What are CDS and TAS?
The PSID Child Development Supplement (CDS) and Transition into Adulthood Supplement (TAS) enable a variety of research designs to study the well-being of children and young adults over historical and developmental time in family, school, and neighborhood context.
Child Development Supplement (CDS)
Child Development Supplement – ages 0-17 years
- Interviews with caregivers and older children
- Caregiver and child standardized assessments of achievement
- Child time diaries for one weekday and one weekend day
- Height, weight, and body mass index for children and caregivers
- Linkages to neighborhood geocodes and school identifiers (restricted-use)
- Repeated observations over up to three waves covering entire childhood
- Forthcoming from CDS-2014: Genomic data and polygenic risk scores for children age 5-17 and primary caregivers
CDS is a nationally-representative study about the health, development, and well-being of US children.
CDS I-III (1997-2007)
CDS began in 1997 with 3,653 children aged 0 to 12 years. Up to two children were randomly sampled from eligible families, enabling sibling comparisons.
Children under 18 years and their caregivers were re-interviewed in up to two additional waves in 2002 (CDS-II) and 2007 (CDS-III).
At each wave, primary caregivers of children (usually a parent or other relative) and older children themselves provided detailed information about
children’s well-being and development in their family, school, and neighborhood context. See the text box below for topics and domains covered in CDS
interviews and assessments.
Ongoing CDS
CDS has transitioned from a cohort design to an ongoing panel design. Since 2014, CDS has collected information every five years about all eligible minor
children in PSID. The ongoing CDS includes children from a previous wave and those who have been born or moved into an eligible family since the last wave.
The 2014 Child Development Supplement (N=4,333) was the first wave collected under this new design and gathered information on PSID children born between 1997
and 2013 (age 1-17 years at interview). CDS-2014 creates new opportunities to investigate issues of research and policy relevance concerning today’s children as well
as to compare their outcomes and circumstances to those of the preceding generation of children in CDS I-III.
The 2019 Child Development Supplement will be the next available wave in this steady-state design. It will include information on all children age 0-17 years,
including children who were born since 2014 or who were recently added to PSID as part of the new immigrant refresher sample.
Transition into Adulthood Supplement (TAS)
Transition into Adulthood Supplement – ages 18-28 years
- Biennial interviews with young adults for up to five waves
- Content includes education, employment, relationships, attitudes, health, and health behaviors
- Linkages to neighborhood geocodes and college identifiers (restricted-use)
- Linkable to extensive data on childhood circumstances from CDS and Main PSID
- TAS respondents continue to be followed after age 28 through the Main PSID
Since 2005, TAS has collected information on transitions in schooling, work, and family formation during early adulthood and about young adults’ expectations,
attitudes, health, and psychosocial well-being. See the text box below for a list of topics covered in the TAS interview.
Through 2015, the TAS sample followed children from CDS-I as they transitioned into young adulthood through age 28. Since 2017, TAS includes all eligible
young adults aged 18-28 years living in PSID households regardless of prior CDS or Main PSID participation.
Together, the study design of CDS and TAS enables longitudinal, cross-sectional, and cohort-comparative analysis of child and young adult development and
well-being in an ongoing, nationally-representative US sample.
Embedded in the world’s longest-running household panel study
CDS and TAS are embedded in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the world’s longest-running nationally representative household panel survey. With over 50
years of information collected from the same families and their descendants, PSID is a cornerstone of the US data infrastructure for empirically based social science
research.
Annually between 1968 and 1997 and biennially since then, PSID has collected data on individuals and families that emphasize the dynamic and interactive aspects of
family economics, demography, and health. When paired with CDS and TAS, the design and content of PSID enable research on the intergenerational influence of family on
child and young adult outcomes and on how childhood and young adulthood shape later health and well-being.
As a CDS-TAS data user, it is important to know that some of the most frequently used information about individuals, such as age, sex, years of education, and
family income, are collected during a family’s PSID interview rather than during a CDS or TAS interview. Therefore, these variables will be available from the list
of “Curated PSID Variables” in the CDS-TAS Data Center. Review the list of Curated PSID Variables
here.
