The 500 Family Study [1998-2000: United States]

The 500 Family Study was designed to obtain in-depth
information on middle class, dual-career families living in the United
States. To understand the complex dynamics of today's families and the
strategies they use to balance the demands of work and family, over
500 families from 8 cities across the United States were studied. To
address different issues facing parents with older and younger
children, families with adolescents and families with kindergartners
were included in the sample. Working mothers and fathers are now
splitting their time between their responsibilities to their family,
and to their respective occupations. This study of 500 families
explores how work affects the lives and well-being of parents and
their children. The study's data allows researchers to explore
a broad range of questions:

How do dual-career families manage and organize their resources and time
between family and work? How do work conditions, including
characteristics of the job and workplace environment, affect the
quality of relationships among household members? How do
dual career parents manage the moral and social development and
learning experiences of their children? How do the
work-related responsibilities of working parents affect their child's
moral, social, and educational development? What effect is
consumerism and technology having on how working families direct the
moral and social development of their children? What do
parents believe is their role regarding the child-care of their
children and how they should fulfill that role both in terms of time
and in the allocation of economic and social resources? What are some
of the resources in the community that parents use to supervise their
children? How do families regard the "free time" of
adolescents and how they allocate adolescent "free time" in
maintenance of the household? What is the quality of
relationships among family members? To obtain a
detailed picture of work and family life, mothers, fathers, and their
children were asked to complete a series of instruments including
surveys, in-depth interviews, and time diaries. These instruments
were designed to provide information about work, marriage, child care
and parental supervision, management of household tasks, time
allocations, coping strategies, and psychological well-being.
The four datasets associated with this data collection are
summarized below:

The <strong>Cortisol Data</strong> contains information for a
subsample of families that elected to participate in a study of
psychological stress. Parents and teenagers who agreed to participate
completed an additional two days of ESM data collection. The health
survey that was administered reported on a variety of health and
lifestyle issues that might affect cortisol (stress hormone) levels
such as medication use, consumption of caffeine and alcohol, use of
nicotine, timing of menstrual cycle, pregnancy, presence of chronic
illness, and respondent's height and weight. Additionally, parents
reported on the health of the children (teenagers and kindergartners)
participating in the study. The
<strong>Experience Sampling Method (ESM) Data</strong> contains a
variety of information related to how individuals spend their time,
who they spent it with, and what activities they were engaged in over
the course of a typical week. Respondents wore programmed wrist
watches that emitted signals (beeps) throughout the day. When
possible, family members were placed on identical signaling schedules
to provide information on a range of family activities. At the time of
each beep, participants were asked to complete a self-report form
which asked them to answer a number of open-ended questions about
their location, activities, who they were with, and psychological
states. Several Likert and semantic-differential scales were used to
assess participants' psychological states. The
<strong>Parent Data</strong> contains basic demographic
information from respondents as well as detailed information about
parents' occupation job duties, income, work schedule, benefits (e.g.,
medical care, flexible work schedules, and family leave), and the
consequences of their jobs (e.g. long hours, job stress, having to
work weekends). Additionally, the data contain information about the
extent to which parents experienced work-family conflict and what
changes might help with better balance of the demands of work and
family (e.g., more flexible work hours, more help from spouses with
household and child care responsibilities, improved child care, and
after-school care arrangements). Parental attitudes toward traditional
arrangements, how household tasks were actually divided among family
members, and how often the family paid for services (e.g., cleaning,
yard work, meal preparation) were also captured. The data also contain
information about how children are socialized in families with two
working parents. Topics about the frequency with which parents engaged
in various activities with their children (e.g., talking, eating meals
together, attending religious services), how frequently parents
monitored their teenager's activities, and how often they talked with
their teenager about school activities, plans for college, career
plans, friendships, and peer pressure. The
<strong>Adolescent Data</strong> contains data for sixth through
twelfth graders, which focuses on family relationships and
experiences, school experiences, paid work, psychological well-being
and behavioral problems, and plans for the future (e.g., college,
career, and marriage -- including expectations regarding spouses'
sharing of responsibility for child care, cooking, chores, and paid
work). To allow for comparison of parents' and adolescents' responses
to similar questions, several items appear in both the adolescent and
parent data. These items include the frequency with which parents and
adolescents discuss school events, college and career plans,
participation in religious and other activities, gender role attitudes
and the division of household tasks within the family, and items
measuring depression, stress, and anxiety.
<strong>Qualitative Data -- Interviews</strong> The main
purpose of the interviews was to explore topics addressed in the
parent and adolescent surveys in greater detail. Parent interviews
were designed to examine how working parents cope with the demands of
work and family life. Adolescent interviews touched on similar themes
but altered questions to gauge the adolescent's perceptions of their
parents work and family lives. Kindergartner interviews were brief and
focused on children's after-school and child care arrangements and
time spent with parents.