Survey of Three Generations of Mexican Americans, 1981-1982 Kyriakos S. Markides Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research 1993 This survey was conducted in San Antonio, Texas, where the Mexican-American population is approximately half a million and accounts for over 50 percent of the city's population. The large number of Mexican Americans made San Antonio an appropriate setting for a three-generation study. This survey sought to describe the role of older Mexican Americans in the extended family by obtaining information on relations between generations, frequency of contact, amount of intergenerational social support, and strength of affectual ties. The three-generation families studied consisted of an older person (aged 65-80 years), a middle-aged child, and an adult (aged 18 years and over) married or previously married grandchild of the same family line, all living within 50 miles of San Antonio. Variables include sex, age, education, marital status, number of children, length of residence, and relationships. Also asked were questions on religion, political preferences, health, occupation, and language spoken, read, and understood. Other items cover life satisfaction and cooperation and help between spouses, between parents and children, and between grandparents and grandchildren. Comparisons of views, beliefs, goals, activities, contact, and support among family members are also included. StudyUniverse_9413 NIA 5-R01-AG-01573 Despite a dramatic increase in attention over the last decade to the special needs of the elderly, there has been little research on minority aged, including Mexican Americans, now the second largest and rapidly growing ethnic group in the United States. A major objective of the study is to describe the place of older Mexican Americans in the extended family, by obtaining information on relations between generations, frequency of contact, amount of intergenerational social support, strength of affectual ties, etc. A second objective of the study is to describe generational changes in various attitudes and behaviors (e.g., occupational achievement, marital relations, sex roles, fertiIity, religious affiliation, health care) taking place among Mexican Americans. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND BEHAVIOR Age and the Life Cycle Social Characteristics of Older Adults extended families family relationships family structure life satisfaction Mexican Americans older adults San Antonio, Texas CITY Geog_9413 CITY 1981 1982 Individual survey data A Three-generation Study of Mexican-Americans urn:ddi:3.0:Instance:Markides:Instance_9413:1.0 Participation in last election Religious services attendance Religious organization membership Degree of religiosity, self-assessed Attitude towards intergenerational home sharing Health status, self-assessed Marital satisfaction Political participation PolPart Religious Practice ChAtt ChMemb Relig_Self Intergenerational relations HomeShare Marital Relations MarSat Mexican Americans between the ages of 65 and 80 who had at least one child and one ever-married grandchild (at least 18 years old) in the same family line CITY San Antonio, Texas Markides Geog_9413 Sample Representativeness in a Three-generation Study of Mexican Americans Markides, Kyriakos S. Journal of Marriage and the Family 1983-11 Sampling_9413 Sampling_9413 Sample representativeness was tested in a parallel, smaller, study that compared older Mexican Americans who were members of three-generation families with other Mexican-American elderly in the San Antonio area on a number of demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Comparisons on several variables of interest to gerontologists revealed no significant differences between elderly members and nonmembers of three-generation families: for example, they are similar in frequency of church attendance, visitation with relatives, self-ratings of health, happiness, and subjective age. These findings, presented at the International Congress of Gerontology, July 14, 1981, in Hamburg, West Germany, suggest that the present study’s generalizability may be extended to the elderly Mexican-American