U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Marriage and Cohabitation Data in the National Longitudinal Surveys Alison Aughinbaugh NLS Summer Workshop 2007

Why NLS Data on Marriage are Valuable Key Features: timing of marriage and other events in respondents’ lives repeated observations ability to merge in geographic information

Topics for which NLS Marriage Data have been Used: Marriage and child-bearing Marital search and marriage Marriage and labor market outcomes Effect of marriage on child outcomes Marital disruptions and remarriage Marriage and health Marriage and alcohol/drug use Marriage and Income

Listings in NLS Bibliography on Unions Keyword Count Marital Conflict 2 Marital Disruption 85 Marital Dissolution 52 Marital Instability 25 Marital Satisfaction 18 Marital Status414 Marriage307 Cohabitation 62 Divorce177

NLSY79 Current marital status Available in all years, asked at start of marriage section Two created variables specifying marital status at interview date a. More complete (NEVER MARRIED, MARRIED, SEPARATED, DIVORCED, REMARRIED, WIDOWED) b. Collapsed (NEVER MARRIED, MARRIED, SPOUSE PRESENT, OTHER)

Marital History—How data are collected From 1980 on, data on marital changes are collected in an event history format 1.At each interview, respondents are reminded of their marital status at the date of the last interview and marital status at last interview is verified. 2.Asked, whether they had a change in marital status. If yes, the respondent is asked to report the type of the first change (marriage, divorce, etc.) and the date of that change in marital status.

Marital History—How data are collected 3. Asked if any other changes. If yes, asked to report the second change and the date of that change. This continues until respondent reports that there were no other changes.

Marriage Variables Created from Event History Data Created variables indicating the beginning and ending dates (month and year) of marriages Start dates for up to 3 marriages End dates for up to 2 marriages Age at 1 st marriage Number of months between first marriage and first birth

Cohabitation Data In all years, indicator of whether respondent is living with an opposite sex partner (comes from hh roster) 1990 and 1992 on Month and year when respondent began living with opposite sex partner Whether respondent lived with spouse before marriage Month and year when respondent and spouse began living together

Cohabitation History Beginning in the 2002 survey, during any period of at least 3 months in which the respondent was unmarried, we collect spells of cohabitation that are at least 3 months in duration—including start and stop dates

Cohabitation/Relationship History- Created Variables Based on the information in the household rosters (including names which are available at CHRR, but not to the rest of us) Two variables have been created for each year 1. NUMSPPTR—provides the id number of the current/most recent spouse or partner (takes values of 0 to 9) 2. RELSPPTR—provides the relationship of r to current spouse or partner -999 Never reported a spouse/partner 0 No current spouse/partner 1Spouse 33Partner 36Other

Cohabitation/Relationship History- Created Variables Caveats: Cannot tell whether these individuals were in the respondent’s hh between rounds Will have missed partners who were present for a short time between rounds

Spouse Characteristics Information collected in every round for a spouse or partner listed on household roster (age, hgc, employment in past year) Spouse labor supply information collected in marital history section in all survey years * occupation * weeks worked * hours worked per week Spouse’s religious affiliation and attendance collected in 1982, 1998, 2000 through 2006 Whether and number of times spouse has been married prior to this marriage

Attitudes and Expectations concerning Marriage 1979 survey, for all respondents who have never been married collect the age at which they expect to marry 1988, 1992, interviews, asked attitudes/quality of marriage questions of mothers living with spouse or partner (in the child care section of the questionnaire) Items on dating in 1988, 1992, interviews. Ask frequency of dating, children’s reaction to dating, aspirations with respect to marriage (in the child care section of the questionnaire)

NLSY79 Young Adults Dating and Relationship History –Asked about dating behavior –Confirm marital status at the date of last interview –Collect marital status at current interview –Marriage and cohabitation histories Start and stop dates of relationship Dates of change of legal marital status of relationship For spouses and partners, collect some characteristics—age, race, religion, highest grade completed, labor supply, rate of pay Relationship quality –No Created Variables

NLS Women’s Cohort Current marital status Created variables provide marital history information (available in 99 and on) Widowhood a. Husband’s time and medical needs at end of life b. Financial situation after husband’s death Spouse characteristics collected in all years except 1968/from 1983 on in MW/YW Spouse work experience collected from 1992/1993 on in MW/YM

Marriage History in Women’s Cohorts of NLS In the early years (up to 1978) and from the early 80’s on, a history of marital transition are collected Created variables on marital history are available with the release of the1999 (and later) data.

