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NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEY OF YOUTH, 1997 (NLSY97)
Purpose
The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 (NLSY97) continues under goals established by the U.S. Department of Labor with the initial 1966 National Longitudinal Survey (NLS), which was developed to study the experiences of diverse individuals in the U.S. labor market. With additional funding from other governmental departments, agencies, and institutions, data are collected on the cohort’s health, attitudes, criminal activity, and other behaviors.
Agencies/Institutions
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, is the primary sponsor of the NLSY97. Additional funding comes from the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to fund portions of the questionnaires.
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and the Interest-Finder (I-F) were cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Labor. The ASVAB is a military-enlistment test and the I-F is a set of questions that assesses occupational interest. These assessments were administered only in Round 1.
The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor funded the school survey through the National School-to-Work Office. This survey has questions about school characteristics and school staff within the neighborhoods of the respondents. The Office of Juvenile Delinquency of the Department of Justice sponsored the crime-related questions in the self-administered portion of the youth questionnaire. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development also sponsored questions in the self-administered portion of the youth questionnaire.
The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago conducted the survey with the assistance of the Center for Human Resource Research (CHRR) at Ohio State University.
Research/Survey Design
The NLSY97 is a nonexperimental longitudinal survey of youth between the ages of 12 and 16. The primary respondent is the adolescent, although parent information was also included in Round 1 of data collection. The predetermined priority for the responding parent is that he or she is a biological parent, an adoptive parent, a step-parent, a guardian or relative, a foster parent with whom the youth lived for 2 or more years, another nonrelative with whom the youth lived for more than 2 years, a relative mother or father figure, or a nonrelative mother or father figure. Mothers have always been considered higher in respondent priority than fathers.
In Rounds 1 and 3, information was collected through school surveys in the NSLY97 participants’ neighborhoods. In Round 3, students’ transcripts were acquired. The youth questionnaire was administered in each round.
Two sampling methods were used to assemble the NLSY97 cohort. Inclusion criteria mandated that the child must live in a household within a primary sampling unit (PSU) as statistically determined by NORC using standardized area probability sampling methodology. Youth from the cross-sectional sample made up 75.1% of the cohort. In the cross-sectional sample, houses were selected from PSUs for survey screening on the basis of a NORC-developed probability sample that represented the general U.S. population. The response rate of eligible youth for the cross-sectional sample was 92.1% (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Statistics, & National Longitudinal Survey Program, 2002).
The remaining participants were obtained from a supplemental sample of PSUs with greater concentrations of black and Hispanic residents to oversample for these racial and ethnic groups. The response rate of eligible youth in the supplemental sample was 90.2% (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Statistics et al., 2002).
Date(s)/Periodicity
The survey was first administered in 1997. Thus far, five subsequent rounds of this ongoing survey have been administered yearly (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002).
Population/Sample
The NLSY97 cohort represents a sample of 8,984 U.S. youth between the ages of 12 and 16 from 6,819 households. Most of the youth who share households are siblings; however, the NLSY97 within-household data are not a generalizable sibling sample.
The cross-sectional sample had 6,748 respondents, with a response rate of 92.1%. The supplemental sample of 2,236 respondents had a slightly lower response rate at 90.2%. The Round 1 cohort showed racial and ethnic variability: 26.0% black; 21.3% Hispanic; 51.9% non-black/non-Hispanic; and 0.9% mixed race. The sample was 51.2% male and 48.8% female (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Statistics et al., 2002).
The follow-up rounds have maintained an approximate 90% overall retention rate, with the sample being reweighted after each round of data collection to ensure that data from each round are representative of the national population (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Statistics et al., 2002).
Content Covered
A significant portion of the youth questionnaire seeks detailed information on the youth’s employment history and educational experiences. However, more sensitive information on the youth’s relationships with (present and absent) parents, dating, sexual activity, marital and fertility histories, pubertal development, expectations, time use, and deviant behavior is also collected.
In the Round 1 parent questionnaire, data were collected on the family background of the target adolescent. Information on the history of the parents’ marriage(s), relationships with a spouse or a partner, youth and parent health, and ethnic and religious backgrounds was collected. Questions yielding information on employment history, income and assets, participation in government assistance programs, youths’ early child-care and custody arrangements, and parental expectations for their child were also fielded.
Availability of Data for Public Use
Information on the NLSY97 project is available at http://www.bls.gov/nls/nlsy97.htm.
The data can be downloaded or received on a CD-ROM. Web addresses, phone numbers, and postal addresses follow:
The NLS Product Availability Center
http://www.nlsinfo.org/ordering/display_db.php3
Center for Human Resource Research
Ohio State University
921 Chatham Lane, Suite 100
Columbus, OH 43221-2418
(614) 442-7366 or (614) 442-7381
usersvc@postoffice.chrr.ohio-state.edu
Reference List for Users’ Guide, Codebooks, Methodology Report(s)
Moore, W., Pedlow, S., Krishnamurty, P., & Wolter, K. (2000). National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97): Technical sampling report. Columbus: Ohio State University, Center for Human Resource Research. Retrieved June 9, 2003, from http://www.nlsinfo.org/ordering/display_db.php3
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Statistics, & National Longitudinal Survey Program. (2002). A Guide to the rounds 1-4 data: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. Retrieved June 9, 2003, from http://www.bls.gov/nls/97guide/nls97usg.htm
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, & National Longitudinal Survey Program. (2002). NLS Handbook 2002 The National Longitudinal Surveys: The NLSY97 (chap. 2). Retrieved June 9, 2003, from http://www.bls.gov/nls/handbook/2002/nlshc2.pdf
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, & National Longitudinal Survey Program. (2003). NLSY97. Retrieved June 9, 2003, from http://www.bls.gov/nls/y97summary.htm
University of Michigan, I. f. S. R., Survey Research Center. (n.d.). National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997. Retrieved June 9, 2003, from http://www.isr.umich.edu/src/psid/inventory_table_links/nat_long_surv_youth_1997.htm
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