DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04701.v5
title: Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study
title: Version 5

description: This data collection is the third wave of an intensive study in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, which was initiated to assess the well-being of low-income children and families in the post-welfare reform era. The project investigates the strategies families have used to respond to reform, in terms of employment, schooling or other forms of training, residential mobility, and fertility. Central to this project is a focus on how these strategies affect children's lives, with an emphasis on their health and development as well as their need for, and use of, social services. For the first wave of the study, between March 1999 and December 1999, a random sample of approximately 2,400 households with children in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio were selected for interviews. Forty percent of the families interviewed were receiving cash welfare payments at the time of the interview. Each household had a child aged 0 to 4 or aged 10 to 14 at the time of the interview. The child and the child's primary female caregiver are the focus of the study. Extensive baseline information was gathered at the initial personal interview with the caregivers, tested younger children were assessed, and older children were interviewed. All interviews were conducted in-person using a computerized instrument. The third wave of data collection took place between February 2005 and January 2006, when the focal children were aged 5 to 10 or aged 15 to 20. Between May 2005 and May 2006, interviews were conducted with the teachers of the focal children.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed consistency checks.; Standardized missing values.; Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Focal Child Interview Data, Wave 3, Restricted-Use 
 DS2: Continuing and New Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 3, Restricted-Use 
 DS3: Separated Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 3, Restricted-Use 
 DS4: Focal Child Interview Data, Wave 3, Public Use 
 DS5: Continuing and New Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 3, Public Use 
 DS6: Separated Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 3, Public Use 
 DS7: Continuing and New Caregiver Interview, Wave 3, Child Age/Gender Addendum Data 
 DS8: Separated Caregiver Interview, Wave 3, Child Age/Gender Addendum Data 
 DS9: Focal Child Interview Data, Wave 2, Public Use 
 DS10: Continuing and New Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 2, Public Use 
 DS11: Separated Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 2, Public Use 
 DS12: Continuing and New Caregiver Geocode Data, Wave 2 
 DS13: Separated Caregiver Geocode Data, Wave 2 
 DS14: Embedded Developmental Survey Data, Wave 2 
 DS15: Main Interview Data, Wave 1 
 DS16: Main Interview Geocode Data, Wave 1 
 DS17: Embedded Developmental Survey Data, Wave 1 
 DS18: Sociometrics Wave 1 Variable Name Conversion Syntax 
 DS19: Sociometrics Wave 1-Embedded Variable Name Conversion Syntax 
 DS20: Sociometrics Wave 2, Part 1 Variable Name Conversion Syntax 
 DS21: Sociometrics Wave 2, Part 2 Variable Name Conversion Syntax 
 DS22: Sociometrics Wave 2, Part 3 Variable Name Conversion Syntax 
 DS23: Sociometrics Wave 2-Embedded Variable Name Conversion Syntax 
 DS24: Three-City Teacher Survey (TCTS)
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI), computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI), face-to-face interview, telephone interview 
The teacher interview data are restricted and available only onsite through the ICPSR Data Enclave.
description: Families with incomes less than 200 percent of the government poverty line living in Boston, San Antonio, and Chicago.
description: Between March 1999 and December 1999 a random sample of approximately 2,400 households with children in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio were interviewed. Forty percent of the families interviewed were receiving cash welfare payments at the time of the interview. Each household had a child aged 0 to 4 or aged 10 to 14 at the time of the interview.