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INCOME AND EARNINGS
NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD EDUCATION SURVEY
Measure: Income and Earnings items from the National Household Education Survey questionnaires
Note: The National Household Education Survey (NHES) conducts surveys on different topics each year. The surveys all contain the same questions about household income as part of the background information, described below.
Source
“The National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) is a data collection system of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) that is designed to address a wide range of education-related issues. It provides descriptive data on the educational activities of the U.S. population and offers policymakers, researchers, and educators a variety of statistics on the condition of education in the U.S.
Although the primary purpose of the NHES is to conduct repeated measurements of the same phenomena at different points in time, one-time surveys on topics of interest to the Department of Education have also been fielded. The 1993 School Safety and Discipline and the 1996 Household and Library Use surveys were one-time surveys in the NHES.” (http://nces.ed.gov/nhes/)
The NHES is funded and conducted by NCES and is carried out by Westat. The surveys completed with information pertaining to income and earnings in various years are as follows:
Adult Education: 1991, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003
Before- and After-School Programs and Activities: 1999, 2001
Civic Involvement: 1996, 1999
Early Childhood Program Participation: 1991, 1995, 1999, 2001
Parent and Family Involvement in Education: 1996, 1999, 2003
School Readiness: 1993, 1999
School Safety and Discipline: 1993
Population Assessed
The NHES is designed to survey a representative sample of the noninstitutionalized civilian people in the United States. A representative sample of between 45,000 and 60,000 households are sampled in the original screening. The original screening helps test which households are appropriate for the surveys being conducted, and multiple surveys are given to households whenever possible to minimize costs. Minorities are oversampled in all surveys in an attempt to increase the reliability of the estimates produced for ethnic and racial groups. Table 1 describes the topical modules, targeted population, and reporter for each survey.
| Topical Modules | Targeted Population | Reporter |
|---|---|---|
| Adult Education | civilian adults age 16 and over not enrolled in elementary or secondary school at time of interview and not on active duty in the military | adult |
| Before- and After-School Programs and Activities | children age 10 and younger | most knowledgeable adult |
| Civic Involvement | children in grades 6-12 and their parents and civilian adults age 18 and over | youth and parent |
| Early Childhood Program Participation | children age 10 and younger | most knowledgeable parent or guardian |
| Parent and Family Involvement in Education | children ages 3 through 12th grade | most knowledgeable parent or guardian, some questions asked both parents and youth, some just youth |
| School Readiness | children ages 3 through 7 and children ages 8 or 9 still in second grade or below | most knowledgeable parent |
| School Safety and Discipline | parents/guardians of children in 3rd through 12th grade and children in 6th through 12th grade | parents and/or youth |
Periodicity
Previous NHES surveys were conducted in the springs of 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, and 2003. Each year the survey includes two or more surveys covering different topics. The most recent survey, in 2003, consists of the Adult Education for Work-Related Reasons and Parent and Family Involvement in Education surveys. The 2005 survey, which is in the planning stages, will consist of three surveys: Adult Education and Lifelong Learning, Early Childhood Program Participation, and Before- and After-School Programs and Activities. Future surveys will also include topics studies in previous surveys.
Components
Although the topics for the surveys vary, several items about general household characteristics, including income and earnings, are always included. One question addresses the total household income, while supplemental questions address Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), WIC, and child care subsidies. Expenditures and other reductions, such as taxes, are not addressed. The respondents are asked if they have received income such as TANF or WIC at any time over the past 3 years and over the past 12 months specifically.
Procedures for Administration
The NHES is a one-on-one telephone-administered survey. The survey is usually conducted with the most knowledgeable adult in the household. The data are collected using computer-assisted telephone interviewing procedures (CATI). The surveys are designed to take 20 minutes or less.
Psychometrics/Data Quality
“As in most surveys, the responses to some data items are not obtained for all interviews. There are numerous reasons for item nonresponse. Some respondents do not know the answer for the item or do not wish to respond for other reasons. Some item nonresponse arises when an interview is interrupted and not continued later, leaving items at the end of the interview blank. Item nonresponse may also be encountered because responses provided by the respondent are not internally consistent, and this inconsistency is not discovered until after the interview is completed. In these cases, the items that are not internally consistent were set to missing.