population in the San Antonio area. These findings were also published in “The Journal of Marriage and the Family” (“Sample Representativeness in a Three-generation Study of Mexican Americans”, vol. 45, no. 4, p. 911, November, 1983) Multistage area probability sampling was used to identify a group of some 400 Mexican Americans between the ages of 65 and 80 who had at least one child and one ever-married grandchild in the same familiy line (at least 18 years old) living in the metropolitan area. Never-married mambers of the youngest generation were excluded because marital relations are a key aspect of the study. After excluding census tracts with less than 15% Spanish-surname or Spanish-language population in 1970, 45 of the 113 remaining tracts were selected using probabilities proportional to size, with the number of Mexican Americans aged 65 to 80 in each tract being the measure of size. Subsequently, city blocks in the selected tracts were sampled with probabilities inversely proportional to size. Bilingual interviewers attempted to identify all Mexican Americans aged 65-80 in the selected blocks who were members of three-generation families as defined above. Ethnicity was determined by asking respondents whether they considered themselves “Mexican American” or of “Mexican descent or origin”. A brief interview conducted in Spanish or English as required, elicited information about the respondent and about younger family members living in the city, so that they could be contacted for interview. A total of 375 three-generation triads were interviewed, for a total of 1,125 respondents. The sample was disproportionately female (approximately two-thirds) due to greater longevity at the older generation level and due to earlier marriage and childbearing at at all three levels. In addition, the predominance of female lineages is related to the greater propensity of younger women to remain close to the parental household. The median age of the older generation was 74, while it was 49 for the middle and 26 for the younger generation. There was very little overlap in age between adjacent generations. Like Mexican-Americans elsewhere, this population is overrepresented in the lower working classes and underrepresented in the middle and upper-middle classes. Markides Personal interviews 1981 1982 Respondents were interviewed in their homes. Did you vote in the last presidential election? Voto Usted en la ultima election presidencial? CodeScheme_Q9 PolPart How often do you attend religious services? Que tan seguido atiende usted servicios religiosos? CodeScheme_Q12 ChAtt Do you belong to any religious or church organization? Pertenece Usted a alguna organizacion religiosa o de la iglesia? CodeScheme_Q9 ChMemb How religious would you say you are? Que tan religioso(a) diria usted que es? CodeScheme_Q14 Relig_Self As you know, many older people share a home with their grown children. Do you think this is generally a good idea or a bad idea? Como usted sabe, mucha gente anciana viven con sus hijos adultos. Cree usted que generalmente esta es una buena idea or una mal idea? CodeScheme_Q22 HomeShare Would you say your health is: Diria usted que su salud es: CodeScheme_Q24 Health_Self All things considered, how satisfied are/were you with your marriage? Which number comes closest to describing how satisfied or dissatisfied you feel/felt? Considerando todo, que tan satisfecho(a) esta/era con su matrimonio? Cual de los siguientes numeros esta mas cerca enlos satisfecho o descontento(a)? que usted se sienta/sentia? CodeScheme_Q96 MarSat A total of 375 three-generation triads were interviewed, for a total of 1,125 respondents. Person record Yes Si No No Once a week (or more often) Una vez por semana (o mas seguido) Two or three times a month Dos o tres veces al mes Once a month Una vez al mes Once every two-three months Una vez cada dos o tres meses Once or twice a year Una o dos veces al ano Never or almost never Nunca o casi nunca Not religious at all Nada de religioso(a) Not very religious No muy religioso(a) Somewhat religious Poco religioso(a) Very religious Muy religioso(a) Good idea Buena idea Bad idea Mal idea It depends