The Integrated Fertility Survey Series (IFSS) is newly harmonized data set containing data from ten nationally representative surveys of family and fertility spanning nearly fifty years from 1955 to 2002. The IFSS includes data on over 71,000 women, their spouses or partners, families, fertility histories, contraceptive practices and attitudes and opinions about childbearing and family. The IFSS provides a truly unique resource for demographic researchers to examine the marked shifts in union formation and dissolution, childbearing, contraceptive use and attitudes about family issues over the last fifty years to better understand the constantly evolving shape of American families and fertility.

To acquaint the user community with this valuable resource, we propose a two-part workshop for PAA participants to learn about the data set and how to use the data in their own research. The primary goal of this workshop is to introduce users to the content and methodology of the IFSS as well as the numerous advanced resources we provide. In addition, we will offer participants the opportunity to explore the data themselves as well as to discuss potential research ideas with IFSS staff. We expect 30 to 40 participants.

The first part of the workshop will be run by the PIs, Pamela Smock, Lynette Hoelter and Peter Granda, and will describe the data, the harmonization process, the newly-constructed weights and sampling error codes, and potential research questions that can be addressed using IFSS data. This part will also be simulcast as a webinar for participants who are not able to attend the meeting in person, and the recording will be posted on the IFSS website.

In the second part of the workshop, we will lead break-out sessions with members of the IFSS research team demonstrating how to use the online data resources to explore topics relevant to PAA over time, including fertility, contraceptive use, and union formation and dissolution. These smaller break-out sessions will also provide opportunities for participants to discuss their research agendas with IFSS staff to gain guidance on using IFSS data in their research. This two-part workshop framework was used by the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB) in 2010 with great success, and will allow both novice and advanced users the opportunity to learn one-on-one about the IFSS data.