As a CDS-TAS data user, it is important to know that some of the most frequently used information about individuals, such as age, sex, years of education, and
family income, are collected during a family’s PSID interview rather than during a CDS or TAS interview. Therefore, these variables will be available from the
list of
Curated PSID Variables in the CDS-TAS Data Center. Review the list of Curated PSID Variables
here.
Following individuals over time in CDS, TAS, and PSID
The young people included in CDS and TAS are descendants of sample members from the earliest wave of PSID in 1968 or sample members from PSID's immigrant refresher in 1997 or 2017.
When CDS and TAS respondents reach adulthood and establish their own households, they are eligible to become PSID participants
themselves. Over time, CDS, TAS, and PSID have the potential to cover the life course of individuals from early childhood through late adulthood.
The timeline (above) illustrates how CDS, TAS, and PSID map onto children’s development.
- CDS collects information about children every 5 years, or up to three times between birth and age 17 years (light blue background).
- Young adults participate in the biennial TAS interview up to 5 times between ages 18 and 28 years (green background).
- When young adults establish their own households, they become eligible to participate in the biennial PSID interview (dark blue background). Young adults who set up their own households are eligible for both TAS and PSID until age 28 (blue and green background).
- Note that children and young adults are only observed in CDS or TAS in a given wave if their family participated in the immediately prior wave of the PSID interview.
CDS and TAS in Cohort and Panel Design
The grid above describes the age range for eligible children or young adults in each wave of CDS and TAS and the years in which each wave of data collection occurred.
The Original CDS and TAS Cohorts
The Child Development Supplement began in 1997 (dark blue bars) as a cohort study. Children born between 1984 and 1997 who were between 0 and 12 years old
in 1997 were eligible for CDS-I. Up to two age-eligible children per family were selected to participate. CDS-II revisited study participants in 2002-03,
when they were between 5 and 17 years old. In 2007, the third and final wave of the original cohort study was conducted with children who were between 10 and
17 years old.
The oldest members of the original CDS cohort had entered adulthood by 2003 and were ineligible for CDS-III. Instead, they were included in the earliest waves
of the Transition into Adulthood Supplement.
The biennial Transition into Adulthood Supplement (TAS, green bars) began in 2005 to follow CDS participants as they entered adulthood. The first wave included
745 participants who were between 18 and 20 years old. Each subsequent wave included interviews with previous respondents and added CDS participants who had
entered adulthood in the preceding two years. By 2013, TAS included respondents who were between 18 and 28 years old.
Year of birth determines the waves in which a youth in the original CDS cohort was observed in in CDS or TAS. In the grid, cells marked with an asterisk (*)
plot the course of a child born in 1996 who was observed at age 1 year in the first wave of CDS in 1997 (CDS-I), at age 6 years in CDS-II (2002), and at age
11 years in CDS-III (2007). The child was first eligible to appear in TAS in 2015 at age 19 years.
Ongoing CDS and TAS
All members of the original CDS cohort had entered adulthood by 2014. In that year, children in active PSID families who were born since 1997 were
invited to participate in a new, ongoing CDS (lighter blue bar). Unlike the original CDS cohort, which included up to two children age 0-12 years per
family, the new, ongoing CDS included all children age 0-17 years (N=4,333).
Under the new CDS design, children 17 years and younger and their families will be invited to participate in a CDS interview about every 5 years.
Sample children who have been born or moved into a CDS family since the last wave of CDS will be eligible to participate.
This approach was used for the first time in CDS in 2019 (data not yet in public release).
Since 2017, TAS has also adopted a more expansive, steady-state design. The biennial TAS interview now includes all eligible young adults age 18-28 years
in active PSID families regardless of whether they had ever participated in CDS. This expansion adds young adults who were eligible for but not selected
for the original CDS cohort; whose families declined to participate in the original or ongoing CDS studies; or who entered PSID after 1997, including young
adults whose families joined through the 2017 immigrant refresher. (Young adults in the latter group are observed in TAS for the first time in 2019.)
