This variable is only available in MAP, MARS, and LATC.

Childhood cognitive activity is an 11-item composite measure of frequency of participation in cognitively stimulating activities, issued at baseline. Participants are asked how often they engaged in cognitively simulating activities at age 6 (3 items) and at age 12 (8 items).

Participants are asked to rate the items on a 5-point scale. Values for questions #1-3 and 5-10 are flipped so that higher values indicate more frequent participation across all items (see table below). The composite measure ranges from 1 to 5 and is the mean of the individual item scores, with higher scores indicating greater cognitive activity.

Participants are asked the following questions:

1. When you were 6, how often did you play games like tic-tac-toe, checkers, or other board games, cards, or word games?
2. How often did someone in your home read to you when you were 6?
3. How often did someone in your home tell you stories when you were 6?
4. When you were 12, about how much time did you spend reading each day?
5. When you were 12, how often did you visit a library?
6. When you were 12, how often did you read a newspaper?
7. When you were 12, how often did you read magazines?
8. When you were 12, how often did you read books?
9. When you were 12, how often did you write letters?
10. When you were 12, how often did you play games like checkers or other board games, cards, puzzles, word games, mind teasers, or any other similar games?
11. When you were 12, how much time did you spend on homework each day?

Response choices for each question:

Note: The variable is calculated if at least half of the items are non-missing.