Section 1: Household Composition

Purpose:       This section collects information about the people who live in the Household with the respondent.  We also collect some information about changes to the composition of the household

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         Verification of the respondent's spelling of his/her name

·         Collection of Household Members currently living in the household

·         Household Member information such as relationship to the respondent, age, highest grade completed, and work commitment for each member (over age 13)

·         Identification of the respondent's partner, and any relatives of the partner

·         Whether or not the respondent lives on a farm and any income gained from the farm

Special considerations:

Household Roster: The respondent never appears on the household roster.  Therefore, if the respondent lives alone, then the household roster will be blank.

FIX-HH-ROSTER :  Fixing the household roster:  If you delete a name from the household roster and then back up to change the answer to an earlier question, when you return to FIX-HH-ROSTER the deleted name will no longer be deleted.  When you move forward through the questionnaire after deleting a name, however, it will remain deleted.

Take care editing rosters.   You will have one chance to fix any mistakes at the end of the HH  section.  Use the “delete” function VERY CAREFULLY because once a line is deleted it cannot be un-deleted. The information can be restored by re-entering the data.

Section 2: Migration

Purpose:       This section gathers information on any moves the respondent has made between counties since January 1, 1997,  and records the reason(s) for moving.

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         Number of counties R has lived in since January 1, 1997

·         Dates of between-county moves and county names are collected

·         For Cuyahoga County and Franklin county, city names R has lived in are collected

·         Reason for move

Special Considerations:

Listing cities in Cuyahoga or Franklin County:   If R has lived in more than one city in Cuyahoga or Franklin County, list the cities.

Section 3: Marital History

Purpose:       This section compiles information on the current and recent marital status of the respondent.  We will ask about all changes in marital status that have occurred since January 1, 1994, and end with the current status.

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         The marital status of the respondent on the reference date (01/01/94)

·         Any changes to the respondent's marital status since the reference date

·         Current marital status

Special Considerations:

Living together, cohabitation.   Cohabitation, or living with a partner, is considered a marital status.  Therefore, it is necessary to probe when a respondent says s/he is single to find out if s/he is living with a partner as if they were married even if they are not legally married.  When recording changes in marital status, also include stopping and starting to live with a partner.

Section 4: Schooling

Purpose:       This section collects information on the respondent's formal educational attainment and any formal schooling obtained since January 1, 1997.  Formal schooling is defined by attending or taking any class or course can be applied toward an academic degree.   Information about vocational training, informal job training, and other non-academic training will be collected in a later section.

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         Attendance at 'regular' school (formal education)

·         Highest grade attended as well as the highest grade completed

·         Whether or not the respondent earned a high-school degree (or equivalent)

·         Whether or not the respondent earned a post-secondary degree

·         Post-secondary attendance

·         The amount of loans taken for post-secondary education

·         Last enrollment in post-secondary education (college)

Special Considerations:

Regular schooling.  It is important that the respondent understands that we are looking for attendance in any class or course that can be used toward earning an academic degree.  Thus, we are interested in schooling that can be counted towards progress toward a degree, even if the respondent does not intend to obtain an academic degree.

Example 1:  R took a business administration class at Columbus State -- accept this as regular schooling.

Example 2:  R took a class a DeVry, as part of an effort to get a AA degree -- accept as regular schooling.

Example 3: R took a class at the community center to help with word processing skills -- do not count this as regular schooling.

Section 5: Military Service

Purpose:       This very short section asks the respondent if s/he is currently enlisted in a branch of the military.  If the answer is ‘yes’ the specific branch of the military is collected.

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         Respondent is currently in or out of military service

·         Identification of the branch of service where the respondent is enlisted

Special Considerations:

None.

Section 6: Hardships and Information

Purpose:       This is an important section that gathers information on the economic hardships the respondents have experienced and any community services they have used to help them deal with those hardships.  The section also includes questions that test the respondents’ knowledge of the current welfare rules. 

