National Survey of Families and Households, 1988

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National Survey of Families and Households, 1988

Investigators: James Sweet, Larry Bumpass, and Vaughn Call

Publication Date: March 22, 2016

National Survey of Families and Households, 1988

About This Product

The National Survey of Families and Households 1988 is a national survey designed to look at the causes and consequences of changes in American family and household structure. It was designed to address the limitations of previous studies on the same topic by focusing almost exclusively on family issues, covering a broad range of family variables, addressing issues of importance to researchers working from a variety of theoretical perspectives, sampling a large enough group to permit subgroup comparisons and reliable statistical estimation, and selecting a sample representative of the total U.S. population. The sample includes a main cross-section sample of 9,643 households plus a double sampling of blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, single-parent families and families with stepchildren, and cohabiting or recently married couples. The survey was designed to permit not only the testing of competing hypotheses concerning a variety of aspects of the American family, but also the description of the current state of the family. It was also designed to be the first round of a longitudinal design, while providing a cross-sectional look at American family life. Survey questions covered a wide variety of topics, including, for example, basic demographic information, life history information, family process, effects of divorce, and child custody and child support arrangements following divorce.

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About This Product