readme.divlaw Data Group Name: divlaw Description: State Divorce Laws, 1968-1991. Data Source(s): The data were originally collected by Sharon Lassar-Rapp. She put together 1968-85 series; later years were added by Russ Mangum. Sharon used a number of sources to compile the data. The key source are annual survey articles by Doris Freed. She, often with varying co-authors, has published an overview of marriage/divorce laws every year since 1977. O such co-author was Timothy Walker, with whom she published a book in 198 "Family Law in 50 States: an Overview". Survey articles are published any or all of the following journals: Journal of Family Law Journal of Marriage and the Family Journal of Family Relations Family Law Quarterly Russ used annual Articles by Doris Freed and various co-authors found in Family Law Quarterly, 1985-92 publications. Raw data was entered by Russ Magnum. Comments: The data are organized in categories: 1 = fault only 2 = conversion of separation decree of a year or more 3 = voluntary separation of a year or more 4 = involuntary separation of a year or more 5 = voluntary separation of less than a year 6 = marital breakdown or other no-fault provision There is no exact description of the criteria used to classify states. Please refer to the publications in "Data Source" above. Usage: To look up values of these data for a set of key variable values (in SAS): a) In your SAS program, before your data step add: %include 'divlaw.fmt'; b) set SUPERKEY to the combination of key variable values you want to look up. See "SUPERKEY=" under key variable description below. c) use a formatted put function of SUPERKEY with the data series format (See examples under "Usage" in detailed description of each data series). Key vars: Varname Typ Description STATE Num State (FIPS) Min=1 Max=99 FIPS codes for US states, 99=US YEAR Num Year Min=1968 Max=1991 SAS code to make SUPERKEY: SUPERKEY =(10000*STATE) + YEAR; Data series [summary]: Varname Fmtname Typ Description ------- ------- --- ----------- DIVLAW DIVLAW. Num Divorce Law ---------------------------- Data series DIVLAW ---------------------------- Varname Fmtname Typ Description DIVLAW DIVLAW. Num Divorce Law Units=See comments and divlawx format in the S Min=1 Max=6 Mean=4.57932692 N=1248 N_Missing=0 DIVLAWM DIVLAWM. Num DIVLAW missing flag Divorce law missing(1=from next year) Min=0 Max=1 Mean=0.00560897 N=1248 N_Missing=0 How missings handled: Missing values imputed for Kansas 1968, West Virginia 1968, New Jersey 1968-72. Used law from next available for state. Comments: Values for the US (state=99) are included. They are set to the modal value in each year. Usage: myvar=put(superkey,DIVLAW.); ============================================================================================ The SAS System 16:00 Monday, February 3, 1997 1 CONTENTS PROCEDURE Data Set Name: DIVLAW Observations: 1248 Member Type: DATA Variables: 5 Engine: V611 Indexes: 0 Created: 13:37 Wednesday, September 13, 1995 Observation Length: 34 Last Modified: 13:37 Wednesday, September 13, 1995 Deleted Observations: 0 Protection: Compressed: YES Data Set Type: Reuse Space: NO Sorted: NO File Size (bytes): 49152 -----Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes----- # Variable Type Len Pos Label ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 DIVLAW Num 8 18 Divorce Law 5 DIVLAWM Num 8 26 Divorce law missing(1=from next year) 2 STATE Num 8 8 State (FIPS) 3 ST_CHAR Char 2 16 State Postal Code 1 YEAR Num 8 0 Year