Universe:      All respondents

Main Data Elements Collected:

·         Hardships experienced by the respondent

·         Did the respondent experience these hardships when on public assistance, off public assistance, or both

·         How many times in the last 12 months has the respondent experienced these hardships

·         What community services the respondent has used, and did they help the respondent not have to go back on welfare

·         Respondent’s perception of his/her current and future financial situation

·         Respondent’s knowledge of the welfare rules

Special Considerations:

HARDSHIP-11: be prepared for Rs to say they are currently receiving welfare assistance, so this question may not make a lot of sense.

Section 7: On-Jobs

Purpose:       This section collects information on the respondent’s employment history since January 1, 1997.  Rosters of the respondent’s different employers are collected, which include start and stop dates associated with each employer.

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         Respondent’s employer(s) since January 1, 1997

·         Start and stop dates for employment

Special Considerations:

Start Dates prior to 1994.   If the actual start date for an employer is prior to January 1, 1994, you will enter 'January 1994' as the start date. So, for example, if R started working with Acme in June 1991 and stopped in December 1996, you would enter January 1994 as the start date in question  Q6-27A.   This start date is used in subsequent text-fills.

Figure 1 displays the question that is used to introduce the employer section. 

Defining the Employment Type: 'Regular Employer', 'Temporary Agency', or 'Activity'    After you enter the employer name you'll be asked to define the type of employer it is -- whether it is a regular (non-Temp Agency) employer, a Temporary Agency, or an activity name.  This is important because subsequent questions and text substitutions are tailored to the particular job situation.   For example, someone who works for a temporary agency is likely to have weeks or days in a row where he or she did not work, yet this person is still "working" for the temporary agency.  Therefore we don't want to record start- and stop-date for every temporary agency assignment, as long as these different assignments are coming from the same Temp agency.  

Figure 4, below, shows the question that defines the employer under consideration at this point as a regular employer name (non-Temp agency), a temporary agency, or  if it should be defined as an activity since no employer name is available.

Section 8:          Employer Supplement

Purpose:        This section collects more detailed information about each of the employers listed in the previous section.  We ask questions about earnings, rates of pay, hours worked, benefits policies, and other topics.  The section also includes some detail on the type of firm where the respondent works, as well as information about promotions received by the respondent.

Universe:      Only Rs with 1 or more employers (although Rs without any employer get asked 1 question at the end of this section).

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         Dates of employment

·         Number of weeks missed work during each period of employment

·         Type of work i.e., government, private or non-profit, self-employed, etc.

·         Overtime hours, rate of pay, performance-based pay, promotions or position changes

·         Benefits available from employer such as medical, child care, flexible schedule, and sick and vacation days

·         Shift times and frequency of absences from work

·         How R feels about his/her job, coworkers, and supervisor

·         Job search methods

Special Considerations:

Employer-Supplement Reference Date:   Jobs that began before 1/1/97 but ended after that date were recorded in the previous On-Jobs section.  However, in the Employer Supplement section information we are interested only in what has happened at each job since January 1, 1997.  Therefore, the reference date that will be substituted in ES questions will be 1/1/97 instead of the start date of that job (if the start date is before 1/1/97).  This may be confusing to respondents.  If this happens, explain to him/her that you have recorded the correct information, but now you are only interested in knowing details about that job since 1/1/97.

Earnings:   When recording the respondent’s earnings, ask for the most recent wage s/he received at that job.  When you ask about the respondent’s earnings, s/he may begin to tell you every wage s/he has earned at that job along with dates of wage changes.  Just remember to record the most recent wage received at that job.  Changes in wage will be collected eventually in this section.

Unit for Rate of Pay   Respondents are asked what time unit is easiest for them to report their most recent total earnings before taxes and other deductions.  If the respondent chooses daily or other, s/he will be routed through the weekly questions.  If the respondent chooses bi-monthly, s/he will be routed through the monthly questions.  If this is confusing for respondents, explain that we would rather have earnings information in weekly or monthly amounts rather than daily or bi-monthly. If necessary, ask them to please estimate their earnings in weekly or monthly amounts. 

Within-Job Gaps (QES-25A):  The question in Figure 6 might be confusing to respondents:

Note that we are interested in periods where R was employed by this employer, but was not  working.   This type of gap could happen if the respondent was on strike, or unpaid maternity leave, or for other reasons.

