Publications [#257094] of S. Philip Morgan

	Directors Database Center for Social Demography and Ethnography Social Sciences Research Institute Office of the Provost Duke University
	HOME > Provost > SSRI > CSDE > Directors	Search Help Login

Papers Published

Hayford, SR; Morgan, SP, The quality of retrospective data on cohabitation., Demography, vol. 45 no. 1 (February, 2008), pp. 129-141, ISSN 0070-3370 [Gateway.cgi], [doi]
(last updated on 2024/01/01)
Abstract:
We assess the quality of retrospective data on cohabitation by comparing data collected in four major U.S. family surveys: the National Survey of Families and Households and three rounds of the National Survey of Family Growth. We use event-history analysis to analyze rates of entry into cohabitation in age-period-cohort segments captured by multiple surveys. We find consistent discrepancies among the four surveys. The pattern of differences suggests that cohabitation histories underestimate cohabitation rates in distant periods relative to rates estimated closer to the date of survey. We conclude with cautions regarding the use of retrospective data on cohabitation.