DOI: 10.3886/icpsr26344.v7
title: Integrated Fertility Survey Series, Release 7, 1955-2002 [United States]
title: Version 7

description: The Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) integrates data from ten underlying component studies of family and fertility: the Growth of American Families studies of 1955 and 1960; the National Survey of Fertility of 1965 and 1970; and the National Surveys of Family Growth of 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002. The first release contains harmonized sociodemographic variables for all respondents from all ten component studies, including those related to marital status, race and ethnicity, education, income, migration, religion, and region of origin, among others. The second release adds harmonized husband/partner sociodemographic variables as well as harmonized union history variables. The third release adds harmonized pregnancy, adoption, non-biological children, and menstruation variables. The fourth release adds harmonized fertility variables. The fifth release includes the addition of the pregnancy interval file. This file contains 217,128 pregnancy records with information pertaining to the pregnancies of all respondents. The sixth release adds comparative sample variables to the respondent and pregnancy interval files, and includes the addition of the contraceptive calendar file. This file contains 53,317 records with information pertaining to type and frequency of contraceptive use. The seventh release includes additional variables related to contraceptive knowledge, contraceptive use, birth control and family planning services, sexual history, infertility, and sterilizing operations. It also adds sociodemographic and union history variables. Imputed data through the third release are also included.
description: The purpose of the Integrated Fertility Survey Series is to create a harmonized data set of ten component surveys of fertility and family growth. Integration of these data sets will allow for easier and more efficient analysis of family and fertility data over time.
description: Data were harmonized from ten component studies of family and fertility, including the 1955 and 1960 Growth of American Families studies, 1965 and 1970 National Fertility Surveys, and the 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002 National Surveys of Family Growth.
IFSS staff harmonized all concepts that appeared in at least five of the component studies. In special cases, concepts that appears in as few as two component studies were also harmonized. Comparability notes are included for each variable in the download package.
description: Variables include sociodemographic, union history, pregnancy, fertility and pregnancy interval variables. These include variables related to: birth and date of interview; education; family structure in the respondent's childhood; life on farms; geography; household roster; income; respondent's mother; nativity; geographical origin; race and ethnicity; religion; marital status; urbanicity; employment; dates of marriage, divorce, and death of husbands; dates of cohabitation; age at marriage; husband characteristics; subsample filter variables; weights and standard error codes; menstruation; adoption; non-biological children; fertility assistance; fertility intentions; and pregnancy including outcomes, dates, contraception, nursing and additional variables.
description: A weight variable with two implied decimal places has been included and must be used in any analysis.
description: No primary data collection or sampling was performed.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Respondent
DS2: Pregnancy Interval 
DS3: Contraceptive Calendar
description: The universe includes all respondents in the following studies: the Growth of American Families studies of 1955 and 1960; the National Fertility Surveys of 1965 and 1970; and the National Surveys of Family Growth of 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002.
description: All variables contained in this data release are recoded from the ten component IFSS studies. Recode specifications are contained in comparability notes which are included for each variable in the download package. No primary or original data collection was performed to obtain these data.Due to further processing by the IFSS team, some variables, as well as some values have changed from previously released data.