Cross-Wave Childhood Health And Family Aggregated Data

The Childhood Family and Childhood Health Aggregated Data were created using retrospective reports provided by HRS respondents or their proxy in different waves of biennial core panel interviews from 1992 to 2016. All information has previously been released for public use separately for each biennial wave and in different sections within each wave. The data file contains 74 variables and includes 38,654 respondents. Items on childhood background (family and health) were first introduced to the survey in 1998 and were included in the baseline interview in subsequent cohort enrollment years. The items were designed to be collected only once from each participant either when they first entered the study or in the core wave when the questions were asked for the first time. Individuals are identified using the household identifier HHID and the person identifier PN. These variables can also be used to merge the childhood family and health data to all other parts of the HRS. Additional information about an aggregation process and measures is provided in the data description for this data product.