Integrating U.S. Fertility Surveys

Investigators:   Pamela Smock, Peter A. Granda, Lynette Hoelter

The central goal of this project is to produce a harmonized dataset of U.S. family and fertility surveys spanning the 1955-2002 period, including the 1955 and 1960 Growth of American Families (GAF); the 1965, 1970, and 1975 National Fertility Survey (NFS); and the 1973, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (Cycles 1-6 of the NSFG). This new Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) and its associated data products will facilitate analyses across nearly a 50-year period, yielding new insights into changes in fertility and the family. The past five decades have witnessed marked changes in family and fertility patterns. While scientists from a broad range of disciplines have produced a large body of research on these topics, the ability to make comparisons over time – a central task for understanding family change – has been inhibited by difficulties in using multiple datasets to make time-series comparisons (e.g., changes in universe, weighting procedures, imputation protocols, question wording, variable availability). This is especially the case when attempting to include surveys from the earlier years (i.e., 1950s and 1960s). Yet these early surveys, used in combination with later ones, would provide vital benchmarks for documenting and understanding transformations in fertility and the family.

Our project has four goals: (1) to prepare clean, standardized electronic data files and documentation for eleven fertility surveys and to archive and document the files at a single source site using Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) archival standards; (2) to produce a harmonized data file with metadata; (3) to create online data analysis files with an analytic interface; and, (4) to provide user training in the use of the harmonized data file and other data products created by the project.

This project is consistent with the continuing mission of the Demographic and Behavioral Science Branch (DBSB) of NICHD with respect to research on fertility, the family, and family planning. Our project also has important implications for public health. It will provide a national resource to enhance knowledge about reproductive health, contraceptive use, pregnancy, and other issues vital to understanding and tracking the health of the population. Finally, this project follows the spirit of NICHD's incentive to make datasets like the fertility surveys accessible to a wider population.

Funding Period: 04/01/2007 to 03/31/2012


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