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An Introduction
CILS is a longitudinal study
designed to study the adaptation process of the immigrant second
generation which is defined broadly as U.S.-born children with at
least one foreign-born parent or children born abroad but brought at
an early age to the United States. The original survey was
conducted with large samples of second-generation children attending
the 8th and 9th grades in public and private schools in the
metropolitan areas of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale in Florida and San Diego,
California.
The first survey, conducted in
1992, had the purpose of ascertaining baseline information on
immigrant families; children’s own demographic characteristics;
language use; self-identities; and academic attainment. The total
sample size was 5,262. Respondents came from 77 different
nationalities, although the sample reflects the most sizable
immigrant nationalities in each area. Thus, the largest
concentrations include Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and West
Indians in South Florida and Mexicans, Filipinos, Vietnamese,
Laotians, and Cambodians in California. The sample is evenly
divided by sex, year in school (8th, 9th) and birth status
(foreign-born/U.S.-born). Fifty-four percent of the interviews were
conducted in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and 46 percent in San Diego.
Three years later, corresponding
to the time in which respondents were about to graduate from high
school, the first follow-up survey was conducted. Its purpose was
to examine the evolution of key adaptation outcomes – including
language knowledge and preferences; ethnic identity; self-esteem;
and academic attainment – over the adolescent years. The survey
also sought to establish the proportion of second-generation youths
who dropped out of school before graduation. This follow-up survey
retrieved 4,288 respondents or 81.5 percent of the original sample.
A series of statistical tests indicated that this follow-up is not
seriously biased with respect to the original survey, although there
is some overrepresentation of children from higher-status families.
Together with this follow-up
survey, a parental survey was conducted. For reasons of cost, this
survey targeted half of the total universe of parents, selecting
them on a random basis. Unlike the student surveys, which were
conducted mostly via self-administered questionnaires in school, the
parental interviews were conducted face-to-face and mostly at home.
Since many immigrant parents did not understand English, the
questionnaire was translated and administered in six different
foreign languages. The purpose of this interview was to establish
directly characteristics of immigrant parents and families and their
outlooks for the future – including aspirations and plans for the
children. In total, 2,442 parents or 46 percent of the original
student sample were interviewed. Their national origins closely
resemble, in proportional terms, those of the student sample.
All three of these CILS surveys
were jointly directed by Alejandro Portes, initially at Johns
Hopkins and now at Princeton University, and by Rubén G. Rumbaut,
initially at San Diego State University and subsequently at Michigan
State University. Results of the study have been published in a
series of journal articles, chapters, and books. The most recent
among the latter are Portes and Rumbaut’s Legacies: The Story of
the Immigrant Second Generation (University of California Press
2001), which describes the study and presents its principal
findings, and Rumbaut and Portes’ Ethnicities: Children of
Immigrants in America (University of California Press 2001),
which presents detailed case studies of the main immigrant
nationalities represented in the sample. Click
here for
information about the second follow-up survey, CILS-III.
The data in this archive include
these three CILS surveys. In addition to the codebook, the three
questionnaires are included so that users can refer to the original
questions. Some discrepancies exist in responses to factual
questions, such as citizenship, in waves 1 and 2 of the student
survey. There are also some discrepancies between student and
parental responses to the same factual question. These
discrepancies do not reflect coding errors, but actual differences
in the ways respondents answered the same question at different
times. For additional information about the study, variable coding,
and index construction, please refer to Legacies.
Notes for Combined Data Files for the Children of Immigrants
Longitudinal Study (CILS)
Separate data files are provided
in Stata and SPSS formats. The data file in Stata 6.0 format is
cils1n2.dta. Because Stata does not include missing values in its
calculations, in most instances the reported sample size will not
total the overall sample size of the study. Stata does not support
user-defined missing values.
We have also provided two SPSS
versions of the data file. The SPSS for Windows is cils1n2.sav and
there is also an SPSS portable file, cils1n2.por, which can be read
into SPSS running on any platform using the IMPORT command.
