survey examines the ways in which Australians negotiate the pathways through their work and family lives. Detailed information is gathered relating to lifetime experiences of paid employment, education and training, relationships and childbearing. Considerable information is also gathered in relation to current employment and training, child care, household division of labour, caring and voluntary work, and a range of attitudes, values and expectations. In addition, standard socio-demographic

more »

... scriptors are obtained 1 . The first round of the survey was conducted in October-November 1996 and February-April 1997. The survey is a national random telephone survey using the electronic white pages as its sample frame. NLC is set up as an indefinite life, panel survey 2 . The second round of the survey is being conducted from April-June 2000, implying an interval between rounds of just over three years. Ninety-seven per cent of respondents in the first round agreed to participate in following rounds of the survey. The survey population at the first round was persons aged 18-54 years. Only one person per selected household was interviewed. This person was randomly selected from all 18-54 year-olds in the household as the person with the most recent birthday. The selection of only one eligible person per household means that a system of weights needs to be applied to the sample population when the sample is used to obtain population estimates. Where the respondent was married or in a cohabiting relationship, a wide range of information about the partner was provided by proxy by the respondent. Between rounds, two small and one large follow-up surveys were conducted for specialised sub-samples of the original sample. Recontact details of the large follow-up survey are provided below.