COUNTING FAMILIES: Household Matrices with Multiple Family Members

该研究的拟议目标是收集和分发新的数据，为研究人员和政策制定者提供对美国家庭复杂结构的更全面的估计。该项目提供公共基础设施支持，并建立在支持家庭和人口研究中心（HD 050959）的母基金的目标之上。随着美国家庭生活变得越来越复杂（即，多个家庭过渡和跨越家庭界限的关系），研究需要调整对家庭的计量，以承认这种复杂性。人们普遍认为，数据收集没有跟上美国家庭最近的变化。对家庭组成和关系进行高质量的衡量，对于准确评估家庭变化和制定满足儿童和家庭需要的公共政策和方案至关重要。虽然关系矩阵数据是一个新接受的工具，从一个人那里收集有关家庭组成和家庭关系的数据（布兰登2007），但这只是一个人对家庭关系的看法。另一个限制是，这种方法没有认识到超越传统家庭界限的关系，这种关系已经变得更加普遍，需要纳入对家庭生活的理解（例如，非全时或短期居住的儿童）（Hill和Callister，2007年）。我们建立在这种方法收集和传播家庭矩阵关系，从受访者以及配偶/伴侣（如果有的话）和十几岁的孩子（13+）生活在家里。通过使用基于网络的格式，这种创新的方法具有成本效益，并且在短时间内（9个月）可供研究界使用。这些数据将通过ICPSR的人口学研究数据共享发布。该项目将有助于创造就业机会，支持经济发展，并加快家庭和住户计量研究的步伐。 公共卫生相关性：该应用程序将通过评估家庭和住户的测量来促进公共卫生，这对于我们了解儿童成长的背景至关重要，并为针对家庭和儿童的公共政策和方案提供必要的信息。拟议项目将为实质性研究提供数据，并为家庭和住户计量方法的进步奠定基础，从而使广大研究界受益。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed goal of the research is to collect and distribute new data that will provide researchers and policy makers with more comprehensive estimates on the complex structure of American families. This project provides Public Infrastructure support and builds on the aims of the parent grant which supports the Center for Family and Demographic Research (HD050959). As American family life has become more complex (i.e., multiple family transitions and relationships that cross household boundaries), research needs to adjust measurement of the family to acknowledge this complexity. It is widely acknowledged that data collections have not kept pace with the recent changes in the American family. High quality measurement of family composition and relationships is critical for accurate assessments of family change and development of public policies and programs to meet children and families' needs. While relationship matrix data is a newly accepted tool to collect data from a one person about the composition of the household and household relationships to one another (Brandon 2007), this represents just one person's view of the relationships in the household. A further limitation is that this method does not recognize relationships that extend beyond traditional household boundaries which have become more common and need to be incorporated into understanding family life (e.g., children who reside part-time or short periods of time) (Hill and Callister 2007). We build on this method to collect and disseminate household matrix relationships from a respondent as well as spouse/partner (if available) and teenage children (13+) living in the household. By using a web-based format this innovative approach is cost efficient and accessible to the research community in a short time window (9 months). The data will be released via Data Sharing for Demographic Research at ICPSR. This project will contribute to job creation, support economic development, and accelerate the pace of research on the measurement of families and households. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This application will contribute to public health by assessing the measurement of families and households, which is critical for our understanding of the context in which children are raised and provides information necessary for public policies and programs targeted at families and children. The proposed project will benefit the broad research community by proving data for substantive research as well as the basis for methodological advances in the measurement of families and households.