Marriage History in Women’s Cohorts of NLS A marital history has been constructed using the available information. The user should be aware that different questions are asked at different points in time. In different surveys, the following information is collected: (1)month and year of first marriage (2)month and year of most recent marriage (3)month and year of each marital change since date of last interview (4)month and year of becoming divorced, widowed, separated.

Created Variables Beginning with 1999 data release, created variables on marital history are available. –STDATxx Start date of marriage xx –ENDATxx End date of marriage xx

NLSY97 The NLSY97 marriage section builds off of what was learned from the NLSY79 marriage section—but faces new challenges. 1. Important to know cohabitation as well as legal marital status. 2. Cohabitation dates may be more difficult for respondents to report. Cohabitation may be a gradual process. 3. Marriage implies two people of opposite sex, but cohabitation does not. 4. Marriage does not always mean cohabitation. In at least 10 cases in the NLSY97, the respondent had never lived with spouse between marriage and subsequent interview.

Structure of NLSY97 Marriage and Cohabitation Section The section in the NLSY97 is set up differently than that for the NLSY79. Concentrates on tracking cohabitation spells and captures marital transitions obliquely—asks whether married when began cohabitation and asks about changes in marital status within cohabitation Starts by defining cohabitation as “a sexual relationship in which partners of the opposite sex establish one household and live together.” Then explicitly checks respondents marriage/cohab status at last interview It tries to roster any opposite-sex partner with whom the respondent lives and then record all changes in legal marital status for each relationship.

Marital Status Martial status at the time of the survey is collected Created variables that provide current marital and cohabitation status are available

Partner Roster At each survey respondents are asked to list each opposite-sex partner with whom the respondent had a sexual relationship and lived for at least one month For each partner on the list, the respondent is asked when s/he started and stopped living with this person

Partner Roster (continued) If partner is not in youth’s current household, additional information is collected characteristics at time they started living together: (1) age (2) race and ethnicity (3) highest grade (4) whether employed (5) whether receiving government assistance Survey goes back through list of partners and collects dates at which changes in marital status occurred in relationship with each partner

Quality of Relationship For current spouse/partner, respondent is also asked to rate relationship in the domains of closeness, caring, and conflict.

Using the NLSY97 Marriage and Cohabitation Data Difficult to present these data—over 350 variables released each round in the marriage and cohabitation section To help make these data tractable they are supplemented with 3 types of variables 1. Created variables 2. Event history variables 3. Roster variables

Created Variables Accumulate information found in similar raw variables to provide summary measure Total number of marriages (CV_MARRIAGES_TTL) Total number of cohabitations (CV_COHAB_TTL) Beginning date of respondent’s 1 st marriage (CV_FIRST_MARRY_DATE_M/Y), (CV_FIRST_MARRY_MONTH) Beginning date of respondent’s 1 st cohabitation (CV_FIRST_COHAB_DATE_M/Y), (CV_FIRST_COHAB_MONTH)

Marriage/Cohab Event History Data Month-by-month arrays that present respondent’s marital and cohabitation changes and the identity of spouse/partner for each month Arrays begin with the month the respondent turned 14 and end with the month of the respondent’s most recent interview

Marriage Arrays MAR_STATUS MAR_COHABITATION —tells which partner r is living with in each month Note: Partner ids begin with 1 (101, 102, …) and spouse id’s begin with 2 (201, …) MAR_PARTNER_LINK —links partner/spouse id with main survey, so that characteristics collected in the survey can be matched to partner. This array indicates the year in which the partner appeared on the roster and the order in which s/he was listed. For instance, if MAR_PARTNER_LINK equals 9801, the partner was first reported in the 1998 survey (round 2).

Roster Variables Report the characteristics of spouses and partners Race/ethnicity Educational attainment Employment Whether receiving government assistance

Dating In the SAQ, all respondents are asked whether ever been on a date If yes, asked age at the first date. –All respondents are asked how often s/he dated and the number of different people s/he went out with on a date in the past year or since the last interview Round 6 and on, expanded questions on dating to gather more detailed information on dating patterns and the progression of relationships. –For the most recent romantic partner of the respondent, collect initials of romantic partner, race, gender, whether he or she was of Hispanic or Latino origin, and educational attainment. –In subsequent rounds, collect information on whether relationship is on-going or how relationship ended, whether respondent ever cohabitated, ever married dating partner

Descriptive Statistics based on Marriage/Cohabitation by Age 20--Females

Descriptive Statistics based on Marriage/Cohabitation by Age 20—Males

Data Exercises 1.Create a dummy variable that indicates whether the respondent cohabitated by age 21 2.What is the age of the respondent’s first partner? Use tag set: marcoh2b-sw07.nlsy97