Open-ended question, QES-101.   The intention of this question is to let the respondent speak about what job services they feel they need but aren’t available from state or local agencies.  Please encourage the respondent to take this question seriously and answer as honestly as possible.     

Section 9: Between-Job Gaps / Job Search

Purpose:       This section provides information on periods when the respondent was not working at all, and follows up with questions about efforts to look for or find a new job.  Note that this is different from the "within-job" previous gap because in this section we are looking at periods of unemployment.

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         Number of weeks looking for work

·         Reasons for not looking for work

·         Job search techniques used (both employed and unemployed respondents will be asked this), including searches done with Ohio Job Net or One-Stop Computers

Special Considerations:

None

Section 10:  Job Training

Purpose:        This section gathers detailed information about the job training experiences of the respondent since January 1, 1997.  Information is gathered on whether the respondent has received any job or vocational training, the type of training, what type of skills were learned during the training, and how the training helped the person in their work.

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         Types of training provided by employer

·         Other training, who paid for the training, number of hours spent in training, and skills learned at training

Special Considerations:

None.

Purpose:       This section asks the respondent questions about his/her spouse/ partner’s main job in 1999. The main job is the job worked at for the longest period of time during 1999.  If the spouse/partner was not in the household or did not work during 1999, interviewers can choose those options. 

Universe:      Respondents with a spouse or partner in the household;

                        Respondents who have been married since 1994, but are currently divorced or separated

Respondents whose spouse or partner lives outside the household

Major Data Elements Collected:

·        Rate of pay, overtime wages, hours and weeks worked, and earnings from spouse/partner’s main job in 1999

·        Rate of pay, overtime wages (if reported), hours, and employment status the   previous week

Special Considerations:

Main job .  The main job is the job worked at for the longest period of time.  If two jobs are equal in length, then the principal or main job is the job where the most hours per week are worked.

Universe of eligible Rs.  The respondent will be asked questions if he/she was married as of January 1994 but is currently divorced, separated, or the spouse/partner lives outside the household. Under these conditions the questions in this section will refer to the most recent spouse.  Also, respondents who reported living with a partner (back in the marital history section) will go through these questions.

Section 12: Child Well Being

Purpose:    This section asks respondents about all biological children and any non-biological children in the household.  Separate rosters are compiled for biological and non-biological children, which include names and birth dates.  Other information collected includes usual residence, health status, recent medical history, how the medical care was paid for, whether the child’s health conditions or visits to the doctor affected the respondent’s work, and school information.  Female respondents with children born after 1/1/97 are asked about prenatal and neo-natal medical care. 

Universe:      Respondents with a child under age 18 living in the household.

Major Data Elements Collected:

·        Number of biological and non-biological children, their names, and birth dates

·        Where each child usually resides

·        Collect names of any of R's children not living in R's household, such as a child living with the other parent, or in foster care, etc.

·        For all children in the household, ask about any sickness or injury needing medical treatment since 1/1/97, the number of illnesses, last routine checkup, and health insurance coverage

·        Ask about permanent physical or behavioral problems requiring medical attention

·        Type of school, name and address of school each child attends

Special Considerations:

Modifying the relationship of children. The children listed at the start of this section are spawned from the household roster.  If the relationship of any child reveals itself to be different than originally recorded back in the HH section it can be modified in this section.  For example, if the R considered a nephew to be a biological child because they are related by blood, and you become aware of this, you can change the relationship to "nephew" so that this child's information will be stored as part of the non-biological child roster instead of on the biological child roster (this is mainly an internal function, and should be transparent to the respondent).

Non-biological Children:   Non-biological children are defined as any child under 18 living in the household.

Blank fields in roster display.   If the respondent answers with Don’t Know or Refuse for the month and/or day of a child’s birth date, the child will show up on the roster but the birth date will be blank (“  /  /  “).  That is, even if the day was entered, the entire DOB in the display will be blank.

Section 13: Child Care

Purpose:       This section collects information on how children 14 years old and younger in the respondent’s household are cared for on a regular basis.   Information about every child care arrangements in the past 6 months is collected.

