Newsletter

December 1996 - Number 3

IFLS-2 Is Under Way

The Second Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS-2), a collaborative effort by Lembaga Demografi (the Demographic Institute of the University of Indonesia) and RAND, will resurvey in 1997 the households, communities, and facilities that were interviewed in IFLS-1 in 1993. The resulting panel database will enhance understanding of the dynamics of individual and household well-being in low-income settings. With data from two points in time, researchers can chart the effects of changes in the social and economic environment on individual behaviors and outcomes.

In addition to repeating many of the questions in the IFLS-1 survey instruments, IFLS-2 will implement innovative new data collection in the areas of:

• children's cognitive development and health status
• women's nutritional status and reproductive health
• physical abilities of older adults
• decisionmaking processes within the household
• participation in community-sponsored development activities.

The panel database and the research it supports will be a major resource for scholars, students, and policymakers in both developed and developing countries. The data will provide rich opportunities for interdisciplinary and cross-national collaborative efforts.

Work began in the summer of 1996 on revisions to the original IFLS-1 survey instrument and on the development of new modules. The first pretest took place in October 1996 in Solo, Indonesia, with the goals of testing protocols for relocating households, administering the questionnaire to panel versus new respondents, trying drafts of new modules, and evaluating a system for computer-aided field editing. The field work is scheduled to begin in September 1997.

Who Will Be Resurveyed

The IFLS-2 will revisit all 7,224 households interviewed in IFLS-1. Household-level information will be collected, and all IFLS-1 respondents will be reinterviewed. Contempo-raneous information will be collected, and the retrospective histories will be updated for the period between the interview rounds. In IFLS-2, all household members will be interviewed and new respondents will provide full retrospective histories.

The IFLS-2 will again interview community leaders and the head of the Women's Welfare Group (PKK) in the original 321 enumeration areas. The facility sample will include facilities interviewed in 1993 as well as new facilities.

What's New in IFLS-2

IFLS-2 offers the opportunity to develop and implement new modules that reflect the changing policy environment in Indonesia as well as the state of the art in social science research and survey research. Several new modules will be administered. The new topics build on information obtained in IFLS-1 and link explicitly to the Community-Facility Survey.

• Objective Measures of Human Resources: These measures will focus along two dimensions: health and cognitive functioning. Anthropometric measurements (height and weight), obtained in IFLS-1, will be repeated in IFLS-2 for all household members. Measures of blood hemoglobin levels may be assessed to determine whether women and young children are anemic. IFLS-2 will also experiment with World Health Organization (WHO) protocols to assess the physical abilities of older respondents, such as tests of gait, balance, and ability to rise from a squatting position or a chair. For young children, the attainment of developmental milestones, such as the ability to hold a cup, eat with a spoon, and communicate verbally will be assessed. For school-age children, a subset of items from the EBTANAS tests to measure schooling achievement in math and in Bahasa Indonesia will be administered.
• Health and Health-Related Behaviors During Pregnancy and After Birth: Questions in this module focus on the decisions couples make about prenatal care, delivery assistance, and well-baby care. The topic is of particular interest in Indonesia given the rapid expansion of trained midwives practicing in rural areas. Questions in the Community-Facility Survey will explore the role of the Bidan Masuk Desa (Midwife in the Village) program, as well as other Ministry of Health policy initiatives, in influencing the behaviors of interest in this module.
• Decisionmaking in the Household: This module will be administered separately to men and women, querying husbands and wives about sharing or dividing decisionmaking authority with respect to expenditures, investments in children, and support for older parents. The module will also document which financial assets are shared by couples, as opposed to those retained by either member of the couple. Questions on the influence of religion and local customs in determining patterns of decisionmaking, such as laws about marriage, divorce, and inheritance, will be included in the Community-Facility Survey.
• Educational Attainment of Children and Young Adults: Although average educational attainment has risen rapidly in Indonesia over the past 15 years, entry into the labor force still occurs at a relatively early age. This module explores how children and young adults divide their time between school, household work, and work outside the household. We will complement information obtained in the household survey with information at the community-facility level on the availability and quality of schools and institutes of practical training.
• Community Participation: The concept of community-level participatory development is a central pillar of Indonesia's development efforts, yet relatively little is known on a broad scale about the roles individuals play in cooperative community activities. This module asks about participation in, contributions to, and benefits received from programs that cover the domains of lending and credit; family welfare; maternal and child health; water, sanitation, and sewage issues; and care of the aging. Data will be collected in parallel at the individual/household level and at the community level.

For additional information about the IFLS-2, please contact the following individuals. In Indonesia, please contact Haidi A. Pasay or I.G.N. Agung, Lembaga Demografi-FEUI ( (62) 21-787-2911; e-mail address is demofeui@indo.net.id). In the United States, please contact Lynn Karoly or Elizabeth Frankenberg, RAND (310-393-0411, ext. 7359 and ext. 7242, respectively; e-mail addresses are Lynn_Karoly@rand.org and Elizabeth_Frankenberg@rand.org).