Nola du Toit Cathy Haggerty

1. Instability Overlooked: Evidence of the Importance of Household Roster Data Collection and Matching Over Time Nola du Toit Cathy Haggerty

2. Background: Instability • Relationship Instability • Divorce or dissolution of cohabiting union • Children wellbeing (Amato and Sobolewski2001) • School performance (Frisco et al. 2007) • Life satisfaction (Hans-Jurgen and Brockel 2007) • Household instability • Change in number of children/adults • Household debt (Disney et al. 2008) • Depression (Heflin and Iceland 2009) • Outdoor play (Handy et al. 2008)

3. Measuring Instability: Relationship Instability • Relationship instability • Change in marriage or cohabiting relationship over time

4. Measuring Instability: Change in Number of Adults/Children • Household instability • Change in number of adults or children • Are we missing anything?

5. Example1: Elizabeth Taylor • 1959: Are you married? YES • 1964: Are you married? YES • Instability = NO • But…. • 1959: Married to Eddie Fisher • 1964: Married to Richard Burton • Instability? YES

6. Example 2: The Simpsons • 3 children in the household • Lisa, Maggie, and Bart • Episode 2005 • 3 children in the household • Lisa, Maggie, and “BART” • Still 3 children • But not the same 3 children • Instability? YES

7. Research Questions • Is there another way to measure instability? • How much instability is overlooked by current measures? • Does it matter?

8. Data • Making Connections Survey • Annie E. Casey Foundation • Low income households at 10 sites • Longitudinal • Baseline (2002-2004) • Wave 2 (2005-2007) • Wave 3 (2008-2011) • Information on variety of topics • People in household, age, gender, employment, relationships to one another, children, economic wellbeing, etc.

9. Data • Household roster data • Matched across waves • Link Plus, eyeballing • Unique identifiers for everyone in household • Waves 2 and 3 for 6 sites • 2242 cases‏

10. Methodology • Compare “old way” to “new way” • Relationship Instability • Old way = Is there a spouse or partner present? • New way = Is the Wave 2 spouse or partner id# present in Wave 3? • Household Instability in Number of Children and Adults • Old way = count of adults and children • New way = count of same id# at each wave • Compare old way and new way • Age, gender, log of income, education, and employment

11. Findings: Relationship Instability ***Significantly different p<.001

12. Findings: Relationship Instability 6% is not the same person ***Significantly different p<.001

13. Findings: Household Instability Change in number of adults Change in number of children ***Significantly different p<.001

14. Findings: Household Instability Change in number of adults Change in number of children ***Significantly different p<.001

15. Does it matter? NOTE: *p<.05, **p<.01; ***p<.001

16. Does it matter? NOTE: *p<.05, **p<.01; ***p<.001

17. Does it matter? NOTE: *p<.05, **p<.01; ***p<.001

18. Does it matter? NOTE: *p<.05, **p<.01; ***p<.001

19. Does it matter? NOTE: *p<.05, **p<.01; ***p<.001

20. Does it matter? NOTE: *p<.05, **p<.01; ***p<.001

21. Conclusions • Is there another way to measure instability? • Roster matching and unique person identifiers add depth • How much instability is overlooked by current measures? • Old way overlooks significant amount of instability • Does it matter? • Characteristics are significantly different

22. Conclusions • Study is important • Household rosters are important part of questionnaire • Roster matching and unique identifiers add depth • Substantive topics are enhanced by the added details • Limitations to roster matching and unique identifiers • Burdensome process • Ideal for longitudinal surveys • But can be incorporated into cross-sectional surveys • Very beneficial to capturing the whole picture

23. Nola du Toit: dutoit-nola@norc.org Cathy Haggerty: haggerty-cathy@norc.org