140 words) The impact of how monitoring affects data quality among surveys has been examined exte... more 140 words) The impact of how monitoring affects data quality among surveys has been examined extensively. Computer Audio-Recorded Interviewing (CARI) is a survey component used to monitor interviewers by listening to recordings of interactions between interviewers and respondents. The use of CARI may help improve the data quality of surveys by encouraging respondents to provide valid answers to questions. In this paper, we employ multilevel models to examine how the item nonresponse rate differs between CARI and non-CARI interviews using data from Wave 1 of the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) panel. Results show that respondents contribute to the majority (~74%) of the explained variance in the item nonresponse rate, yet a significant portion of the explained variance can be attributed to FRs (~24%) as well. Interviews that are CARI recorded reported significantly less missing data than non-CARI interviews. 1 This work is released to inform interested parties ...
The Census Bureau is currently re-engineering the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIP... more The Census Bureau is currently re-engineering the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The reengineered SIPP will be an integrated data system with multiple components and methods: a survey-based data collection; an American Community Survey-based sampling frame; administrative records; and statistical modeling. Together, these components will yield a fuller, stronger, more richly detailed program of estimates of economic well-being. The re-engineered SIPP survey component will be evaluated to incorporate improvements to the current SIPP. The survey’s mission is to provide a nationally representative sample for evaluating: 1) annual and sub-annual income dynamics, 2) movements into and out of government transfer programs, 3) family and social context of individuals and households, and 4) interactions among these items. These survey objectives are pursued in the context of several goals cost reduction and improved accuracy, relevance, timeliness, and accessibility.
This paper details an experiment testing an adaptive survey design approach to improving sample r... more This paper details an experiment testing an adaptive survey design approach to improving sample representativeness in a national longitudinal face-to-face survey. The adaptive strategy, case prioritization, was employed to focus data collection resources on cases that we feel may have the highest impact on attrition bias in the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Achieving interviews with these cases can have an impact on estimates of program participation, the essential aim of the survey. The findings of the experiment suggest that prioritizing cases can help the survey retain these targeted cases.
Since 1970, the composition of households and families and the marital status and living arrangem... more Since 1970, the composition of households and families and the marital status and living arrangements of adults in the United States both experienced marked changes. For example, the proportion of the population made up by married couples with children decreased, and the proportion of single mothers increased, while the median age at first marriage grew over time. Much of this variety has been regularly reported in two separate Census Bureau reports — Household and Family Characteristics and Marital Status and Living Arrangements.1 Beginning with the March 2000 Current Population Survey, these two reports are being replaced by this new publication, America’s Families and Living Arrangements.2
America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2003, 2004
INTRODUCTION
The decades-long decline in the proportion of family groups with children that were ... more INTRODUCTION The decades-long decline in the proportion of family groups with children that were married-couple families leveled off during the mid-1990s, at about 68 percent from 1996 to 2003 (Figure 1). This change reflects declining divorce rates and reduced nonmarital fertility, especially among teens. Between 1970 and 1996, the median age at first marriage also increased but since 1996 has been fairly stable for both men and women. Basic trends in household and family composition, living arrangements and marital status of adults, and characteristics of unmarried-couple households are presented in this report. A new section is included that highlights married-couple families with a stay-at-home parent.
We provide an overview of Census Bureau activities to enhance the consistency, timeliness, and re... more We provide an overview of Census Bureau activities to enhance the consistency, timeliness, and relevance of our data products in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight new data products designed to provide timely and granular information on the pandemic's impact: the Small Business Pulse Survey, weekly Business Formation Statistics, the Household Pulse Survey, and Community Resilience Estimates. We describe pandemic-related content introduced to existing surveys such as the Annual Business Survey and the Current Population Survey. We discuss adaptations to ensure the continuity and consistency of existing data products such as principal economic indicators and the American Community Survey.
This report presents findings from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) on the w... more This report presents findings from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) on the well-being of American children. While it may seem intuitive, the concept of child “well-being” is difficult to conceptualize and measure. Recent research primarily assesses child well-being for two age groups: preadolescent children and young adults making the transition to adulthood. Preadolescents are often assessed using measures of cognitive development, social environment, and time spent interacting with adults. Young adults are frequently studied in terms of their progress through school, transition into the labor force, and the timing of entrance into marriage and parenthood.
