Major Studies
This section contains a listing of select demographic data collections funded by the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the NICHD. This page will be updated periodically with links to more demographic studies.
Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS) is a longitudinal study of the lives of 4,800 young adults in Cape Town, South Africa. The Wave 1 sample was a representative sample of young people who were age 14 to 22 in 2002. In addition to interviews with these young people, the survey included information on all household members, non-resident children of the household members, and non-resident parents and grandparents of the young adults. The Wave 1 survey covered topics such as school, work, health, sexual activity, and fertility, including an extensive life history calendar.
Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) is a study of Filipino women who gave birth between May 1, 1983 and April 30, 1984. The CLHNS collects information on infant feeding patterns, particularly the overall sequencing of feeding events (i.e., of both milk and nonmilk items), the various factors affecting feeding decisions at each point in time, and how different feeding patterns affect the infant, mother, and household. The intent is to understand how infant feeding decisions by the household interact with various social, economic, and environmental factors to affect health, nutritional, demographic, and economic outcomes. The Cebu cohort of mothers, infants, and for many surveys their siblings, has been followed for a number of economic, demographic and health related follow-up surveys. The description of these follow-up surveys and access to them is found on the Carolina Population Center Web site.
China Health and Nutrition Survey examines the effects of the economic, health, nutrition, and family planning policies and programs implemented by national and local governments to see how the social and economic transformation of Chinese society is affecting the economic, demographic, health, and nutritional status of its population. The impact on these socioeconomic, demographic, nutrition and health behaviors is identified by changes in community organizations and programs, as well as by changes in sets of household and individual economic, demographic, and social factors. This cohort of about 17,000 individuals and their 5000 plus households has been surveyed over three days with in-depth surveys conducted in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2006.
Current Population Survey (CPS): Nativity Supplement is a supplement to a cross-sectional survey conducted with about 57,000 households every month, primarily to measure changes in the labor force. It is conducted by the United States Bureau of the Census and administered to panels of respondents that revolve into the sampling plan eight times in a one and one half year period. This latter characteristic gives rise to a limited longitudinal capability in the CPS. The Census Bureau has put "place of birth" and "date of first entry into the U.S." on the control card for each respondent. This allows all information gathered by the CPS to be combined with information about nativity status.
Current Population Survey (CPS): Marriage and Fertility Supplements are supplements to the CPS (conducted at five-year intervals starting in 1971) that were designed to examine transitions in the American family and to measure the demographic implications of these transitions for children. The supplements contain the marital and fertility history of female respondents in the CPS interviews. The respondents indicate how many times they have been married and the dates when their marriages ended in widowhood or divorce. In addition, information is gathered concerning the date at which the respondent actually stopped living with his or her first spouse if that marriage had ended in divorce. Similarly, fertility histories are taken for up to the first four births and the last birth, and the current residential and living arrangement status of the children of these births is ascertained.
Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) is an ongoing longitudinal study of individuals, households, communities, and facilities. The household component of the survey covers economic well-being (consumption, income, and assets); education, migration, and labor market outcomes; marriage, fertility, and contraceptive use; health status including biomarkers, use of health care, and health insurance; relationships among coresident and non-coresident family members; household decision-making; and participation in community activities. The community and facility component of the survey provides detailed information from the communities in which IFLS households are located and from the facilities that serve residents of those communities. These data cover aspects of the physical and social environment, infrastructure, employment opportunities, food prices, access to health and educational facilities, and the quality and prices of services available at those facilities. Every adult household member is individually interviewed and movers are tracked to their new location. Interviews were conducted in 1993, 1997, 1998 (on a subsample), and 2000.
Mexican Migration Project is a yearly study of Mexican migrants that randomly samples households in communities throughout Mexico. After gathering social, demographic, and economic information on the household and its members, interviewers collect basic information on each person's first and last trip to the United States. From household heads, they compile a year-by-year history of United States migration and collect information about the last trip northward, focusing on employment, earnings, and use of United States social services.
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) - Child Supplement is a separate survey of all children born to NLSY79 female respondents to expand the breadth of child-specific information collected. In addition to mother's information from the NLSY79, the child survey includes assessments of each child as well as additional demographic and development information collected from either the mother or child. For children aged 10 and older, information has been collected from the children biennially since 1988 on a variety of factors including child-parent interaction, attitudes toward schooling, dating and friendship patterns, religious attendance, health, substance use, and home responsibilities. Biennially (since 1994), children ages 15 and older complete a lengthy child interview modeled on the NLSY79 questionnaire. Information collected includes their schooling, training, work experiences and expectations, health, dating, fertility and marital histories, and household composition.
