Study Name:National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women

Study Director:Michael W. Horrigan

Principal Investigator:Randall Olsen

Host Organizations:Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor

Year Initiated:1967

 

Governance

 

-                     Funding Sources

 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics primarily funds the core activities of the NLS of Mature Women.Additional funding has been provided by the Social Security Administration, as well as the Department of Labor Women's Bureau and Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration.

 

-                     Host organization

 

The study is conducted by the Census Bureau and the Center for Human Resource Research (CHRR) at Ohio State University.

 

-                     Governing body and the role of external research advisors

 

The 15-member Technical Review Committee (TRC) assists the NLS director.The TRC, along with NLS staff and individuals from funding agencies, meets twice each year.The committee is multidisciplinary, reflecting the wide rage of social scientists who use the NLS data.Members generally serve two three-year terms.

 

In addition to the TRC, there is an executive planning group consisting of the Principal Investigators of each NLS cohort, BLS staff, and the chair of the TRC.This group meets biannually to discuss TRC suggestions and long-range issues affecting the survey.

 

Sample Design

 

-                     Sample selection

 

The sample for the NLS of Mature Women, originating in 1967, is a nationally representative sample of 5,083 women who were ages 30 to 44 as of March 31, 1967.Blacks were sampled at three times their expected rate in the population.The sample design made it possible for any household that included a member of the sample for the NLS of Mature Women also to include sample members from the NLS of Young Women cohort, which began in 1968.

 

Using 1,900 Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) first selected for the experimental Monthly Labor Survey, 235 relatively homogeneous PSUs were chosen to represent the civilian noninstitutionalized population.Within each PSU, a probability sample of housing units was selected for screening.

 

-Follow rules

 

From 1967 to 1982, no attempt was made to contact respondents after they had refused a previous interview.From 1971 to 1982, no attempt was made to contact respondents who had two consecutive noninterviews for reasons other than refusal, death, or membership in the Armed Forces.In 1984 an effort was made to locate some previously dropped respondents.Currently, efforts are made to contact every respondent interviewed in 1984 even if they had subsequently missed interviews.

 

-                     Oversampling

 

There is an oversample of blacks.In order to provide reliable statistics for black respondents, the design called for oversampling blacks at three times the expected rate in the total population.

 

-                     Weights and attrition bias

 

New weights are created each survey round.

 

-                     Sample "refreshing"

None.

 

Content

-                     Driving policy needs

 

This cohort was chosen to understand specific issues pertaining to the U.S. labor market, such as the return of housewives to the labor market, juggling labor force participation and care of elderly relatives, and retirement planning and decisions.

 

-                     Research objectives (Maintaining coherence of content domains)

 

Due to the depth and breadth of information available in the NLS of Mature Women, it can be used for a wide range of research objectives.Papers can be found on the NLS web site at www.bls.gov/nlshome.htm

 

-                     Content decisions

 

The NLS of Mature Women has 17 major data elements:Work and nonwork experiences; work-related discrimination; training investments; schooling information; retirement status and plans and pensions; volunteer work and leisure activities; income and assets; physical well-being, health care, and health insurance; alcohol and cigarette use; attitudes, aspirations, and psychological well-being; geographic and environmental data; demographics, family background, and household composition; marital and Fertility histories; child care; care of ill and disabled persons; household chores; and transfers of time and money to parents and children.

 

-                     Tradeoffs between continuity and incentives for new directions.

 

The NLS of Mature Women has a core set of questions (employment, income and assets, pensions, retirement, fertility, marital/relationship, health and health insurance).The survey periodically includes detailed modules (menopause, transfers of time or money to other family members, detailed health).Question modules are added when respondents hit a certain age and are dropped when no longer appropriate.

 

Collection

 

-                     Mode

 

Personal paper and pencil interviews were conducted in 1967, 1969, 1971, and 1972, with a mail interview conducted in 1968.After 1972, each respondent was contacted by phone approximately every two years, then again in person one year after the second phone interview.This pattern continued until 1987, after which respondents were personally interviewed biennially, except for 1990, when interviews were not conducted because of Census Bureau conflicts with the 1990 decennial census.

 

-Instrument design

 

The survey began using computer-aided personal interviews in 1995.

 

-                     Dependent interviewing

 

For each interview, there is an extensive preload of household, employment, and personal information that was gathered in previous interviews.

 

-                     Calendar year, survey year, and point of survey measures

 

Point of reference for the respondent is the date of last interview.Some information is collected in an event history format.

 

Processing

 

-                     Family composition editing.

None.

 

-                     Production of specialized files

 

The NLS of Mature Women includes a file of pension data collected in 1989.There also is a mature women pension wealth calculation program and dataset.These files are available to interested researchers who contact NLS User Services at usersvc@postoffice.chrr.ohio-state.edu.

 

-                     Data and Documentation Standards

 

Dissemination

 

-                     Dissemination techniques

 

NLS data are on cohort-specific compact discs complete with documentation and user-friendly search and retrieval software.The cost is $20.

 

-                     Virtual data center and functionalities

 

-                     Improving contractual use of data (confidentiality and encryption)

 

-                     Comparability of formats (Evolution of data standards)

 

-                     Value of joint multinational analysis projects