Introduction Since 2001, the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Chil... more Introduction Since 2001, the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (HRSA MCHB) has funded and directed the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) and the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN), unique sources of national and state-level data on child health and health care. Between 2012 and 2015, HRSA MCHB redesigned the surveys, combining content into a single survey, and shifting from a periodic interviewer-assisted telephone survey to an annual self-administered web/paper-based survey utilizing an address-based sampling frame. Methods The U.S. Census Bureau fielded the redesigned NSCH using a random sample of addresses drawn from the Census Master Address File, supplemented with a unique administrative flag to identify households most likely to include children. Data were collected June 2016-February 2017 using a multi-mode design, encouraging web-based responses while allowing for paper mail-in...
Under the current redesign plan, the Survey of Income and Program Participation is incorporating ... more Under the current redesign plan, the Survey of Income and Program Participation is incorporating an event history calendar (SIPP-EHC). One goal of this redesign is to reduce respondent burden by interviewing annually. Using data from both the 2010 and the 2011 SIPP-EHC field tests, differences in respondent burden are evaluated based on number of question asked as well as interview length. Section timers based on audit trail files are used to evaluate topical sections and sequences where significant changes were made. The design of both the 2010 and 2011 instruments produce skewed individual interview lengths given the first and last person interviewed. In approximately 70% of the households interviewed, this is the same individual thus creating an interesting dynamic that will be accounted for in the evaluation and detailed through a thorough description of the sample. The implications of this research will be used to guide the development of the 2012 SIPP-EHC instrument.
FOR THE PAST HALF-CENTURY, demographers have been preoccupied with the issue of fertility reducti... more FOR THE PAST HALF-CENTURY, demographers have been preoccupied with the issue of fertility reduction. In his influential book, Theory of Fertility Decline, Caldwell (1982: 350) asserted that "[t]he fundamental challenge in the demographic field is to explain the onset of fertility ...
Page 1. ROBERT SCHOEN, NAN MARIE ASTONE, YOUNG J. KIM, AND CONSTANCE A. NATHANSON Johns Hopkins U... more Page 1. ROBERT SCHOEN, NAN MARIE ASTONE, YOUNG J. KIM, AND CONSTANCE A. NATHANSON Johns Hopkins University JASON M. FIELDS US Bureau of the Census* Do Fertility Intentions Affect Fertility Behavior? ...
Recent experimental evidence has documented the negative effects of work-promoting welfare polici... more Recent experimental evidence has documented the negative effects of work-promoting welfare policies on adolescents. One potential explanation for these effects is that when parents must work, adolescents may be required to provide child care for younger siblings, occupying time that could be spent on homework or enrichment activities. This research has engendered questions about the extent to which adolescents are used as regular child care providers for their younger siblings. Using a theoretical framework derived from the child care choice literature and data from the child care topical module of the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (fielded in 1999), this paper estimates logistic and OLS regression models to discern the family-level factors associated with the likelihood that a family will use adolescent child care and the amount of time this form of care is used. Models are run for single-parent and two-parent families separately. The findings indicate that among all families at risk of using adolescent care nationally (families with at least one adolescent and at least one child younger than 12), 20 percent regularly use this form of care for an average of 9.9 hours per week. Singleparent and two-parent families are equally likely to use adolescent care, but single-parent families use this form of care for longer amounts of time.
Disclaimer: This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage dis... more Disclaimer: This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage discussion. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the US Census Bureau. ... The 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation Event History ...
This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage discussion of w... more This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage discussion of work in progress. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the US Census Bureau. ... The Census Bureau is currently re-engineering the Survey of ...
140 words) The impact of how monitoring affects data quality among surveys has been examined exte... more 140 words) The impact of how monitoring affects data quality among surveys has been examined extensively. Computer Audio-Recorded Interviewing (CARI) is a survey component used to monitor interviewers by listening to recordings of interactions between interviewers and respondents. The use of CARI may help improve the data quality of surveys by encouraging respondents to provide valid answers to questions. In this paper, we employ multilevel models to examine how the item nonresponse rate differs between CARI and non-CARI interviews using data from Wave 1 of the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) panel. Results show that respondents contribute to the majority (~74%) of the explained variance in the item nonresponse rate, yet a significant portion of the explained variance can be attributed to FRs (~24%) as well. Interviews that are CARI recorded reported significantly less missing data than non-CARI interviews. 1 This work is released to inform interested parties ...