For most of the data items collected in the NHES, the item response rate was very high. In the NHES:91, missing data were imputed for those variables required for weighting or contributing to the derived variables. In the NHES:93, NHES:95, and NHES:96, all of the data items with missing data on the file were imputed. Thus, for the NHES:93, NHES:95, and NHES:96 the only missing values remaining are those that indicate legitimate skips. The imputations were done for two reasons. First, certain variables were used in developing the national estimates and complete responses were needed for this purpose.
These included the variables used for ranking and for developing sampling weights. Second, some data items were expected to be analytical variables in many of the publications from the surveys and complete item responses helped to improve these presentations” (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97561.pdf).
Because of the steps taken in the design on the NHES and the household weightings and oversampling, the data from the NHES can be generalized to the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States.
Languages Available
The CATI system contains both English and Spanish versions of the instruments. If a bilingual interviewer encounters a Spanish speaker, the interview is immediately conducted in Spanish. If the interviewer is not bilingual or encounters a language other than Spanish, the interviewer codes the case as “language other than Spanish” and another bilingual interviewer is assigned to the case. If the interviewer cannot complete the interview because of language differences, it is finalized as “language problem.”
Items Included
Links to the questionnaires are available at http://nces.ed.gov/nhes/questionnaires.asp.
See the Web site to see the skip patterns and the questions in the contexts of the larger questionnaires.
Household Characteristics
The following questions are asked only once per household. These last few questions are about your household. Do you…
Own your home
Rent your home, or
Have some other arrangement?
In the past 3 years, that is, since [DATE], has your family received benefits from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or TANF, AFDC, or your state welfare program?
Are you currently receiving benefits from TANF, AFDC, or your state welfare program?
What month and year did you stop receiving benefits from your state welfare program or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)?
While you were receiving welfare benefits, did you receive money from the state government or welfare agency to help you pay for [child/before- or after-school] care costs [for any child]?
At any time since [MONTH, YEAR] have you received funds from the state government or welfare agency to help you pay for [child/before- or after-school] care costs [for any child]?
Is a state government or welfare agency currently helping you pay for any [child/before- or after-school] care costs [for any child]?
In the past 12 months, has your family received benefits from any of the following programs? How about...
Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC?
Food Stamps?
Medicaid?
Child Health Insurance Program or CHIP?
During the past week, did [you/[CHILD]’s [father/stepfather/foster father; mother/stepmother/foster mother]] work at a job for pay or income?
[Were you/Was he] on leave or vacation from a job during the past week?
About how many total hours per week (do you/does he) usually work for pay or income, counting all jobs?
[Have you/Has he] been actively looking for work in the past 4 weeks?
What [have you/has he] been doing in the past 4 weeks to find work?
Checked with public employment agency
Checked with private employment agency
Checked with employer directly or sent resume
Checked with friends or relatives
Placed or answered ads/sent resume
Read want ads
Something else
Specify
What (were you/was he) doing most of last week? Would you say...
Keeping house or caring for children
Going to school
Retired
Unable to work, or
Something else
What was that?
In studies like this, households are sometimes grouped according to income. What was the total
income of all persons in your household over the past year, including salaries or other earnings,
interest, retirement, and so on for all household members?
Was it...
$25,000 or less, or
More than $25,000?
Was it...
$5,000 or less
$5,001 to $10,000
$10,001 to $15,000
$15,001 to $20,000, or
$20,001 to $25,000?
$25,001 to $30,000
$30,001 to $35,000
$35,001 to $40,000
$40,001 to $50,000
$50,001 to $75,000,
or Over $75,000?
What was your total household income last year, to the nearest thousand?
References and Source Documents
The surveys are available at the NHES Web site http://nces.ed.gov/nhes/questionnaires.asp.
Codebooks, Data Products, User’s Guides, and Reports can all be found on the NCES Web site at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/getpubcats.asp?sid=004.
U.S. Department of Education. (1997, May). National Household Education Survey: An overview of the National Household Education Survey: 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1996 (technical report). Washington, DC: Author. Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97448.pdf
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