National Couples' Health and Time Study (NCHAT), United States, 2020-2021 (ICPSR 38417)

Version Date: Dec 11, 2023

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Principal Investigator(s):
Claire M. Kamp Dush, University of Minnesota; Wendy D. Manning, Bowling Green State University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38417.v6

Version V6 ()

  • V6 [2023-12-11]
  • V5 [2023-09-25] unpublished
  • V4 [2023-03-16] unpublished
  • V3 [2023-02-27] unpublished
  • V2 [2022-12-12] unpublished
  • V1 [2022-07-14] unpublished
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Summary

The National Couples' Health and Time Study (NCHAT) is a population-based study of couples in America that contains representative samples of racial and ethnic diverse and sexual and gender diverse individuals. NCHAT entered the field on September 1, 2020, and data collection completed in April 2021. The sample includes 3,642 main respondents. The sample frame included adults in the United States who ranged in age from 20-60 years old, who were married or cohabiting, and who were able to read English or Spanish. About 1,515 partners participated. NCHAT sample participants were recruited through the Gallup Panel. About 9 percent of the sample was non-Latinx Black, 6 percent non-Latinx Asian, 5 percent non-Latinx Multirace, 16 percent Latinx, and 1 percent another racial or ethnic identity. Approximately 55 percent of the sample identified as heterosexual, 20 percent as gay or lesbian, 10 percent as bisexual, and 15 percent as another sexual identity or multiple sexual identities. The sample was about evenly split between men and women, and almost 3 percent identified as another gender identity. 27 percent of couples were the same gender, and 4 percent were non-binary. About 75 percent were married and the remainder were cohabiting. The average age was 45. 65 percent of the sample had no children. One-third of the sample was in an interracial couple. 10 percent were born outside the US. Survey, time diary, experience sampling method, and geospatial data were collected. NCHAT is uniquely suited to address COVID, stress, family functioning, and physical and mental health and includes an abundance of contextual and acute measures of race and racism, sexism, and heterosexism.

Citation

Kamp Dush, Claire M., and Manning, Wendy D. National Couples’ Health and Time Study (NCHAT), United States, 2020-2021. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-12-11. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38417.v6

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

State

Restrictions

These data may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is strictly prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, certain files within this data collection are restricted from general dissemination. To obtain these files, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement in accordance with existing ICPSR servicing policies.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2020-01-01 -- 2021-01-01

Date of Collection

2020-09-01 -- 2021-04-01

Data Collection Notes

  1. For additional information on the National Couples' Health and Time Study (NCHAT), please visit the National Couples' Health and Time Study (NCHAT) website.

  2. The Public-Use NCHAT Main Respondent Survey Data (DS1) has 3 fewer cases (3,639) compared to the Restricted-Use NCHAT Main Respondent Survey Data (DS2) (3,642). The Principal Investigators removed the 3 cases prior to giving the data to ICPSR.

  3. The IPUMS Contextual Determinants of Health Series is made available for merging with the NCHAT data by approved restricted data researchers. All other researchers can access the IPUMS CDOH data via the IPUMS CDOH website.
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Study Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of co-habiting partners, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, examining relationship functioning, emotion regulation, discrimination, racial trauma, physical health, psychological well-being, health behaviors, stressors, and time use.

Study Design

The National Couples' Health and Time Study (NCHAT) sample participants were drawn from the Gallup Panel and the Gallup Recontact sample. Both sample sources are probability-based and are representative of the United States adult population. The survey was administered to respondents and their partners. At the end of the survey for the primary respondents, the respondents were informed they would be sent an email with instructions for inviting their partners. Within a few hours of completing the survey, the partner invitation was sent to the primary respondent.

Once the main survey was completed, respondents were invited to participate in the time-diary. Respondents were randomly assigned to a time-diary day. The diary covered a 24-hour time period, starting at 4 am on the assigned diary day. The time-diary day was approximately 10 to 14 days after the date the main survey was completed. This allowed time to give respondents advance notice of their day and to increase the chances of being able to assign the primary and partner respondents to the same time-diary day. A time-diary was counted as complete if they entered at least five activities and 180 minutes. (Not all of these cases were weighted. Please see the weighting section for more details about cases that received a weight).

Sample

The sample includes 3,642 main respondents. The sample frame included adults in the United States who ranged in age from 20-60 years old, who were married or cohabiting, and who were able to read English or Spanish. About 1,515 partners participated. The National Couples' Health and Time Study (NCHAT) sample participants were recruited through the Gallup Panel. About 9 percent of the sample was non-Latinx Black, 6 percent non-Latinx Asian, 5 percent non-Latinx Multirace, 16 percent Latinx, and 1 percent another racial or ethnic identity. Approximately 55 percent of the sample identified as heterosexual, 20 percent as gay or lesbian, 10 percent as bisexual, and 15 percent as another sexual identity or multiple sexual identities. The sample was about evenly split between men and women, and almost 3 percent identified as another gender identity. Twenty-seven percent of couples were the same gender, and 4 percent were non-binary. About 75 percent were married and the remainder were cohabiting. The average age was 45. Sixty-five percent of the sample had no children. One-third of the sample was in an interracial couple. Ten percent were born outside the United States.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Adults in the United States who ranged in age from 20-60 years old, who were married or cohabiting, and who were able to read English or Spanish.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual, Household

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

Variables include many survey questions covering a range of topics related to family functioning, including a household roster, partner history, physical and mental wellbeing, health behaviors, discrimination, as well as demographic variables such as race, education, gender, income, employment status, children, and state of residence.

Response Rates

The survey achieved an overall response rate of 28 percent for primary respondents. The time-diary was sent to all respondents who completed the main survey and had a participation rate of 75 percent.

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Original Release Date

2022-07-14

Version History

2023-12-11 Question text was added to the ICPSR Codebook and the Social Science Variables Database (SSVD) for all datasets.

2023-09-25 Both Main Respondent data files (DS1 and DS2) were updated by the Principal Investigators to include 11 new "IDENTITY" variables. These are recodes of the original "IDENTITY" variables.

2023-03-16 The Dataset 6: Partner Time Diary dataset has been added. Additionally, Dataset 3 and Dataset 4 have been re-released, but only the dataset names have been updated.

2023-02-27 The Dataset 5: NCHAT Partner dataset has been added. Additionally, Dataset 1 and Dataset 2 have been re-released, but only the dataset names have been updated.

2022-12-12 The Time Diary data set has been added with an accompanying questionnaire. Additionally, the NCHAT Survey data and documentation are being re-released to incorporate fileset name changes, but no changes were made to the data files.

2022-07-14 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Performed consistency checks.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

WEIGHT_MAINRESPONDENT is the constructed weight variable to be used for analysis of the main respondent file. This weight should be used when analyzing data from primary respondents and will generate nationally representative estimates of individuals aged 20 to 60 who are living or cohabiting with a partner. This weight can also be used to generate representative estimates when analyzing sub-groups, such as individuals who are in a same-gender or different-gender couple, or individuals who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

WEIGHT_COUPLE is the constructed weight variable to be used for analysis of couple level data from primary respondents and their partners. This weight should be used when analyzing the dyadic data (primary and partner responses). Cases from the primary respondents and partner respondents should not be treated as individual cases and combined to create a larger sample of individual adults. Weights are not valid for this purpose. Further, this type of analysis would require accounting for clustering within couples and potentially highly correlated responses (intraclass correlation). It is recommended that researchers do not take this approach.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.