The Women's Employment Study, Genesee County, Michigan, 1997-2004 (ICPSR 37077)

Version Date: Oct 16, 2025

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Principal Investigator(s):
Richard M. Tolman; Sheldon H. Danziger; Kristine Siefert; Sandra K. Danziger; Mary E. Corcoran; Kristin S. Seefeldt

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37077.v2

Version V2 ()

  • V2 [2025-10-16]
  • V1 [2018-05-29] unpublished
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Summary

The Women's Employment Study, or "WES" combined the insights of poverty researchers, epidemiologists, and social workers by analyzing the ways in which a broad range of labor market, mental health, physical health, and family problems affect a welfare recipient's ability to obtain and retain employment over time.

WES initially began in the Fall of 1997, and five waves of the survey were completed by early 2004, with a high proportion of the original panel sample retained throughout the study.

The unique aspects of WES rest largely with the broad range of barriers it measures, and the longitudinal nature of the study that allows researchers to look at employment and welfare experiences over time.

Citation

Tolman, Richard M., Danziger, Sheldon H., Siefert, Kristine, Danziger, Sandra K., Corcoran, Mary E., and Seefeldt, Kristin S. The Women’s Employment Study, Genesee County, Michigan, 1997-2004. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-10-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37077.v2

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

none

Restrictions

This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To obtain the restricted file, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1997 -- 1998 (Wave 1), 1998 -- 1999 (Wave 2), 1999 -- 2000 (Wave 3), 2001 -- 2002 (Wave 4), 2003 -- 2004 (Wave 5)

Date of Collection

1997-09 -- 1998-01 (Wave 1), 1998-09 -- 1999-03 (Wave 2), 1999-11 -- 2000-05 (Wave 3), 2001-09 -- 2002-01 (Wave 4), 2003-09 -- 2004-02 (Wave 5)
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Study Purpose

A key goal of the study was to examine how the presence of any one of these barriers or combination of barriers affects a recipient's response to new welfare program mandates. The study documented how problems (or the lack thereof) at the time of the interview are correlated with labor market success, continued welfare receipt, or other measures of well-being at subsequent waves. WES explores if and how work and welfare experiences between waves can, conversely, predict changes in a recipient's overall personal employability during the study period.

Study Design

The Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan conducted the data collection effort. SRC interviewers administered face-to-face standardized interviews using a paper-and-pencil survey instrument. Interviews slightly increased in length over the waves, from approximately 60 minutes to 85 minutes.

Most of the interviews at the first wave of WES were conducted in the Fall of 1997. Waves 2 and 3 were conducted at approximately one-year intervals in the Fall of 1998 and Winter of 1999, respectively. Wave 4 and 5 were collected in the Fall of 2001 and 2003, respectively. At each wave, respondents were followed from the previous wave but no attempt to recontact non-respondents were made.

Sample

The sample was systematically drawn with equal probability from an ordered list of the universe of active single mother cases from the FIA (Family Independence Agency). Cases were proportionately selected by zip code, race (White, non-Hispanic or African-American), and age (18-54 years).

Time Method

Longitudinal: Panel

Universe

Single parent female headed cases with children who received Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) in an urban Michigan county.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

The first group of datasets are the ones built directly from the interview questions from the 5 waves. These are Datasets 1 to 5 (Wave 1 Survey Data to Wave 5 Survey Data).

The second group of datasets contain created variables that come from the original datasets. Many of the questions in the survey may be part of scales that need to be coded; the mental health sections use standardized coding algorithms to create variables; and a series of "barriers" to employment measures were devised to be used repeatedly in analyses. These datasets are named by number of the wave the variables were created from. Datasets 6 to 11 (Wave 1 Standard Created Variables Data to Wave 5 Standard Created Variables Restricted-Use Data) contain the created variables.

The third group of datasets are the household rosters that are completed prior to the interviews. In each wave, respondents are asked certain questions (e.g., who lives with them, their relationships, age, etc.) and variables were created from these responses (e.g., the number of adults in a household, the number of children in various age categories, etc.). One household dataset per wave is created and named with the number of the wave and the word "Household". Datasets 12 to 16 (Wave 1 Household Data to Wave 5 Household Data) contain the household variables.

Lastly, there are a number of datasets that are smaller and contain variables related to different topics. These data are found in Datasets 17 to 27.

Response Rates

Response rates were 86% for Wave 1 (N=753), 92% for Wave 2 (N=693), 91% for Wave 3 (N=632), 91% for Wave 4 (N=577), and 93% for Wave 5 (N=536).

Presence of Common Scales

Likert scales were used in the survey.

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Original Release Date

2018-05-29

Version History

2025-10-16 Study's data and ICPSR codebooks were updated to include additional processed information for all datasets, creating question text for Datasets 1 to 5, releasing Datasets 6 to 10 and 22 publicly, and creating SDA for Datasets 6 to 10.

2018-05-29 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Performed consistency checks.
  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Weight

none

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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.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.

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This study is provided by Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD).