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Oral contraceptive (OC) users living in El Paso, Texas were interviewed to assess motivations for patronizing a United States clinic or a Mexican pharmacy with over-the-counter (OTC) pills and to determine which women were likely to use the OTC option. The experiences of OC users who obtained their contraception from Mexican pharmacies were compared with those of women who obtained their pills from family planning clinics in El Paso, Texas, where eligible low-income women often pay nothing. 532 clinic users and 514 pharmacy users were surveyed about background characteristics, motivations for choosing their oral contraception source, and satisfaction with this source. For more information, please see the Border Contraceptive Access Study website.

The Chitwan Valley Family Study (CVFS) is a comprehensive family panel study of individuals, households, and communities in the Chitwan Valley of Nepal. The study was initially designed to investigate the influence of changing community and household contexts on population outcomes such as marital and childbearing processes. Over time, the goals of the study expanded to investigate family dynamics, intergenerational influences, child health, migration, labor force participation, attitudes and beliefs, mental health, agricultural production, environmental change, and many other topics. The data include full life histories for more than 10,000 individuals, tracking and interviews with all migrants, continuous measurement of community change, over 25 years of demographic event registry, and many other data collections. For additional information regarding the Chitwan Valley Family Study, please visit the Chitwan Valley Family Study Website. A Data Guide for this study is available as a web page and for download.

Principal Investigators

• William G. Axinn, University of Michigan
• Dirgha Ghimire, University of Michigan
• Jordan Smoller, Massachusetts General Hospital

The Continuity and Change in Contraceptive Use study assessed contraceptive use patterns from a national sample of women four times over an 18-month time period. Researchers examined patterns of use and a wide range of issues that inform women's contraceptive use patterns, including pregnancy motivation, life events, relationship dynamics and access to health care.

These data come from surveillance activities conducted by the Guttmacher Institute over several decades, collecting or compiling data for the period 1994 through 2016. These activities track the numbers of women who have a potential demand for contraceptive care (because they are of reproductive age, sexually active and not seeking to become pregnant), the subset of these women who likely need public support for care (because of their family income level or their age), the numbers of women who receive contraceptive services from publicly funded clinics, and the numbers of clinics providing publicly supported contraceptive services. These efforts have been conducted periodically, typically about every five years, but at times the intervals between efforts were shorter or longer than five years. The most recent data were collected or compiled for 2015 (women served) and 2016 (women with potential demand for services).

This release includes two separate datasets. Dataset 1, "Need for contraceptive services," provides county-level aggregate data for 6 different years (1995, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2016). For each county, the data represent estimates of the number of women who have a potential demand for contraceptive services and the number who likely need public support for care, both in total, and according to key socio-demographic characteristics. Dataset 2, "Clinics providing contraceptive services and women served," provides county-level aggregate data for six different years (1994, 1997, 2001, 2006, 2010, and 2015). For each county, the data represent the number of publicly funded clinics according to clinic type and funding status and the number of female contraceptive patients served at those clinics.

The ethnographic fieldwork portion of the project - interviews with women of reproductive age, and when available their partners and mothers - was initiated and completed in 2006. For each of four Italian cities (Padua, Bologna, Cagliari, and Naples) studied ethnographically by trained anthropologists, both a working-class and a middle-class neighborhood were identified. These interviews (349 in number) have been transcribed without identifiers. All interviews have been coded and assigned 'attributes' (or nominative variables, such as gender, civil/religious status of marriage, etc.) using the qualitative data analysis software (NVIVO), and these reside in secure electronic project folders. This large body of qualitative interview data is now complete and ready for use across the international collaborative units. Preliminary research reveals the particular significance of family ties in Italy, the fundamental role played by gender systems, and the specific cultural, socio-economic, and politic contexts in which fertility behavior and parenting are embedded.

The First Baby Study (FBS) was a prospective cohort study designed to investigate the association between mode of delivery at first childbirth (cesarean or vaginal) and subsequent fecundity and fertility over the course of a 3-year follow-up period. Women were enrolled during pregnancy and interviewed by telephone in their third trimester. Enrolled participants were followed-up with and surveyed at 1, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months postpartum. Participants were enrolled in 2009 to 2011 and the last interview was conducted in 2014.

The Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) integrates data from ten underlying component studies of family and fertility: the Growth of American Families studies of 1955 and 1960; the National Survey of Fertility of 1965 and 1970; and the National Surveys of Family Growth of 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002. The first release contains harmonized sociodemographic variables for all respondents from all ten component studies, including those related to marital status, race and ethnicity, education, income, migration, religion, and region of origin, among others. The second release adds harmonized husband/partner sociodemographic variables as well as harmonized union history variables. The third release adds harmonized pregnancy, adoption, non-biological children, and menstruation variables. The fourth release adds harmonized fertility variables. The fifth release includes the addition of the pregnancy interval file. This file contains 217,128 pregnancy records with information pertaining to the pregnancies of all respondents. The sixth release adds comparative sample variables to the respondent and pregnancy interval files, and includes the addition of the contraceptive calendar file. This file contains 53,317 records with information pertaining to type and frequency of contraceptive use. The seventh release includes additional variables related to contraceptive knowledge, contraceptive use, birth control and family planning services, sexual history, infertility, and sterilizing operations. It also adds sociodemographic and union history variables. Imputed data through the third release are also included.

This data collection contains the first four waves of the Iowa Youth and Families Project (IYFP), conducted in 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992. The Iowa Youth and Families Project was developed from an initial sample of 451 7th graders from two-parent families in rural Iowa. The study was merged with the Iowa Single Parent Project (ISPP) to form the Iowa Family Transitions Project in 1994, when the target youth were seniors in high school. Survey data were collected from the target child (7th grader), a sibling within four years of age of the target child, and both parents. Field interviewers visited families at their homes on several occasions to administer questionnaires and videotape interaction tasks including family discussion tasks, family problem-solving tasks, sibling interaction tasks, and marital interaction tasks.

The Household Data files contain information about the family's financial situation, involvement in farming, and demographic information about household members.

The Parent and the Child Survey Data files contain responses to survey questions about the quality and stability of family relationships, emotional, physical, and behavioral problems of individual family members, parent-child conflict, family problem-solving skills, social and financial support from outside the home, traumatic life experiences, alcohol, drug, and tobacco use, and opinions on topics such as abortion, parenting, and gender roles. In addition, the Child Survey Data files include responses collected from the target child and his or her sibling in the study about experiences with puberty, dating, sexual activity, and risk-taking behavior.

The Problem-Solving Data files contain survey data collected from respondents about the family interactions tasks.

The Observational Data files contain the interviewers' observations collected during these tasks.

Demographic variables include sex, age, employment status, occupation, income, home ownership, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, as well as the ages and sex of all household members and their relationship to the head of household. Demographic information collected on the parents also includes their birth order within their family, the ages and political philosophy of their parents, the sex, age, education level, and occupation of their siblings, and the country of origin of their ancestors.

The Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) is one of very few long-standing longitudinal cohort studies in a poor Sub-Saharan African (SSA) context. It provides a record of more than 25 years of demographic, socioeconomic, and health conditions in one of the world's poorest countries. Initial data collection began in 1998 under the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (MDICP) to examine social networks and fertility decisions among married women and their husbands. While this initial study population is still followed, the scope of the project and population expanded to a broader focus on social and contextual determinants of health across the lifecourse in Malawi.

This collection includes Rounds 1 through 9 of the MLSFH, as well as supplemental data collections from Sexual Diaries, Migration Follow-Ups (MHM), a Biomarker Survey, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), and a Benefits of Knowledge Intervention Survey. The MLSFH Data web page contains additional information and cohort profiles for all MLSFH data collections, including those not made available through ICPSR-DSDR.

Downloads of Add Health require submission of the following information, which is shared with the original producer of Add Health: supervisor name, supervisor email, and reason for download. A Data Guide for this study is available as a web page and for download.

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), 1994-2018 [Public Use] is a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents in grades 7 through 12 during the 1994-1995 school year. The Add Health cohort was followed into young adulthood with four in-home interviews, the most recent conducted in 2008 when the sample was aged 24-32. Add Health combines longitudinal survey data on respondents' social, economic, psychological, and physical well-being with contextual data on the family, neighborhood, community, school, friendships, peer groups, and romantic relationships.