In these data files all personal
identifiers for the respondents have been removed and new project
case identification numbers have been added to protect
confidentiality.
Variable naming conventions
follow v1, v2… , and instances of associated questionnaire items and
subordinate questionnaire items add subscripts (e.g., v39a and v39b,
or v323 and v323a). These are organized in alphanumerical order;
however, there are occasional skips in the sequence (e.g., there is
no v3). Variables in the parental interview are indicated with “p”
in place of “v” (e.g., p1, p2…) and constructed variables derived
from one or more questionnaire items are indicated with a “c” (e.g.,
c1, c2…). The original 1992-93 survey is covered by the variables
ranging from v1 to v148, the 1995-96 follow-up is covered by
variables ranging from v203 to v358, and the variables from the
parental interviews range from p1 to p144. Twenty constructed
variables (c1 to c20) are appended at the end of the file.
In the variables for the
original survey and the follow-up (v1-v358), the respondent is
referred to with the abbreviation “r”. In the parental interviews
(p1-p144) the respondent is referred to as “p” because he or she is
the parent of a study respondent.
Notes for Specific Variables
v2: v2 to v149 come from first survey of respondents
conducted in 1992-93.
v79: v79 to v84 are components of Portes and Bach's
Perceptions of Society and Discrimination Index (PSDI) (Portes and
Bach 1985: 284).
v88: see questionnaire for full wording of these and
subsequent attitudinal items.
v97: see questionnaire for full wording of these and
subsequent attitudinal items.
v101: v101 to v110 are components of Rosenberg's
Self-Esteem scale (Rosenberg 1979; Rosenberg et al. 1995).
v114: v114 to v118 are components of the CES-D
Depression scale (Center for Epidemiological Studies, Short-Form.
See Portes and Rumbaut 2001: 207-209).
v132: v132 to v135 are the national percentiles and
the total scores on the Stanford math and reading achievement
tests. These tests were administered by the schools and the data
were provided by the school system.
v148: this variable is a unit-weighted standardized
scale of father's and mother's education, and occupational SEI
scores, plus family home ownership. Scores were computed for all
cases with valid measures in three or more of the component
variables.
END OF FIRST SURVEY.
v203: v203 to v358 come from the follow-up survey.
v207: see follow-up questionnaire for full wording
of these and subsequent attitudinal items.
v279: v279 to v284 are components of Portes and
Bach's Perceptions of Society and Discrimination Index (PSDI). (Portes
and Bach 1985: 284.)
v288: v288 to v290 are components of the Family
Cohesion scale (Portes and Rumbaut 2001: 200-202).
v291: v291 to v293 are components of the Familism
scale (Portes and Rumbaut 2001: 200-202).
v297: see follow-up questionnaire for full wording
of these and subsequent attitudinal items.
v301: v301 to v310 are components of Rosenberg's
Self-Esteem scale. (Rosenberg 1979; Rosenberg et al. 1995.)
v314: v314 to v318 are components of the CES-D
Depression scale. (See Portes and Rumbaut 2001: 207-209.)
p1: all "p" variables refer to items in the parental
questionnaire.
p74a: p74a to p74c are components of Portes and
Bach's Perceptions of Society and Discrimination Index (PSDI). (Portes
and Bach 1985: 284.)
p75a: p75a to p75c are measures of social distance
derived from Portes and Bach (1985: Ch. 8).
c1: all "c" variables are transformed or computed
variables based on prior data. C1 is derived from v4.
c3: c3 is constructed from v9, v15 and v21a; if
father and mother are from different countries, mother's national
origin is assigned.
References
Portes, Alejandro
and Robert L. Bach. 1985. Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican
Immigrants in the United States. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
_____ and Rubén
G. Rumbaut. 2001. Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second
Generation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rosenberg,
Morris. 1979. Conceiving the Self. New York: Basic Books.
_____, Carmi
Schooler, Carrie Schoenbach, and Florence Rosenberg. 1995. “Global
Self-esteem and Specific Self-esteem: Different Concepts, Different
Outcomes.” American Sociological Review 60: 141-156.
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