Studying primary caregivers of children
The primary caregiver is the adult who has primary responsibility for caring for CDS children, usually a parent or other relative. At each wave of CDS,
primary caregivers provide information about themselves, their household, and each participating child. The CDS-TAS data center supports data downloads to
study the primary caregiver as a unit of analysis.
In some families, children in the original CDS cohort are now primary caregivers to children in the new, ongoing CDS. This feature of the multi-cohort design of
CDS offers a unique opportunity to follow today’s parents and caregivers prospectively from childhood.
Who would you like to study?
CDS and TAS enable a variety of research designs.
The examples in the expandable box below illustrate how you can use the
CDS-TAS Data Center to select variables and sample members that align with your research goals.
| Conduct cross-sectional research on children or young adults in one year of CDS or TAS |
 |
Review the CDS or TAS questionnaire from the relevant year on the
Documentation
page so that you know what information is available for that year.
In the CDS-TAS Data Center, select the variables of interest from a specific year in the
Cross-Year Index
or use the
Search option and choose to include
only variables from the relevant year.
| Conduct longitudinal research on children or young adults using repeated observations over time |
|
Review the CDS or TAS questionnaires on the
Documentation
page so that you know what information is available for
which sample members in multiple years. In the CDS-TAS Data Center, select the variables of interest from the waves/years
of interest in the
Cross-Year Index or use the
Search option and choose to include variables from multiple years.
|
Compare cohorts of children or young adults by comparing groups at the same age in different calendar years
|
|
The original CDS and ongoing CDS include separate cohorts of children (born 1984-97 or since 1997 respectively). If you wish to compare these distinct cohorts of children, review the questionnaires from the original and ongoing CDS studies to find content that is available in each. You also may compare children from within a cohort, for example, children who were aged 0-6 years vs. 7-12 years when the original CDS began in 1997.
In the CDS-TAS Data Center, use the
Cross-Year Index
or
Search option to select variables from the waves/years of interest.
Be sure to also request a variable for age or year of birth.
|
Take into account the characteristics of children's primary caregivers or parents
|
|
In the CDS-TAS Data Center, select characteristics from the Curated PSID Variables that you would like to include about a child’s parent or primary caregiver such as age or years of educational attainment. At checkout, check the box for Child to Parent Integration or Child to Primary Caregiver Integration. This will add unique identifiers for the parent or primary caregiver as well as their own values on all of the variables included in your cart. These variable names will include suffixes that refer to parents or primary caregivers.
| Label Abbreviation | Definition |
| CHILD | Child |
| PCG | Primary Caregiver |
| P | Parent |
| M | Mother |
| F | Father |
| AM | Adoptive Mother |
| AF | Adoptive Father |
|
Study people who are primary caregivers to children
|
|
CDS primary caregivers (PCG, usually a CDS child’ parent, but sometimes a grandparent or other relative or a foster parent) provide extensive
information about their own well-being and attitudes in the Primary Caregiver Household interview. Review the PCG Household questionnaires to
learn what is available. Then use the
Cross-Year Index to add variables
from from the PCG Household interview to your cart. You can also add personal or family characteristics about the primary caregiver from the Curated
Core Variables. Your data extract will include information about primary caregivers only (not about CDS children).
|
Study the childhood experiences of people who are primary caregivers to children
|
|
Some PSID sample members who participated in the original CDS as children are now primary caregivers to their own children in the ongoing CDS.
In the
Cross-Year Index or
Search option, select variables from the years of the original CDS
to describe these individuals’ childhood circumstances and choose variables from the PCG Household interview in the ongoing CDS to describe their
own current circumstances. At checkout, select the option for riginal CDS Child Data in Ongoing CDS PCG File. Keep in mind that in the early waves
of the ongoing CDS, this is a select sample; it includes the oldest members of the original CDS cohort who had children at relatively young ages.
For any research question, be aware that some of the most frequently used information like age, sex, years of education, or family income are collected when a
family completes their PSID interview. Therefore, these variables will be available from the list of “Curated PSID Variables” in the CDS-TAS Data Center. Review
the list of Curated PSID Variables
here.