Add Health Wave I data collection took place between September 1994 and December 1995, and included both an in-school questionnaire and in-home interview. The in-school questionnaire was administered to more than 90,000 students in grades 7 through 12, and gathered information on social and demographic characteristics of adolescent respondents, education and occupation of parents, household structure, expectations for the future, self-esteem, health status, risk behaviors, friendships, and school-year extracurricular activities. All students listed on a sample school's roster were eligible for selection into the core in-home interview sample. In-home interviews included topics such as health status, health-facility utilization, nutrition, peer networks, decision-making processes, family composition and dynamics, educational aspirations and expectations, employment experience, romantic and sexual partnerships, substance use, and criminal activities. A parent, preferably the resident mother, of each adolescent respondent interviewed in Wave I was also asked to complete an interviewer-assisted questionnaire covering topics such as inheritable health conditions, marriages and marriage-like relationships, neighborhood characteristics, involvement in volunteer, civic, and school activities, health-affecting behaviors, education and employment, household income and economic assistance, parent-adolescent communication and interaction, parent's familiarity with the adolescent's friends and friends' parents.

Add Health data collection recommenced for Wave II from April to August 1996, and included almost 15,000 follow-up in-home interviews with adolescents from Wave I. Interview questions were generally similar to Wave I, but also included questions about sun exposure and more detailed nutrition questions. Respondents were asked to report their height and weight during the course of the interview, and were also weighed and measured by the interviewer.

From August 2001 to April 2002, Wave III data were collected through in-home interviews with 15,170 Wave I respondents (now 18 to 26 years old), as well as interviews with their partners. Respondents were administered survey questions designed to obtain information about family, relationships, sexual experiences, childbearing, and educational histories, labor force involvement, civic participation, religion and spirituality, mental health, health insurance, illness, delinquency and violence, gambling, substance abuse, and involvement with the criminal justice system. High School Transcript Release Forms were also collected at Wave III, and these data comprise the Education Data component of the Add Health study.

Wave IV in-home interviews were conducted in 2008 and 2009 when the original Wave I respondents were 24 to 32 years old. Longitudinal survey data were collected on the social, economic, psychological, and health circumstances of respondents, as well as longitudinal geographic data. Survey questions were expanded on educational transitions, economic status and financial resources and strains, sleep patterns and sleep quality, eating habits and nutrition, illnesses and medications, physical activities, emotional content and quality of current or most recent romantic/cohabiting/marriage relationships, and maltreatment during childhood by caregivers. Dates and circumstances of key life events occurring in young adulthood were also recorded, including a complete marriage and cohabitation history, full pregnancy and fertility histories from both men and women, an educational history of dates of degrees and school attendance, contact with the criminal justice system, military service, and various employment events, including the date of first and current jobs, with respective information on occupation, industry, wages, hours, and benefits. Finally, physical measurements and biospecimens were also collected at Wave IV, and included anthropometric measures of weight, height and waist circumference, cardiovascular measures such as systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and pulse, metabolic measures from dried blood spots assayed for lipids, glucose, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), measures of inflammation and immune function, including High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).

Wave V data collection took place from 2016 to 2018, when the original Wave I respondents were 33 to 43 years old. For the first time, a mixed mode survey design was used. In addition, several experiments were embedded in early phases of the data collection to test response to various treatments. A similar range of data was collected on social, environmental, economic, behavioral, and health circumstances of respondents, with the addition of retrospective child health and socio-economic status questions. Physical measurements and biospecimens were again collected at Wave V, and included most of the same measures as at Wave IV.

The overall goal of Wave VI was to better understand life course trajectories, determinants, and consequences of critical dimensions of aging, health, and health disparities among U.S. early midlife adults. Data collection took place from 2022 to 2025, with participants between the ages of 39 and 51, with an average age of 44. Beyond longitudinal survey measures, newly added questions included those on cumulative stress, discrimination, despair, work-life balance, memory, physical limitations, and caregiving. Continuing from previous waves, home exams collected physical measurements and biospecimens with most of the same measures as Wave V.