National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a longitudinal population-based survey of families and households in the U.S., investigates the causes and consequences of changes in American family and household structure. The first wave of the NSFH consists of interviews conducted during 1987-1988 with a national probability sample of 13,017 male and female primary respondents. Several population groups are oversampled, including minorities, single parents, persons with step-children, cohabiting persons, and recently married persons. In addition to each primary respondent questionnaire, there was a questionnaire for the spouse or partner of the primary respondent, if applicable, and detailed information was collected about a focal child. Respondents were followed up during 1992-1994, five years after the initial interview. The NSFH-2 included personal interviews with both the original respondent and the respondent's partner (including the previous partner if the original union had dissolved), telephone interviews with the focal child, and telephone interviews with a randomly selected parent of the original respondent. A third followup was conducted in 2001-03. The sample included all NSFH-1 main respondents and spouses/partners with a focal child eligible for the NSFH2 interviews, interviews with these focal children (now ages 18-34), and all other NSFH-1 main respondents ages 45 and over in 2000, as well as their NSFH-1 spouse/partners. NSFH-3 data are currently available at the NSFH Web site and will be turned over to ICPSR when final cleaning and documentation are complete.
National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) is a multipurpose survey based on personal interviews with a national sample of women 15-44 years of age in the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States. Its main function is to collect data on factors affecting pregnancy and reproductive health in the United States. NSFG surveys were conducted in 1973 (Cycle 1), 1976 (Cycle 2), 1982 (Cycle 3), 1988 and 1990 (Cycle 4), and 1995 (Cycle 5). In 2002, NSFG Cycle 6 was conducted with a national sample of men and women 15-44 years of age. The survey reports background information about the respondent such as education, religion, ethnic origin, and earnings. Complete marital history, birth history and pregnancy history information are recorded. In Cycles 5 and 6, complete marriage and cohabitation histories were obtained from women. In Cycle 6, men were asked about births they had fathered, if any, things they do to help raise their children, and attitudes about sex, marriage, and parenthood.
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, also called "The Survey of New Parents," follows a birth cohort of (mostly) unwed parents and their children over a five-year period. The study is designed to provide new information on the capabilities and relationships of unwed parents, as well as the effects of policies on family formation and child wellbeing.
Latin American Migration Project is a study to advance understanding of the complex processes of international migration and immigration to the United States. In addition to basic demographic data, the survey gathers information on family composition, fertility, infant mortality, household head marital history, labor history of the household head and his/her spouse, and ownership history of properties and businesses. Furthermore, detailed data on internal migration, migration to the mainland United States, and multiple aspects of key United States trips (work experience, income, social networks, remittances, welfare use, etc.) are also collected.
Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) is a new longitudinal study of families in Los Angeles County, California, and of the neighborhoods in which they live. The L.A.FANS is specifically designed to study both family choices about neighborhoods and the effects of neighborhoods on children (e.g., educational achievement). Studying both issues at the same time provides a solid basis for understanding neighborhood effects on children. By focusing on policy issues such as welfare reform, the L.A.FANS also provides evidence on how policy changes can affect the neighborhoods and families in which children grow up.
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) is a study of a nationally representative sample of more than 20,000 individuals that began with in-school questionnaires administered to adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States in 1994-95, followed by three waves of in-home interviews in 1995, 1996, and 2001-02. Information on these individuals covers the adolescent years and their transition to adulthood. These data allow study of the ways social contexts (families, friends, peers, schools, neighborhoods, and communities) influence adolescents' health and risk behaviors. Data at the individual, family, school, and community levels were collected in two waves between 1994 and 1996. In 2001 and 2002, Add Health respondents, 18 to 26 years old, were re-interviewed in a third wave to investigate the meaning of adolescence for health and well-being outcomes in young adulthood.
Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) is a household-based survey designed to measure the effects of Russian reforms on the health and economic and social well-being of households and individuals. This is the only nationally representative longitudinal and cross-sectional survey conducted in Russia (sampling designed by S. Herringa and L. Kish). The study focuses on the impact of reforms on household consumption and individual health and measured by a variety of means: detailed monitoring of individuals' health status and dietary intake and numerous other behaviors; precise measurement of household-level expenditures, incomes, and service utilization; and collection of relevant community-level data, including region-specific prices and community infrastructure data. Surveys have been conducted at least annually since 1992. The 13th round is being collected in 2004.
Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study is a longitudinal study of children and their caregivers in low-income families that were living in low-income neighborhoods in three cities in 1999. The purpose of the study is to investigate the consequences of policy changes resulting from the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The survey was designed to provide information on the health, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional development of children, as well as information on their primary caregivers' health, well-being, family life, labor force behavior, welfare experiences, and social services use.