CPS Race and Ethnicity-Methodology and Documentation Page
The Race and Ethnicity Supplement was designed to evaluate new panels of questions on race and ethnicity and to compare the results with answers given using the current CPS questions that are routinely collected during the first month, face-to-face interview. The supplement addressed the following specific issues: (1) the effect of having a multiracial category among the list of races; (2) the effect of adding "Hispanic" to the list of racial categories; and (3) the preferences for alternative names for racial and ethnic categories (e.g., African-American for Black and Latino for Hispanic). The supplement was organized into four panels, or versions, representing a two-by-two experimental design for studying issues 1 and 2 above. Questions relating to issue 3 were the same for all panels. This design permits numerous comparisons to estimate the effects of the changes in the questions. Each panel was given to one-fourth of the sample, or about 15,000 households. All respondents in a household received the same set of questions. Household members 15 years old and older were asked to respond for themselves, and parents answered for children too young to answer for themselves. The panels were:
Panel 1: Separate race and Hispanic origin questions,
no multiracial category
Panel 2: Separate race and Hispanic origin questions,
a multiracial category
Panel 3: A combined race and Hispanic origin question,
with a multiracial category
Panel 4: A combined race and Hispanic origin question,
with a multiracial category
In panels 1 and 2, the separate Hispanic-origin question was asked before the race question. The racial categories used in all four panels (other than Hispanic and multiracial) were (1) White; (2) Black; (3) American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut; (4) Asian or Pacific Islander. Besides these specific racial categories, respondents were given the opportunity to select "Something Else." Those choosing the multiracial category in panels 2 and 4 were asked to identify their specific races in a follow-up question.
In addition to questions about their racial and ethnic identification (see above), respondents were also asked a question to determine their preference for the name of their race or ethnic origin. Multiracial respondents were asked the reasons why they identified as multiracial. Hispanics were asked whether they preferred to identify themselves from a list of races that included Hispanic or through a separate Hispanic origin question. All respondents were asked to specify ancestry in an open-ended question.
Each household was randomly assigned to receive only one panel of questions
with all persons within the household answering the same set of
questions. The four panels were further randomly assigned to households
within clusters, which means that each household in a cluster
received a different panel. This design results in each panel
of questions being administered equally in every part of the country.
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