This catalog record includes detailed variable-level descriptions, enabling data discovery and comparison. The data are not archived at ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners (via the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) website) directly for details on obtaining the data.

The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on pregnancy and births, marriage and cohabitation, infertility, use of contraception, family life, and general and reproductive health. The survey sample is designed to produce national data, not estimates for individual states. Beginning in 1973, NSFG was designed to be nationally representative of ever-married women 15-44 years of age in the civilian, non-institutionalized population of the United States (household population). Later sample changes to NSFG include:

• Interviewing women aged 15-44 regardless of marital experience (1982)
• Interviewing an independent sample of men aged 15-44 (2002)
• Expanding the age range for women and men to 15-49 (2015)
• • Grandparent-Parent-Adult Child triplets: ~1,400

For the 2011-2019 continuous interviewing period, four sets of 2-year public-use data files were released:

• 2011-2013 NSFG: 10,416 respondents aged 15-44 (5,601 women and 4,815 men)
• 2013-2015 NSFG: 10,205 respondents aged 15-44 (5,699 women and 4,506 men)
• 2015-2017 NSFG: 10,094 respondents aged 15-49 (5,554 women and 4,540 men)
• 2017-2019 NSFG: 11,347 respondents aged 15-49 (6,141 women and 5,206 men)

Public-use data files and related documentation, including questionnaires, codebooks, and design and operations reports, can be found for each release on the NSFG Questionnaires, Datasets, and Related Documentation page.

The Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) Study aims to investigate the types of romantic relationships that produce early and/or unintended pregnancies. The study is based on a representative sample of 1,003 women aged 18 to 22 residing in Genesee County, Michigan. The research team focused on women ages 18 to 22 because these ages are characterized by the highest rates of unintended pregnancy, as well as significant instability and change in the dynamic determinants of unintended pregnancy.

Data collection for the baseline survey was conducted March 2008 through July 2009, and consisted of a 60-minute face-to-face interview to gather information on respondent attitudes and behaviors, intimate and familial relationships, contraceptive use, reproductive history, self-reported height and weight, and socio-demographic characteristics.

The baseline survey was followed by a series of three supplemental surveys administered over a two-and-a-half year period between May 2009 and August 2011. These surveys covered a wide range of topics, including family living arrangements, socioeconomic status, employment, media consumption, mental health, violence, personality traits, assumptions and knowledge regarding various forms of contraception, and attitudes and opinions about social life. The second major component of the RDSL features journal data collected concurrently with the supplemental surveys. The focus of the journal data collection was to gather dynamic, prospective measurements of pregnancy desires and contraceptive use, as well as relationship attributes such as commitment, sexual intimacy, and decision-making regarding contraception. Please consult the crosswalk to determine which level of restriction is required for research.

Demographic information collected includes respondent age, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, marital status, education, employment status, income, and household size and composition.

The Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) Study aims to investigate the types of romantic relationships that produce early and/or unintended pregnancies. The study is based on a representative sample of 1,003 women aged 18 to 22 residing in Genesee County, Michigan. The research team focused on women ages 18 to 22 because these ages are characterized by the highest rates of unintended pregnancy, as well as significant instability and change in the dynamic determinants of unintended pregnancy.

Data collection for the baseline survey was conducted March 2008 through July 2009, and consisted of a 60-minute face-to-face interview to gather information on respondent attitudes and behaviors, intimate and familial relationships, contraceptive use, reproductive history, and socio-demographic characteristics.

The baseline survey was followed by a series of three supplemental surveys administered over a two-and-a-half year period between May 2009 and August 2011. These surveys covered a wide range of topics, including family living arrangements, socioeconomic status, employment, media consumption, mental health, violence, personality traits, assumptions and knowledge regarding various forms of contraception, and attitudes and opinions about social life. The second major component of the RDSL features journal data collected concurrently with the supplemental surveys (please see ICPSR 34626 to access the journal component description and datasets). Please consult the crosswalk to determine which level of restriction is required for research.

Demographic information collected for the baseline and supplemental surveys includes respondent age, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, marital status, education, employment status, income, and household size and composition.