National Survey of Adolescent Males-1988 and 1990-91

Investigators: Freya L. Sonenstein, Joseph H. Pleck, & Leighton Ku

The National Survey of Adolescent Males 1988 and 1990-91 (NSAM) is a two-wave, longitudinal study conducted between 1988 and 1991. The survey followed young men from adolescence, the period of initiation of sexual activity and other risk behaviors, into the beginning of young adulthood, a time when sexual activity is often at its highest. This dataset includes data from both Wave 1 (1988) and Wave 2 (1990-91) of the survey. In 1988, a nationally representative sample of 1,880 never-married, non-institutionalized males ages 15 to 19 living in the contiguous United States was surveyed. The original sample of 1,880 males was drawn as a multistage area probability sample that oversampled for Blacks and Hispanics. The study's primary objective was to determine adolescent males' behaviors, education and knowledge concerning human sexuality, contraception, and sexually transmitted diseases. Wave 1 data were collected between April and December 1988. The primary mode of data collection was face-to-face interviews. The most sensitive topics (e.g., substance use, risky sexual behaviors) were assessed with confidential, written self-administered questionnaires. Extensive personal histories of sexual activity and contraception use were gathered, as well as respondents' personal perceptions of the various costs and benefits of contraceptive use and fathering children. Information on school attendance and recent employment history were also included. Wave 2 of NSAM, which is also referred to as the Follow-up Survey of Young Men (FSAM), was conducted between November 1990 and March 1991, when respondents were generally between the ages of 17 and 22. Of those respondents that participated in Wave 1, the follow-up rate was 89 percent (N=1,676). Data collection procedures were similar to that of Wave 1, with the use of face-to-face interviews and self-administered questionnaires.

National Survey of Children: Waves 1, 2 and 3, 1976-1987

Investigators: Nicholas Zill, James L. Peterson, Kristin A. Moore, and Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr.

A three-wave longitudinal study was carried out by the Foundation for Child Development in 1976 (Wave 1) and by Child Trends, Inc. in 1981 and 1987 (Waves 2 and 3) in which the child was the focus of a personal interview with parents and children themselves. The purpose of Wave 1 was to assess the physical, social, and psychological well-being of different groups of American children; develop a profile of the way children live and the care they receive; permit analysis of the relationships between the condition of children's lives and measures of child development and well-being; and replicate items from previous national studies of child and parents to permit analysis of trends over time. Wave 2 focused on the effects of marital conflict and disruption on children. The third wave of data examined the social, psychological, and economic well-being of sample members as they became young adults. Further, for the first two waves, a teacher from the child's school answered questions on the child's academic performance and atmosphere.

National Survey of Contraceptive Use Among Women Having Abortions

Investigators: Rachel K. Jones, Jacqueline E. Darroch, and Stanley K. Henshaw, The Alan Guttmacher Institute

To explore the factors behind unintended pregnancies ending in abortion, in 2000-2001, the Alan Guttmacher Institute surveyed women having abortions about their contraceptive behavior during the month they became pregnant. Demographic information was also collected. One of the main goals of this survey was to determine the extent to which contraceptive non-use, and problems with methods, resulted in abortion.

National Survey of Contraceptive Use Among Women Having Abortions, 1994-1995

Investigators: Stanley Henshaw

The survey reports information from an Alan Guttmacher Institute survey detailing a broad range of characteristics of abortion patients, including socioeconomic status, religious affiliation, residence, childbearing intention, and contraceptive use prior to the pregnancy. The survey, part of a larger project to update contraceptive failure rates, obtained usable questionnaires from 9,985 respondents in a stratified national sample of 100 clinics, hospitals, and physicians' offices in all regions of the country.

National Survey of Families and Household, 1992

Investigators: J. Sweet, et al.

The National Survey of Families and Households Wave 2 1992-1994 is a five-year follow-up to the original interview, Wave 1, conducted during 1987 and 1988. The National Survey of Families and Households is a national sample survey that covers a wide variety of issues on American family life. A considerable amount of life history information was collected, including the respondents family living arrangements in childhood, the experience of leaving the parental home, marital and cohabitation experience, as well as education, fertility, and employment histories. These data permit the detailed description of past and current living arrangements and other characteristics and experience, as well as the analysis of the consequences of earlier patterns on current states, marital and parenting relationships, kin contact, and economic and psychological well-being.

