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MOTHER’S EDUCATION.
Select from the list. Enter the total number of years of education completed. If education is
unknown, enter “Unknown.” For no education, enter “None.”
A person who enrolls in college but does not complete one full year should not be identified
with any college education in this item.
Do not include beauty, barber, trade, business, technical, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, or
other special schools when determining highest grade completed. Zero (0) indicates no
regular schooling; 1-12 indicates years of elementary/secondary school completed; 13-16
represent 1-4 years of college; and 17+ indicates graduate education beyond a bachelor’s
degree.
Education is correlated with fertility and birth outcome, and is used as an indicator of
socioeconomic status. This item is also used to measure the effect of education and social
economic status on health, childbearing, and infant mortality.
MOTHER’S OCCUPATION AND INDUSTRY
Enter the mother’s occupation during most of her working life (e.g., homemaker, student,
teacher, clerk, programmer, attorney, realtor, artist, nurse, etc.). If occupation is unknown,
enter “Unknown.” For no occupation, enter “None.” Many women specify “housewife”
because they stopped working after pregnancy began or shortly before birth. Ask them if they
were working any time in the last two years. Do not use “self-employed.”
MOTHER’S TYPE OF BUSINESS
Enter the kind of business or industry related to the mother’s occupation (e.g., ranching,
retail, consulting, education, farming, government, manufacturing, etc.). If the kind of
business is unknown, enter “Unknown.” For no kind of business, enter “None.”
MOTHER OF HISPANIC ORIGIN
Check one (1) from the list. If “yes,” other Spanish? Hispanic? Latino” is checked, enter the
Hispanic Origin in the specify field. Mark “Yes” or “No” to indicate whether the mother is of
Hispanic origin. Enter the country(ies) of Hispanic origin. If the mother indicates that she is
of multiple Hispanic origins, enter the origins as reported, separated by commas (for
example, Mexican, Puerto Rican).
This item is not a part of the Race item; a person of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
Each question, Race and Hispanic origin, should be asked and treated as an independent item.
Hispanics comprise the second largest ethnic minority in this country. This item provides