The Census Bureau is currently re-engineering the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIP... more The Census Bureau is currently re-engineering the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The reengineered SIPP will be an integrated data system with multiple components and methods: a survey-based data collection; an American Community Survey-based sampling frame; administrative records; and statistical modeling. Together, these components will yield a fuller, stronger, more richly detailed program of estimates of economic well-being. The re-engineered SIPP survey component will be evaluated to incorporate improvements to the current SIPP. The survey’s mission is to provide a nationally representative sample for evaluating: 1) annual and sub-annual income dynamics, 2) movements into and out of government transfer programs, 3) family and social context of individuals and households, and 4) interactions among these items. These survey objectives are pursued in the context of several goals cost reduction and improved accuracy, relevance, timeliness, and accessibility.
This paper details an experiment testing an adaptive survey design approach to improving sample r... more This paper details an experiment testing an adaptive survey design approach to improving sample representativeness in a national longitudinal face-to-face survey. The adaptive strategy, case prioritization, was employed to focus data collection resources on cases that we feel may have the highest impact on attrition bias in the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Achieving interviews with these cases can have an impact on estimates of program participation, the essential aim of the survey. The findings of the experiment suggest that prioritizing cases can help the survey retain these targeted cases.
Since 1970, the composition of households and families and the marital status and living arrangem... more Since 1970, the composition of households and families and the marital status and living arrangements of adults in the United States both experienced marked changes. For example, the proportion of the population made up by married couples with children decreased, and the proportion of single mothers increased, while the median age at first marriage grew over time. Much of this variety has been regularly reported in two separate Census Bureau reports — Household and Family Characteristics and Marital Status and Living Arrangements.1 Beginning with the March 2000 Current Population Survey, these two reports are being replaced by this new publication, America’s Families and Living Arrangements.2
America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2003, 2004
INTRODUCTION
The decades-long decline in the proportion of family groups with children that were ... more INTRODUCTION The decades-long decline in the proportion of family groups with children that were married-couple families leveled off during the mid-1990s, at about 68 percent from 1996 to 2003 (Figure 1). This change reflects declining divorce rates and reduced nonmarital fertility, especially among teens. Between 1970 and 1996, the median age at first marriage also increased but since 1996 has been fairly stable for both men and women. Basic trends in household and family composition, living arrangements and marital status of adults, and characteristics of unmarried-couple households are presented in this report. A new section is included that highlights married-couple families with a stay-at-home parent.
We provide an overview of Census Bureau activities to enhance the consistency, timeliness, and re... more We provide an overview of Census Bureau activities to enhance the consistency, timeliness, and relevance of our data products in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight new data products designed to provide timely and granular information on the pandemic's impact: the Small Business Pulse Survey, weekly Business Formation Statistics, the Household Pulse Survey, and Community Resilience Estimates. We describe pandemic-related content introduced to existing surveys such as the Annual Business Survey and the Current Population Survey. We discuss adaptations to ensure the continuity and consistency of existing data products such as principal economic indicators and the American Community Survey.
This report presents findings from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) on the w... more This report presents findings from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) on the well-being of American children. While it may seem intuitive, the concept of child “well-being” is difficult to conceptualize and measure. Recent research primarily assesses child well-being for two age groups: preadolescent children and young adults making the transition to adulthood. Preadolescents are often assessed using measures of cognitive development, social environment, and time spent interacting with adults. Young adults are frequently studied in terms of their progress through school, transition into the labor force, and the timing of entrance into marriage and parenthood.
Introduction Since 2001, the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Chil... more Introduction Since 2001, the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (HRSA MCHB) has funded and directed the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) and the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN), unique sources of national and state-level data on child health and health care. Between 2012 and 2015, HRSA MCHB redesigned the surveys, combining content into a single survey, and shifting from a periodic interviewer-assisted telephone survey to an annual self-administered web/paper-based survey utilizing an address-based sampling frame. Methods The U.S. Census Bureau fielded the redesigned NSCH using a random sample of addresses drawn from the Census Master Address File, supplemented with a unique administrative flag to identify households most likely to include children. Data were collected June 2016-February 2017 using a multi-mode design, encouraging web-based responses while allowing for paper mail-in...
