DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04581
title: National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), 1997
title: Archival Version

description: The National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) is a
household survey that provides a comprehensive look at quantitative
measures of the well-being of children, adults, and their families.
While the focus of the survey is at the state level, the scope is
national -- with a primary emphasis on low-income families. NSAF
information was gathered from interviews conducted with the Most
Knowledgeable Adult (MKA), the person in the household who was most
knowledgeable about the questions being asked about the respondent,
their spouse/partner (if applicable) and the focal child (or children).
Data were collected from more than 40,000 families in two stages.
First, a screener interview was administered to determine whether a
household was eligible to complete the second, extended interview.
Two types of extended interviews were administered. Option A
interviews were used in households with children under age 18. Option
B interviews were used in childless adult households and also with
emancipated minors. The extended interview was divided into several
sections and is labeled A through P below:
 
<em>A. Student Status.</em> This section contained two
questions that asked whether the respondent was a student and whether
that household was the respondent's usual residence.
<em>B. Health Status and Satisfaction.</em> These
questions asked about the respondent's satisfaction with health care,
access to health care, the health status of the focal children, and
the health status of the respondent.
<em>C. Parent/Child/Family Interaction and Education.</em>
This series of questions asked about education for focal children.
Questions addressed the focal child's current grade (or the last grade
completed) and the child's attitudes toward school and schoolwork,
skipping school, suspensions, and changing schools. Questions were
also asked about children over 11 years old working for pay
and attending summer school.
<em>D. Household Roster.</em> In this section, the name,
age, and sex of all persons living in the household were recorded, and
relationships between all household members were
investigated.
<em>E. Health Care Coverage.</em> Information was gathered
about current health insurance coverage for the respondent, the
respondent's spouse/partner, and the focal children. Questions were
also asked about characteristics of that coverage and of periods in
which family members had no insurance coverage.
<em>F. Health Care Use and Access.</em> This section
gathered information about health status, health care services
received, and necessary health care services that were postponed
during the preceding 12 months. Questions on routine care, overnight
stays in hospitals, dental care, mental health care, women's health
care, well-child care, and prescription medicines were also
included.
<em>G. Child Care.</em> In this section, respondents were
queried as to child care arrangements including Head Start, child care
centers, before- or after-school care, and babysitters. Questions were
asked about the total number of hours per week in each care situation,
the typical number of children cared for, the typical number of adult
child care providers, and child care costs.
<em>H. Nonresidential Parent/Father.</em> These questions
determined whether a focal child had a nonresident parent, how often
the child saw his/her nonresident parent, whether the nonresident
parent provided financial support, and whether nonresident parents
were required by child support orders to provide financial
support.
<em>I. Employment and Earnings.</em> This section
contained a series of questions about the employment and earnings of
the respondent and the spouse/partnerfor the current and preceding
year. Topics included employment status, occupation, industry,
employer-provided health insurance, hours worked, and earnings. Some
questions were also asked about the earnings of other family
members.
<em>J. Family Income.</em> Family income also was
identified from a wide variety of sources other than earnings from
employment. These sources included public assistance (e.g., Aid to
Families with Dependent Children [AFDC], General Assistance, Emergency
Assistance, or vouchers), Food Stamps, child support, foster care
payments, financial assistance from friends or relatives, unemployment
compensation, workers' compensation or veterans' payments,
Supplemental Security Income, Social Security, pension or annuity
income, interest or dividend income, income from rental property, or
any other income source.
<em>K. Welfare Program Participation.</em> This section
gathered detailed information about AFDC and Food Stamp benefits that
the respondent might have received within the preceding two years. For
both types of assistance, periods in which the respondent's benefits
were reduced or eliminated were identified, as were strategies for
coping during such times. Current AFDC or Food Stamp recipients were
asked about any requirements they had to fulfill (e.g., job search,
training, etc.) in order to receive these benefits. Recipients were
also asked questions about awareness of time limits and experiences
with diversion. For respondents with children, questions were asked
about benefits received in the previous year through the supplemental
food program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and free or
reduced-cost school breakfast and lunch programs.
<em>L. Education and Training.</em> This series of
questions inquired about the highest grade completed, highest degree
earned, participation in job training programs during the previous
year, and classes taken for credit during the previous year.
<em>M. Housing and Economic Hardship.</em> Questions
covered the respondent's living arrangements, the name(s) of the
lease- or mortgage- holder(s) in the household, and the amount of rent
or mortgage paid monthly. Information was collected about financial
contributions by the respondent or his/her spouse or partner to
children under 18 years old living outside the household. The effect
of economic hardship on the family's food consumption and ability to
pay for housing costs was also assessed.
<em>N. Issues, Problems, and Social Services.</em>
Questions in this section covered the respondent's state of mind,
feelings about his or her child (or children), constructive activities
the child (or children) might have been involved with, the
availability of social services in their community, problems the child
(or children) might have had in the preceding year and efforts to
obtain help for those problems, and the respondent's involvement in
volunteer and religious activities.
