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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Prev Med. 2014 Jun 24;67:17–23. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.06.024

Table 1.

Lifecourse Socioeconomic Position variables in the Americans Changing Lives Survey 1986–2002

Variable Survey Question Wave
collected		 Categories
Father’s education How many years of school did your father finish? Wave 2 0= <12 year
1= >=12years
Perceived Childhood SEP Compared with the average family in your community at the time you were growing up, was your family BETTER OFF financially, ABOUT AVERAGE, OR WORSE OFF? Wave 2 0=Poor childhood
SEP
1=Not poor
Education What is the highest grade of school or year of college you have COMPLETED? Wave 1 0= <12 year
1= >=12years
Income Taking into consideration all sources of income, what was your (and your (husband's/wife's)) total income before taxes in the last 12 months? All waves Continuous
Wealth Suppose you needed money quickly, and you cashed in all of your (and your (husband's/wife's)) checking and savings accounts, and any stocks and bonds, and real estate (other than your principal home). If you added up what you would get,

  1. LESS THAN $10,000

  2. $10,000 TO $19,999

  3. $20,000 TO $49,999

  4. $50,000 TO $99,999

  5. $100,000 TO $199,999

  6. $200,000 TO $499,999

  7. GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO $500,000

 All waves Continuous
Financial security

  1. How satisfied are you with (your/your family's) present financial situation -- COMPLETELY, VERY, SOMEWHAT, NOT VERY OR NOT AT ALL satisfied?

  2. How difficult is it for (you/your family) to meet the monthly payments on your (family's) bills? Is it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT, VERY DIFFICULT, SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT, SLIGHTLY DIFFICULT, OR NOT DIFFICULT AT ALL?

  3. In general, how do your (family's) finances usually work out at the end of the month -- do you find that you usually end up with SOME MONEY left over, JUST ENOUGH MONEY to make ends meet OR NOT ENOUGH MONEY to make ends meet?

 All waves Continuous. This index was constructed by taking the arithmetic mean of the three items used and standardized using Wave 1 means and standard deviations. High values indicate a higher level of Financial Security (indicating a higher SEP)