Depende Excellent Excelente Good Buena Fair Regular Poor Pobre Completely dissatisfied Completamente descontento Unlabelled interceding value in a coded response range Completely satisfied Completamente satisfecho NA INAP., No religious preference INAP., Not married; divorced ICPSR Study Number ICPSR Edition Number ICPSR Part Number C1_Q9 1 C2_Q9 2 C1_Q12 1 C2_Q12 2 C3_Q12 3 C4_Q12 4 C5_Q12 5 C6_Q12 6 C1_Q14 1 C2_Q14 2 C3_Q14 3 C4_Q14 4 C1_Q22 1 C2_Q22 2 C3_Q22 3 C1_Q24 1 C2_Q24 2 C3_Q24 3 C4_Q24 4 C1_Q96 1 C2_6_Q96 2 C2_6_Q96 3 C2_6_Q96 4 C2_6_Q96 5 C2_6_Q96 6 C7_Q96 7 C_NA 8 C_INAP_RELIGORG 9 C_INAP_MARSAT 9 StdyNo 9413 EdNo 1 PartNo 1 VOTEPRES VOTEPRES StudyUniverse_9413 PolPart Q9 CodeScheme_Q9 RELIGATT RELIGATT StudyUniverse_9413 ChAtt Q12 CodeScheme_Q12 CodeScheme_NA RELIGORG RELIGORG StudyUniverse_9413 ChMemb Q13 CodeScheme_Q9 CodeScheme_NA CodeScheme_INAP_RELIGORG RELIGIOS RELIGIOS StudyUniverse_9413 Relig_Self Q14 CodeScheme_Q14 CodeScheme_NA OLDSHAR OLDSHAR StudyUniverse_9413 HomeShare Q22 CodeScheme_Q22 CodeScheme_NA RHEALTH RHEALTH StudyUniverse_9413 Health_Self Q24 CodeScheme_Q24 CodeScheme_NA MARSAT MARSAT StudyUniverse_9413 MarSat Q96 CodeScheme_Q96 CodeScheme_NA CodeScheme_INAP_MARSAT VAR 0675 ICPSR STUDY NUMBER -9413 ICPSR has attached this number as a unique data collection identification number CodeScheme_StdyNo VAR 0676 ICPSR EDITION NUMBER-1 The number identifying the release edition of the data collection CodeScheme_EdNo VAR 0677 ICPSR PART NUMBER-1 The entire data collection is contained in one part CodeScheme_PartNo VAR 0678 ICPSR SEQUENTIAL ID ICPSR has attached a sequential identification number to every case. This number uniquely identifies each record in the data collection 0001 1125 LogicalProduct_9413 LogicalRecord_9413 PhysicalStructure_9413 R1 ASCII 1 VOTEPRES 246 1 RELIGATT 252 1 RELIGORG 253 1 RELIGIOS 254 1 OLDSHAR 272 1 RHEALTH 286 1 MARSAT 624 1 V675 1066 4 V676 1070 1 V677 1071 1 V678 1072 4 RecordLayout_9413 http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/9413 Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104 Consistency checks performed Checks for undocumented codes performed Missing data codes standardized Frequencies produced 1125 1125 VOTEPRES 1 frequency false 595 2 frequency false 530 RELIGATT 1 frequency false 495 2 frequency false 182 3 frequency false 147 4 frequency false 111 5 frequency false 121 6 frequency false 65 8 frequency false 4 RELIGORG 1 frequency false 157 2 frequency false 953 8 frequency false 14 9 frequency false 1 RELIGIOS 1 frequency false 27 2 frequency false 133 3 frequency false 623 4 frequency false 334 8 frequency false 8 OLDSHAR 1 frequency false 364 2 frequency false 362 3 frequency false 387 8 frequency false 12 RHEALTH 1 frequency false 369 2 frequency false 403 3 frequency false 275 4 frequency false 75 8 frequency false 3 MARSAT 1 frequency false 27 2 frequency false 11 3 frequency false 15 4 frequency false 52 5 frequency false 88 6 frequency false 121 7 frequency false 679 8 frequency false 22 9 frequency false 110 ICPSR 9413 8 All of the items distributed in association with this study are freely available for the general public 1 data file + machine-readable documentation (text) + SAS setup file + SPSS setup file + Stata setup files + SAS transport file + SPSS portable file + Stata system file + data collection instrument (pdf) Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research ICPSR Ann Arbor MI USA National Institute of Aging. NIA Kyriakos S. Markides University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio Texas USA University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston TX Division of Sociomedical Sciences, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston TX Assistant Professor UofTexas_SA Professor UofTexas_Med_G Director UofTexas_Med_G_Div 1979-11-01 Markides Study Proposal 1980-06-01 NIA Study Funding 1980-07-01 Markides Defining concepts 1980-07-25 Markides Designing instrument (questionnaire) 1980-09-01 Markides Questionnaire translation 1980-10-15 1981-04-01 Markides Sampling 1981 1982 Markides Data collection 1982 Markides Data production 1993 ICPSR Archival processing