Federal Register: December 15, 1995 (Volume 60, Number 241)

[Notices]

[Page 64437-64438]

From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Change in Marriage and Divorce Data Available From the National Center for Health Statistics

Agency: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

Action: Notice

Summary: Beginning January 1, 1996, the availability of marriage and divorce data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), CDC, will change. NCHS will continue to collect marital status in all of its population surveys, will continue to obtain detailed information on out-of-wedlock births, and will work with States to obtain summary counts of marriages and divorces. However, detailed data from [[Page 64438]] States participating in the marriage and divorce components of the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program (VSCP) will no longer be obtained. This change is being made to prioritize programs in a period of tightened resource constraints.

Dates: Written comments regarding these changes in the collection of marriage and divorce data must be received on or before January 15, 1996.

Addresses: Written comments can be sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics, Attention: FR Response, Division of Vital Statistics, Room 7318, 3311 Toledo Road, Hyattsville, Maryland 20782.

For Further Information Contract: Information Dissemination Staff, Division of Data Services, NCHS, CDC, telephone (301) 436-8500.

Supplementary Information: Viewed at either the individual level or the population level, marital status is a key variable in health, demographic, and policy research. As a result, data on current marital status and on change in marital status have been collected through a variety of Federal surveys and data systems. Among these systems are health surveys conducted by NCHS, the Current Population Survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and the records-based vital registration system conducted as a cooperative venture (the VSCP) between NCHS and the States. Within the VSCP, current marital status data are collected from birth certificates in the birth registration system resulting, for example, in data on out-of-wedlock births. Marital status is also collected from death certificates in the death registration system. Data on change in marital status are obtained from marriage and divorce certificates.

NCHS plans to discontinue payments to the States and other vital registration areas for the collection of detailed data from marriage and divorce certificates, but will continue to request counts of marriages performed and divorces granted from all vital registration areas of the United States. All other NCHS efforts to collect marital status information, including marital status for mothers on birth certificates, will continue.

NCHS data systems are continually being reviewed in light of resource constraints to assure that efforts are focused on the highest priority data needs. At a time when policy issues related to families are of great interest, NCHS has exercised caution to assure that data systems will be available to support monitoring and research interests in key priority areas. Over the last year, NCHS has systematically reviewed the availability and uses of detailed data on marriages and divorces. This review has led to the conclusion that the data most needed for setting policy (e.g., information on family formation, out- of-wedlock births, children living in single parent families) can be obtained through other sources, such as the birth registration system, other NCHS surveys, and the Current Population Survey.

The discontinuation of collection of detailed data from marriage and divorce certificates will result in a loss of data to researchers who currently rely on this data source for information on annual changes in the collective marriage and divorce behavior of the population, including trends and differentials in the propensity to marry, to divorce, and to remarry after divorce or widowhood. However, much of this information is available on a 5-year cycle from the June Marital History Supplement of the Current Population Survey.

Longstanding concerns about the completeness and quality of detailed marriage and divorce data from the VSCP were an important consideration in reaching the conclusion to discontinue payments to the States. Although the United States Government has collected marriage and divorce data through various methods since 1867, it was not until 1957 that a formal Registration Area was created for reporting detailed marriage data to NCHS; a similar Registration Area was created for divorces in 1958. These Registration Areas include States with adequate programs for collecting marriage and divorce statistics that meet specific registration and reporting criteria for participation. More recently, NCHS has included marriage and divorce statistics in the VSCP, a contractual arrangement by which NCHS provides support to the State vital statistics programs and through which NCHS receives vital statistics data for analysis and dissemination at the national level.

Working with State vital registration offices and with various users of marriage and divorce data, NCHS has established standard certificates of marriage and divorce. These certificates contain selected data items about marriages and divorces, and certain of these items are required for admission to the registration areas. Due to variation in State laws on registration of marriage and divorce, not all States obtain these basic required items, and not all States have central registration facilities for marriages or divorces or both. At present, 41 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands participate in the Marriage Registration Area and 31 States, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands participate in the Divorce Registration Area. Detailed data are currently obtained from relatively small systematic samples of marriage and divorce records for these areas. Although this system has been in place for many years, it has never been completed. Detailed data represent approximately 77 percent of marriages in the Nation and 49 percent of divorces. For this reason, in addition to the detailed data, NCHS obtains counts of the number of marriages performed and the number of divorces granted from all States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Fiscal constraints on State vital statistics programs have put stress on state-level quality assurance programs. As a result, in addition to the problem of coverage completeness, the quality of detailed marriage and divorce data has deteriorated. This deterioration is reflected mostly by the fact that, in some States, the response rates for certain key variables have fallen well below the minimum level acceptable to NCHS.

These coverage and quality concerns, the lack of identified resources to upgrade the system, and the availability of marital status data for high-priority needs from other sources have led NCHS, in consultation with data users, to conclude that resources currently devoted to the marriage and divorce component of the VSCP should be redirected to other priority uses.

Dated: December 8, 1995.

Claire V. Broome,
Deputy Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

[FR Doc. 95-30566 Filed 12-14-95; 8:45 am]

Billing Code 4163-18-P

This page last reviewed January 11, 2007