Under the current redesign plan, the Survey of Income and Program Participation is incorporating ... more Under the current redesign plan, the Survey of Income and Program Participation is incorporating an event history calendar (SIPP-EHC). One goal of this redesign is to reduce respondent burden by interviewing annually. Using data from both the 2010 and the 2011 SIPP-EHC field tests, differences in respondent burden are evaluated based on number of question asked as well as interview length. Section timers based on audit trail files are used to evaluate topical sections and sequences where significant changes were made. The design of both the 2010 and 2011 instruments produce skewed individual interview lengths given the first and last person interviewed. In approximately 70% of the households interviewed, this is the same individual thus creating an interesting dynamic that will be accounted for in the evaluation and detailed through a thorough description of the sample. The implications of this research will be used to guide the development of the 2012 SIPP-EHC instrument.
FOR THE PAST HALF-CENTURY, demographers have been preoccupied with the issue of fertility reducti... more FOR THE PAST HALF-CENTURY, demographers have been preoccupied with the issue of fertility reduction. In his influential book, Theory of Fertility Decline, Caldwell (1982: 350) asserted that "[t]he fundamental challenge in the demographic field is to explain the onset of fertility ...
Page 1. ROBERT SCHOEN, NAN MARIE ASTONE, YOUNG J. KIM, AND CONSTANCE A. NATHANSON Johns Hopkins U... more Page 1. ROBERT SCHOEN, NAN MARIE ASTONE, YOUNG J. KIM, AND CONSTANCE A. NATHANSON Johns Hopkins University JASON M. FIELDS US Bureau of the Census* Do Fertility Intentions Affect Fertility Behavior? ...
Recent experimental evidence has documented the negative effects of work-promoting welfare polici... more Recent experimental evidence has documented the negative effects of work-promoting welfare policies on adolescents. One potential explanation for these effects is that when parents must work, adolescents may be required to provide child care for younger siblings, occupying time that could be spent on homework or enrichment activities. This research has engendered questions about the extent to which adolescents are used as regular child care providers for their younger siblings. Using a theoretical framework derived from the child care choice literature and data from the child care topical module of the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (fielded in 1999), this paper estimates logistic and OLS regression models to discern the family-level factors associated with the likelihood that a family will use adolescent child care and the amount of time this form of care is used. Models are run for single-parent and two-parent families separately. The findings indicate that among all families at risk of using adolescent care nationally (families with at least one adolescent and at least one child younger than 12), 20 percent regularly use this form of care for an average of 9.9 hours per week. Singleparent and two-parent families are equally likely to use adolescent care, but single-parent families use this form of care for longer amounts of time.
Disclaimer: This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage dis... more Disclaimer: This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage discussion. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the US Census Bureau. ... The 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation Event History ...
This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage discussion of w... more This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage discussion of work in progress. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the US Census Bureau. ... The Census Bureau is currently re-engineering the Survey of ...
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Papers by Jason Fields
The decades-long decline in the proportion of family groups with children that were married-couple families leveled off during the mid-1990s, at about 68 percent from 1996 to 2003 (Figure 1). This change reflects declining divorce rates and reduced nonmarital fertility, especially among teens. Between 1970 and 1996, the median age at first marriage also increased but since 1996 has been fairly stable for both men and women. Basic trends in household and family composition, living arrangements and marital status of adults, and characteristics of unmarried-couple households are presented in this report. A new section is included that highlights married-couple families with a stay-at-home parent.
The decades-long decline in the proportion of family groups with children that were married-couple families leveled off during the mid-1990s, at about 68 percent from 1996 to 2003 (Figure 1). This change reflects declining divorce rates and reduced nonmarital fertility, especially among teens. Between 1970 and 1996, the median age at first marriage also increased but since 1996 has been fairly stable for both men and women. Basic trends in household and family composition, living arrangements and marital status of adults, and characteristics of unmarried-couple households are presented in this report. A new section is included that highlights married-couple families with a stay-at-home parent.