<em>O. Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity.</em> Race and
ethnicity were asked for the respondent, the spouse/partner, and the
focal child (or children). For household members who were born outside
the United States, country of origin and citizenship questions were
asked.
<em>P. Closing.</em> At the end of the survey, respondents
were asked their opinions about welfare and working and about raising
children. Closing questions asked for the respondent's ZIP code and,
in households with foreign-born individuals, tracing information for
use in a follow-up survey.
The 1997 NSAF data are available in nine parts and are organized
into hierarchical, flat household-, family-, person-, adult-, and
child-level files. A description of each is provided below:
Focal Child Data. This dataset contains data elements from the
extended interview that are specific to focal children (FC1 and FC2).
Select data items that were asked only of MKAs are also included.
Information in this dataset is primarily from sections N (Issues,
Problems, and Social Services) and P (Closing) of the extended
interview. The dataset contains one record for each focal
child.
Adult Pair Data. Included in this dataset is information
collected from the extended interview about both the respondent and
the respondent's spouse/partner. There is one observation per
respondent and one per spouse (where applicable). Information in this
dataset is primarily from sections I (Employment and Earnings) and L
(Education and Training) of the extended interview.
Random Adult Data. Information in this person-level dataset is
specific to a randomly selected adult, either the respondent or the
spouse/partner. This situation occurs only in sections E (Health
Insurance Coverage) and F (Health Care Access and Utilization) of the
extended interview.
Childless Adult Data. This dataset contains data elements from
the extended interview that are asked only of the respondent in Option
B interviews. Variables in this dataset come mainly from section N
(Issue, Problems, and Social Services) and P (Closing). There is one
record per Option B interview in the dataset.
Family-Respondent Data. Information in this dataset centers
around information about the family's use of health care and social
services. This family-level dataset contains one observation per
respondent. Because there could be more than one respondent per
family, family-respondent level variables may have different values
within a single family.
Household Data. This household-level dataset contains general
information about the household such as the demographic
characteristics of its members. Also contained in this dataset are
administrative and process data such as housing subsidies, public
housing, the number of bedrooms in the house, whether the home was
owned or rented, and information pertaining to screeners and the
completion of interviews.
Person Data. This dataset contains one observation for each
person living in the household. Included in this dataset is
demographic information as well as information on current health
insurance status and income.
Social Family Data. Included in this dataset are items asked
about the social family and variables aggregated at the social family
level. The social family includes not only married partners and their
children, but also unmarried partners, all of their children, and
members of the extended family (anyone related by blood to the MKA,
the spouse/partner, or their children). Among the survey items
included are those variables indicating whether anyone in the social
family had a particular type of income and health insurance. Also
included are variables summarizing information across all members of a
social family, such as the number of family members. There is one
record for each social family.
CPS Family Data. Since the social family definition was used
in fielding the NSAF, this dataset includes only variables created
using the Current Population Survey (CPS) definition of family. A CPS
family includes the householder, spouse of family householder,
children in the family, and other relatives of the family household
respondent. There is one record for each CPS family in this
dataset.
description: The NSAF employs a complex sample design, thus appropriate
 weights are essential to produce state and national estimates that are
 representative of the population. Five categories of weights are
 currently available with the NSAF data, each appropriate for a
 different set of respondents or group of questions from the survey.
 The five weight categories are: focal child, adult pair, random adult,
 childless adult, and family. Within each category, there are separate
 weights for producing state- and national-level estimates. Detailed
 information about the weights may be found at the
 Urban
Institute Web site.
description: Response Rates: Screener interviews: 77.4 percent. Overall child
interviews: 65.1 percent. Overall adult interviews: 61.8 percent.
description: The NSAF drew households from two separate sampling
 frames: (1) a list-assisted, random-digit dialing (RDD) sample of
 telephone numbers supplemented by (2) an area probability sample of
 nontelephone households. Overall, 179,280 households were screened,
 with detailed extended telephone interviews being conducted in 42,973
 households. The nontelephone sample yielded 1,628 extended interviews
in 1,488 households for a total of 44,461 interviewed households.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Focal Child Data
DS2: Adult Pair Data
DS3: Random Adult Data
DS4: Childless Adult Data
DS5: Family-Respondent Data
DS6: Household Data
DS7: Person Data
DS8: Social Family Data
DS9: CPS Family Data
description: Civilian, noninstitutionalized persons under age 65
living in the United States.
description: telephone interview; face-to-face interviewAll components of the NSAF questionnaire were also
translated into Spanish. A hard copy of the Spanish language interview
is not available. Those interested in the translations for individual
questions should contact the
Urban Institute.Most NSAF
items were not asked of all persons in families or households. Thus,
for many measures of adult or child well-being, it is not possible to
construct aggregate measures of well-being based on individual
information for families or households that will be valid for all
families or households. Similarly, most of the items on child
well-being are only determined for focal children and not all children
in the household or family.Data collection for the NSAF was
carried out by Westat.Additional information about this data
collection may be found in a series of methodology reports available
directly through the Web site of the
Urban
Institute.