National Survey of Families and Households, 1988

Investigators: James Sweet, Larry Bumpass, and Vaughn Call

The National Survey of Families and Households 1988 is a national survey designed to look at the causes and consequences of changes in American family and household structure. It was designed to address the limitations of previous studies on the same topic by focusing almost exclusively on family issues, covering a broad range of family variables, addressing issues of importance to researchers working from a variety of theoretical perspectives, sampling a large enough group to permit subgroup comparisons and reliable statistical estimation, and selecting a sample representative of the total U.S. population. The sample includes a main cross-section sample of 9,643 households plus a double sampling of blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, single-parent families and families with stepchildren, and cohabiting or recently married couples. The survey was designed to permit not only the testing of competing hypotheses concerning a variety of aspects of the American family, but also the description of the current state of the family. It was also designed to be the first round of a longitudinal design, while providing a cross-sectional look at American family life. Survey questions covered a wide variety of topics, including, for example, basic demographic information, life history information, family process, effects of divorce, and child custody and child support arrangements following divorce.

National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) 2006-2010

Investigators: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC

The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and general and reproductive health. The NSFG was first designed to be nationally representative of women 15-44 years of age in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States (household population). The survey sample is designed to produce national data, not estimates for individual states. Later changes to the NSFG include adding an independent sample of men (2002). NSFG is conducted through in-person interview, with a portion of the more sensitive questions answered privately by self-administration. The interviews are voluntary and confidential. The response rate for recent data releases is around 73%. The NSFG is used: by scholars in the behavioral sciences (e.g., sociology, demography, and economics) to study marriage, divorce, fertility, and family life; by scholars in public health to study reproductive, maternal and infant health topics; by agencies of the US Department of Health and Human Services, to brief senior officials and to inform program decision-making, in research programs and in health and social service programs; by state and local governments to plan health and social service programs; by the press, to prepare articles on a number of topics related to health and family life; and more.

National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) 2011-2013

Investigators: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC

The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and general and reproductive health. The NSFG was first designed to be nationally representative of women 15-44 years of age in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States (household population). The survey sample is designed to produce national data, not estimates for individual states. Later changes to the NSFG include adding an independent sample of men (2002). NSFG is conducted through in-person interview, with a portion of the more sensitive questions answered privately by self-administration. The interviews are voluntary and confidential. The response rate for recent data releases is around 73%. The NSFG is used: by scholars in the behavioral sciences (e.g., sociology, demography, and economics) to study marriage, divorce, fertility, and family life; by scholars in public health to study reproductive, maternal and infant health topics; by agencies of the US Department of Health and Human Services, to brief senior officials and to inform program decision-making, in research programs and in health and social service programs; by state and local governments to plan health and social service programs; by the press, to prepare articles on a number of topics related to health and family life; and more.

National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) 2013-2015

Investigators: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC

The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and general and reproductive health. The NSFG was first designed to be nationally representative of women 15-44 years of age in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States (household population). The survey sample is designed to produce national data, not estimates for individual states. Later changes to the NSFG include adding an independent sample of men (2002) and expanding the age range to 15-49 (2015). NSFG is conducted through in-person interview, with a portion of the more sensitive questions answered privately by self-administration. The interviews are voluntary and confidential. The response rate for recent data releases is around 73%. The NSFG is used: by scholars in the behavioral sciences (e.g., sociology, demography, and economics) to study marriage, divorce, fertility, and family life; by scholars in public health to study reproductive, maternal and infant health topics; by agencies of the US Department of Health and Human Services, to brief senior officials and to inform program decision-making, in research programs and in health and social service programs; by state and local governments to plan health and social service programs; by the press, to prepare articles on a number of topics related to health and family life; and more.

National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), Cycle III (Women Aged 15-19), 1982

Investigators: National Center for Health Statistics

Cycle III of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) was designed as a nationally representative sample of all women aged 15 to 44 in the non-institutional population of the conterminous United States. Earlier cycles of NSFG had excluded never married, childless women; in contrast, Cycle III included all women of childbearing years regardless of marital status. Questionnaires for the survey contained questions on sex education, respondent's pregnancy history, menarche and sexual experience, contraceptive history, sterility and subfecundity, birth expectations, visits for family planning services, and background and work history.