Planning and development of the continuous National Survey of Family Growth

"This report describes the design and planning work for the transition to continuous interviewing in the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), and the procedures used in fieldwork operations. A subsequent report will describe response rates and other results of the data collection. The substantive content of the continuous NSFG is very similar to the most recent periodic NSFG (conducted in 2002). However, the methodology and management of the continuous survey is a significant departure from the previous periodic survey methodology. So this initial report describes how the survey was planned, what its objectives were, and the overall concepts and procedures for carrying out and managing the survey fieldwork. This report is being released before the public-use data file so that researchers will have the necessary background to understand the data when the data file is released. After each data file is released from this new design, a new report will include specific updates, including response rates and further details of the data collection results. In this way, users of the data will have more of the information they need in a timelier manner."--P. 1.