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“Ethnic Variations in Characteristics of First Unions” 189
Add Health was designed to study health-related behaviors of a
cohort of adolescents in Grades 7-12 during the 1994-1995
academic year (Harris et al., 2003). The data were collected mainly
through adolescent in-home interviews. The first wave of Add
Health was collected between 1994 and 1995. Follow-up Wave 2
interviews were conducted between 1995 and 1996. The Wave 3
interviews were conducted with respondents in young adulthood
between 2001 and 2002. Finally, the Wave 4 interviews were
completed during the years 2007-2008 when respondents were
between the ages of 25 and 32.
In the Wave 4 data, all respondents were asked to provide a
retrospective report on all cohabiting and marital unions they had
ever formed by the time of interview. Within each union, five
possible types of relationship segments were also specified (i.e.,
marriage, cohabitation, pregnancy, dating, or most recent
relationship). For example, if a marriage was preceded by
cohabitation, the first segment of this relationship would be coded
as cohabitation and the second as marriage. Within each
relationship, the age and race of the partner and the start and end
dates of each relationship segment were also reported. This rich
relationship history data facilitate the study of premarital
cohabitation: unions that pass through “relationship transitions”
with the same partner and also partner characteristics.
B.
Analytical Sample
The respondents included in this study are those who
participated in the Wave 1 and Wave 4 interviews and those who
have a valid longitudinal sampling weight. A total of 20,745 youths
aged 12 to 20 were interviewed in Wave 1, of which 15,701
participated in Wave 4. About a thousand respondents (n=1,041)
who belong to the “other race” category (i.e., American Indians and
Pacific islanders or those whose self-identified race is “other”) were
dropped from the qualifying 15,701 adults, leading to a sample size