2014-06653. Proposed Collection; Comment Request

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a pre-clearance consultation program to provide the general public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA95) [44 U.S.C. 3506(c) (2)(A)]. This program helps to ensure that requested data can be provided in the desired format, reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized, collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of collection requirements on respondents can be properly assessed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is soliciting comments concerning the proposed reinstatement of the “National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979.” A copy of the proposed information collection request (ICR) can be obtained by contacting the individual listed in the Addresses section of this notice.

DATES:

Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the Addresses section below on or before May 27, 2014.

ADDRESSES:

Send comments to Nora Kincaid, BLS Clearance Officer, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 4080, 2 Massachusetts Avenue NE., Washington, DC 20212. Written comments also may be transmitted by fax to 202-691-5111 (this is not a toll free number).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Nora Kincaid, BLS Clearance Officer, 202-691-7628 (this is not a toll free number). (See Addresses section.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) is a representative national sample of persons who were born in the years 1957 to 1964 and lived in the U.S. in 1978. These respondents were ages 14 to 22 when the first round of interviews began in 1979; they are ages 49 to 58 as of December 31, 2013. The NLSY79 was conducted annually from 1979 to 1994 and has been conducted biennially since 1994. The longitudinal focus of this survey requires information to be collected from the same individuals over many years in order to trace their education, training, work experience, fertility, income, and program participation.

In addition to the main NLSY79, the biological children of female NLSY79 respondents have been surveyed since 1986. A battery of child cognitive, socio-emotional, and physiological assessments has been administered biennially since 1986 to NLSY79 mothers and their children. Starting in 1994, children who had reached age 15 by December 31 of the survey year (the Young Adults) were interviewed about their work experiences, training, schooling, health, fertility, self-esteem, and other topics. Funding for the NLSY79 Child and Young Adult surveys is provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development through an interagency agreement with the BLS and through a grant awarded to researchers at the Ohio State University Center for Human Resource Research (CHRR). The interagency agreement funds data collection for children and young adults up to age 20. The grant funds data collection for young adults age 21 and older.

One of the goals of the Department of Labor (DOL) is to produce and disseminate timely, accurate, and relevant information about the U.S. labor force. The BLS contributes to this goal by gathering information about the labor force and labor market and disseminating it to policymakers and the public so that participants in those markets can make more informed, and thus more efficient, choices. Research based on the NLSY79 contributes to the formation of national policy in the areas of education, training, employment programs, and school-to-work transitions. In addition to the reports that the BLS produces based on data from the NLSY79, members of the academic community publish articles and reports based on NLSY79 data for the DOL and other funding agencies. To date, more than 2,332 articles examining NLSY79 data have been published in scholarly journals. The survey design provides data gathered from the same respondents over time to form the only data set that contains this type of information for this important population group. Without the collection of these data, an accurate longitudinal data set could not be provided to researchers and policymakers, thus adversely affecting the DOL's ability to perform its policy- and report-making activities.

II. Current Action

The BLS seeks approval to conduct round 26 of the NLSY79 and the associated surveys of biological children of female NLSY79 respondents. The NLSY79 Child Survey involves three components:

• The Mother Supplement is administered to female NLSY79 respondents who live with biological children under age 15. This questionnaire will be administered to about 285 women, who will be asked a series of questions about each child under age 15. On average, these women each have 1.12 children under age 15, for a total of approximately 320 children.
• The Child Supplement involves aptitude testing of about 315 children under age 15.
• The Child Self-Administered Questionnaire is administered to approximately 275 children ages 10 to 14.

The Young Adult Survey will be administered to young adults age 15 and older who are the biological children of female NLSY79 respondents. These young adults will be contacted regardless of whether they reside with their mothers. Members of the Young Adult sample are contacted for interviews every other round once they reach age 30. The NLSY79 Young Adult Survey involves interviews with approximately 5,730 young adults ages 15 and older.

During the field period, about 10 main NLSY79 interviews will be validated to ascertain whether the interview took place as the interviewer reported and whether the interview was done in a polite and professional manner.

The round 26 questionnaire includes a new section on Educational Expenditures, as well as several personality inventory and locus-of-control scales. A new module on Educational Expenditures, which asks about spending on private secondary schools and college has been added for Round 26. All respondents (male and female) with children in the Young Adult age range (turning 15 sometime during the 2014 survey year) are asked a series of questions about each of those children. By collecting data on how much respondents spent on each child's secondary and post-secondary schooling, we hope to inform this area of research that examines whether parents invest in their children (via secondary and postsecondary educational expenditures). Eight questions on Expectations are included in Round 26 and are designed to elicit respondents' “subjective probabilities” about outcomes related to retirement, inheritances, life expectancy, and health. Each question asks respondents to report a number between zero and 100 that represents their assessment of the likelihood of the outcome.

These questions have been added to expand our efforts to learn about respondents' plans for retirement and expectations about the future. The Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI10) has also been added for Round 26. Using a scale from 1-7, respondents are asked to judge how much they agree that pairs of words representing personality characteristics apply to them. The personality characteristics are the so-called “Big Five” traits (conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to new ideas, and extroversion) that are widely used by psychologists based on evidence that a minimum of five factors is needed to describe individuals' personalities. The Rotter Locus of Control, first asked of respondents in 1979, returns in Round 26. The measure of “locus of control” or self-efficacy obtained by this scale has been widely used by researchers, many of whom have asked us to re-field the scale to determine how individuals' locus of control has changed over time.

The final addition to Round 26 is the inclusion of an Overall Life Satisfaction module. Respondents are asked their overall level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their lives on a scale from 1-7.

III. Desired Focus of Comments

The BLS is particularly interested in comments that:

• Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility.
• Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used.
• Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected.
• Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submissions of responses.

Type of Review: Reinstatement, with change, of a previously approved collection for which approval has expired.

Agency: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Title: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979.

OMB Number: 1220-0109.

Affected Public: Individuals or households.

Form	Total respondents	Frequency	Total responses	Average time per response (minutes)	Estimated total burden (hours)
NLSY79 Round 26 Pretest	100	Biennially	100	60	100
NLSY79 Round 26 Main Survey	7,300	Biennially	7,300	60	7,300
Round 26 Validation Interviews	10	Biennially	10	6	1
Mother Supplement (Mothers of children under age 15)	1 285	Biennially	320	20	107
Child Supplement (Under age 15)	315	Biennially	315	31	163
Child Self-Administered Questionnaire (Ages 10 to 14)	275	Biennially	275	30	138
Young Adult Survey (Ages 15 to 20)	1,030	Biennially	1030	55	944
Young Adult Survey, Grant component (Age 21 and older)	4,700	Biennially	4700	60	4,700
Totals 2	13,445		14050		13,453
1 The number of respondents for the Mother Supplement (285) is less than the number of responses (320) because mothers are asked to provide separate responses for each of the biological children with whom they reside. The total number of responses for the Mother Supplement (320) is more than the number for the Child Supplement (315) because the number of children completing the Child Supplement is lower due to age restrictions and nonresponse.
2 The total number of 13,445 respondents across all the survey instruments is a mutually exclusive count that does not include: (1) The 10 reinterview respondents, who were previously counted among the 7,300 main survey respondents, (2) the 285 Mother Supplement respondents, who were previously counted among the main survey respondents, and (3) the 275 Child SAQ respondents, who were previously counted among the 285 Child Supplement respondents.

Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $0.

Total Burden Cost (operating/maintenance): $0.

Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget approval of the information collection request; they also will become a matter of public record.

Signed at Washington, DC, this 19th day of March 2014.

Eric P. Molina,

Acting Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics.