Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
This study includes five data files and corresponding exercise instructions. Four of the five data files and instructions were produced from the National Child Development Study datasets for an ESRC-funded workshop on Multilevel Event History Analysis, held in February 2005. The workshop data includes three files in ASCII DAT format and one in SPSS SAV format. Further information and documentation beyond that included in this study, and MLwiN software downloads are available from the Centre for Multilevel Modelling web site. In addition, for the second edition of the study, example data and documentation for fitting multilevel multiprocess event history models using aML software were added to the dataset (the data file 'amlex.raw'). The aML syntax file that accompanies these data can also be found at the Centre for Multilevel Modelling web site noted above. The project from which these data were produced was conducted under the ESRC Research Methods programme. It involved the development of multilevel simultaneous equations models for the analysis of correlated event histories. The research was motivated by a study of the interrelationships between partnership (marriage or cohabitation) durations and decisions about childbearing, using event history data from the 1958 and 1970 British Birth Cohort studies (in the case of this dataset, NCDS). Additional aims and objectives of the project were to develop methodology for the analysis of complex event history data; provide means for implementing methodology in existing software; and provide social scientists with practical training in advanced event history analysis.
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The files included in this dataset are as follows: ex1.sav: this SPSS file contains data on a subsample of 500 respondents from the NCDS. Variables include age at first partnership, age left full-time education, gender, region and father's social class. ex3.dat: this ASCII file contains data on a subsample of 1000 women from the NCDS who have partnered before age 42. The data are in the form of one record per six-month period spent in a partnership, and the file includes 33,212 records. Variables include type of union, indicator of end of union, partnership duration, previously married and/or cohabited, age at start of partnership, years of education and presence of children. ex4.dat: this ASCII file contains data on a subsample of 475 women from the NCDS who have partnered before age 42. The data are in the form of one record per six-month period spent cohabiting, and the file includes 4,823 records. Variables include indicator of reason for end of cohabitation (separation vs. marriage), partnership duration, previously married and/or cohabited, age at start of partnership, years of education and presence of children. ex5.dat: this ASCII file contains data on a subsample of 937 women from the NCDS who have married before age 42. The data are in the form of one record per six-month period spent cohabiting, and the file includes 28,389 records. Variables include indicator of marital dissolution, current pregnancy, partnership duration, previously married and/or cohabited, age at start of partnership, years of education and presence of children. amlex.raw: this ASCII file contains data on a subsample of 937 women from the NCDS who married before age 42. The data are in the form of one record per marriage, and the file contains 1065 records. Variables include an indicator of marital dissolution, partnership duration, previously married and/or cohabited, age at start of partnership, years of education at start of partnership, number of children and duration of birth intervals. The corresponding instructions for the workshop exercises conducted with these data files are included in PDF format in the documentation table below. Users should note that the MLwiN software and the macro TXT files described in the documentation for Exercises 3, 4 and 5 must be obtained from the Centre for Multilevel Modelling web site. The aML software (for the data file 'amlex.raw') can be found at the aML Multiprocess Multilevel Modeling web site. Users should also note that UKDA/ESDS cannot offer support for MLwiN or aML.
Simple random sample
The data are simple random samples of women from the full NCDS datasets.
Transcription of existing materials
