Aging in the Eighties: America in Transition, 1981 (ICPSR 8691)
American Perceptions of Aging in the 21st Century [APA21], 2000 (ICPSR 3326)
Experiences and Plans of Young Adults, 1973-1978 [United States] (ICPSR 8074)
Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (ICPSR 6854)
The University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a longitudinal panel study that surveys a representative sample of approximately 20,000 people in America, supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration.
The HRS aims to provide multidisciplinary data that researchers can use to address important questions about the challenges and opportunities of aging. The HRS includes the "original" HRS and the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest-Old (AHEAD) study. These studies were merged in 1998 and now represent the United States population over age 50. Two new cohorts were added in 1998: the Children of the Depression (born 1924-1930) and the War Babies (1942-1947). A fourth cohort, the Early Baby Boomers (1948-1953), was added in 2004; a fifth cohort, the Mid Baby Boomers (1954-1959), was added in 2010; and in 2016, the Late Baby Boomers cohort (1960-1965) became the sixth.
Questionnaire topics include physical and cognitive functioning, retirement plans, family structure and transfers, demographic characteristics, housing, employment status, income, disability, health insurance, pension plans, job history, and attitudes, preferences, and expectations for the future. The survey data are linked with administrative records from the Employer Pension Study (1993 and 1999), National Death Index, Social Security Administration earnings and projected benefits data and W-2 self-employment data, and Medicare files.
High School and Beyond, 1980: A Longitudinal Survey of Students in the United States (ICPSR 7896)
Marital Instability Over the Life Course, 1983: [United States] (ICPSR 9200)
Marital Instability Over the Life Course [United States]: A Five-Wave Panel Study, 1980, 1983, 1988, 1992-1994, 1997 (ICPSR 2163)
Marital Instability Over the Life Course [United States]: A Six-Wave Panel Study, 1980, 1983, 1988, 1992-1994, 1997, 2000 (ICPSR 3812)
Marital Instability Over the Life Course [United States]: A Three-Wave Panel Study, 1980-1988 (ICPSR 9747)
Work and Family Life Study [United States] (ICPSR 26641)
Formerly titled Marital Instability Over the Life Course (MIOLC -- ICPSR 3812), the Work and Family Life Study (WFLS) is a follow-up to the MIOLC. The MIOLC examined the causes of marital instability throughout the life course, and contains 6 waves of data collected between 1980 and 2000, which were gathered from married respondents who were between the ages of 19 and 55.
The Work and Family Life Study provides data for use in assessing: changes in marital quality between 1980 and 2000; the effects of family-of-origin characteristics and marital history on the physical and psychological health of respondents; and evaluating sample attrition, factors which lead to attrition, and attrition bias.
The WFLS collected new cross-sectional information (Part 2 -- Public Use Cross Section, N = 2,189) on married people 55 years of age and younger, using the same sampling procedures and interview questions that were used in the 1980 wave of the MIOLC. The Work and Family Life Study's Public Use Cross Section is the latest addition to the data collections. This new Public Use Cross Section studies the effects of wives' participation in the labor force on marriage and marital instability.
Also provided in this collection are the Public Use All Waves (Part 1, N = 2,034) and the Public Use Panel Wave 6 (Part 3, N = 1,031). The Public Use All Waves contains information from Waves I through VI, which were collected in 1980, 1983, 1987, 1992-1994, 1997, and 2000. Among the variables included in all six waves are age, sex, educational attainment, marital status and history, attitude toward divorce, number of children, religious affiliation, and income level. The Public Use Panel Wave 6 contains data on persons who only responded to wave 6 of the study.
Unique to this data collection, the Public Use Comparison file (Part 4, N = 11,741) contains information on respondents who would have been between the ages of 19 and 55 in 1980, married, and living with their spouse. These data evaluate potential bias from sample attrition in the panel study. The Comparison Sample is a special purpose sample and does not generalize to a normally defined population of ever married persons.