Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT and TLT-2): Births Data, Malawi, 2009-2015 [Healthy Futures] Version 1

Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) is a longitudinal study in Balaka, Malawi designed to examine how young people navigate reproduction in an AIDS epidemic. Tsogolo la Thanzi means "Healthy Futures" in Chichewa, Malawi's most widely spoken language. Data are being collected to develop better understandings of the reproductive goals and behavior of young adults in Malawi -- the first cohort to never have experienced life without AIDS. To understand these patterns of family formation in a rapidly changing setting, TLT used the following approach: an intensive longitudinal design where respondents were interviewed every four months at TLT's centralized research center. Data collection began in May of 2009 and was completed in June of 2012. To assess changes on a longer time-horizon, a follow-up survey referred to as Tsogolo la Thanzi 2 (TLT-2) was fielded between June and August of 2015. This dataset contains reports on children from all women and men in the sample who reported having children (n=2,580 respondents, 6,082 births). Data were constructed from the original TLT-1 (waves 1-8), the refresher wave (wave 9), and TLT-2 (wave 10). The purpose of this data collection was to create a full "births" dataset containing information on birth order and outcomes for children born to respondents participating in the Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) study. Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) is an ongoing longitudinal study of young Malawians living within a 7-kilometer radius of Balaka. Please refer to the Baseline data (ICPSR 36863) and the TLT-2 2015 follow-up (ICPSR 38444) for more details on the overall study design. Birth data were constructed from all 10 waves of TLT-1 (2009-2012) and TLT-2 (2015 follow-up). Each child represents an observation. Study variables were sourced from the child rosters asked at each wave. Additional information comes from the pregnancy subsection of the main questionnaire, particularly items asking if the respondent ever gave birth and the number of living children. In cases of inconsistencies or missing information across waves, the research team used information from the latest roster for which the information was available and/or the wave at which the child's birth or death was reported. This dataset can be linked to other Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) waves with the respondent-level variable RESPID. Variables in this dataset include child order, child sex, child birthdate (month/year), child death date if applicable (month/year), number of children ever born (total and at each wave), and number of living children (total and at each wave). For information on sampling, please refer to the Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) Baseline data (ICPSR 36863), the TLT-2 2015 follow-up (ICPSR 38444), the Sampling Protocol, and the TLT-2 Overview available on the TLT study website. All women and men in the sample who reported having children provided information used to create this dataset: Core sample women: 1,171 Core sample men: 225 Male partners entering at TLT-1: 691 Refresher sample women: 263 Male partners entering at TLT-2: 230 Datasets: DS1: Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT and TLT-2): Births Data, Malawi, 2009-2015 [Healthy Futures] Young women and men age 15-25 in 2009 living in a 7-kilometer radius around Balaka, Malawi. face-to-face interviewFor further information please visit the Tsogolo la Thanzi website.