcome the limitations of previously available data on
family structure, family process, and family relationships. The fieldwork
was done by the Institute for Survey Research at Temple University, and
William Aquilino of the Institute for Social Research, University of
Michigan, provided technical support and assisted in the development
of the questionnaires, management of the field operations, and
coordination of the data preparation. The series was developed with funds
by a grant from the Center for Population Research of the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The series is a national
longitudinal survey that permits research on a wide variety of aspects of
American family life and experience as both determinants and consequences
of other family and life course events. A considerable amount of
life-history information was collected, including childhood living
arrangements, family composition, and relationships, as well as education,
fertility, and employment histories. Individuals, rather than families
or households, form the units of observation. The design is
cross-sectional, with several retrospective sequences, permitting the
detailed description of past and current living arrangements and other
characteristics and experiences, as well as the analysis of the
consequences of earlier patterns on current states, marital and
parenting relationships, kin contact, and economic and psychological
well-being. Users of the NSFH data should check for periodic updates
of the collection by consulting files maintained by the principal
investigators at the University of Wisconsin. These files may
be accessed via anonymous FTP at: elaine.ssc.wisc.edu (cd /pub/nsfh).
National Survey of Families and Households, Wave 1: 1987-1988 (ICPSR 6041)
Wave 1 (1987-1988) is the first of three waves in a longitudinal survey
that was designed to study the causes and consequences of changes happening
in families and households within the United States. In addition to the
main interview conducted with the primary respondent, a shorter,
self-administered questionnaire was given to the spouse or cohabitating
partner, and also administered to the householder if he or she was a
relative of the primary respondent. (more)
National Survey of Families and Households, Wave II: 1992-1994 (ICPSR
6906)
The NSFH Wave I sample was reinterviewed for the second wave of the
survey, which was conducted from 1992 through August of 1994. The Wave II
survey included the following components: (1) an interview of all surviving
members of the original sample via face-to-face personal interview, (2) a
personal interview with the current spouse or cohabiting partner almost
identical to the interview with the main respondent, (3) a personal
interview with the original spouse or partner of the primary respondent in
cases where this relationship had ended, (4) a telephone interview with
"focal children" who were originally aged 13-18 in Wave I, (5) a short
telephone interview with "focal children" who were originally aged 5-12 in
Wave I, (6) short proxy interviews with a surviving spouse or other
relative in cases where the original respondent had died or was too ill to
interview, and (7) a telephone interview with a randomly-selected parent of
the main respondent.
(more)
National Survey of Families and Households, Wave III: 2001-2002 (ICPSR
171)
NSFH Wave III, is the third follow up and was conducted in 2001-2002. The
sample included all NSFH Wave I main respondents and spouse/partner with
focal child eligible for the NSFH Wave II interviews, interviews with these
focal children (now ages 18-34), and all other NSFH Wave I main respondents
ages 45 and over in 2000, as well as their NSFH Wave I spouse/partner.
(more)