Universe:      All respondents with a child under the age of 14 living in the household.

Major Data Elements Collected:

·        Does R have a childcare arrangement, if not why not

·        Roster the child care arrangements (who and where is the arrangement) 

·        Time of day uses child care arrangements

·        How the childcare is paid for by the respondent

·        Satisfaction with the arrangement

Special Considerations:

Who paid for medical care?  The intent of these questions is to distinguish between situations where the respondent has no coverage from those where some or all coverage is provided.  If the insurance is coming from the respondent or spouse, it is coded as R’s insurance.

If a child is cared for in the home of the custodial parent by the other parent, this is NOT considered a childcare arrangement.  In other words, we are not interested in childcare arrangements where the respondent works and the spouse or partner watches the child at home.

Selecting "NONE". Also, make sure that NONE is selected only if there were no arrangements at all in the past 6 months.  If any arrangement was used for any period of time then the answer cannot be NONE.

Section 14: Health and Hospitalization Plans 

Purpose:       This section collects information about the respondent’s healthcare/ hospitalization plan, as well as the respondent’s health and the degree to which it interferes with everyday living.

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         What health and hospitalization plan the respondent has, if any

·         Time period when the respondent has/has not been covered by health insurance

·         The respondent’s health status, including behavior in the past week

Special Considerations:

Alternate Medicaid Providers:   There are many different companies providing Medicaid (publicly funded) insurance.  The names of the alternative companies in Ohio are: Healthy Start, Mediplan,  DAHP, Emerald, FHP, Genesis, HMO HealthOH, Paramount, QualChoice , SummaCare, SuperMed, and Total Health Care. Obviously we don’t expect anyone to memorize these company names, but they should be aware that a probe might be necessary to determine if a company is providing Medicaid type insurance.  If there is any doubt, use Other SPECIFY to write in what the R says

Section 15: Income and Program Participation

Purpose:       This section collects information on different sources of income and assets for the respondent and his/her spouse/partner.  Income sources include wage and salary, business or farm, unemployment compensation and child support payments.  Other information collected includes dates of program participation for SSI, food stamps, and OWF/ADC; the amount of debt an individual has; data on savings, stocks, bonds, mortgages, home residence, motor vehicles and the value of personal businesses.

Universe:      All respondents

Major Data Elements Collected:

·        Yearly income for respondent and spouse/partner

·        Unemployment compensation, including dates and amount of compensation

·        Child support information including who is entitled, amount, agreement, change in amount, obligations to pay

·        Collection of OWF/ADC, food stamps, SSI, other targeted cash payments or non-cash in-kind benefits, and involvement with children’s services

·        WIC, educational benefits, scholarships, and other benefits

·        Filing of 1998 tax returns and number of exemptions

·        Total amount in savings including IRA, 401K, CD, and stock

·        Items, property and assets including home, farm, and vehicles

·        Items that may cause the respondent to be in debt

·        A final open ended question for 10% of respondents about their feelings regarding the public assistance system in Ohio

Special Considerations:

Public Assistance Programs:   All public assistance program questions are collecting family-level information.  We look for spells in which the family received Food Stamps, OWF, or SSI. If 2 people in HH are getting SSI, we want one start/stop date that refers to the first time the household started or stopped getting the benefit.

Start dates prior to January 1997. If the respondent was receiving OWF/ADC, SSI, or FS benefits before 1/97 and didn’t stop until after that date, enter 1/1/97 as the starting point. (Pertains to questions Q13A-3, Q13SSI-3, and Q13F-3).

Child Support Payments in arrearage:   Arrearage is a term used to refer to the lump sum of back child support payments that a person owes.  If a respondent says that he/she has an arrearage but no current child support order, then he or she is paying child support. 

Section 16:        Interviewer Remarks

Purpose:        Although interviewers can record comments throughout the survey instrument, this section provides interviewers an additional place to record feedback on the interview and questionnaire.

Major Data Elements Collected:

·         Questions that confused, angered, or caused the respondent discomfort during the interview

·         Questions that caused problems for the interviewer

·         Any respondent characteristics that could affect answers

Special Considerations:

None.