Full Citation

Title: Family Matters: Development of new family interrelationship variables for US IPUMS data projects

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2016

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Abstract: In demographic datasets, researchers frequently want to identify how members of a household are related. In 1995, IPUMS constructed family interrelationship variables indicating the line numbers (or "location") of each person's co-resident parents and spouse. These variables enabled researchers to examine household and family structure in a new way, including attaching the characteristics of a persons spouse or parents as new variables. However, the original IPUMS family interrelationship variables have become outdated because of changing family structure and changes in how families are enumerated in datasets. In this study, develop a new method of estimating parental and spousal relationships using data on fertility patterns and family interrelationships. The improved method includes cohabiting and same-sex couples and is comparable across all modern US IPUMS data projects. A detailed variable indicates how the relationship was inferred and the level of ambiguity around that inference. The new IPUMS family interrelationship variables are very accurate, matching self-reported spouse/partner location for 99.99% and parent location for over 99.00% of respondents. Among those identified as same-sex couples, we match self-reported spouse/partner location for 100% of respondents, 87.57% of whom self-identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. We further demonstrate that the new family interrelationship variables closely track temporal variation in teenage fertility.

Url: https://pop.umn.edu/sites/pop.umn.edu/files/5.workingpaper16.pdf

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Authors: Gorsuch, Marina M; Williams, Kari CW

Series Title: MPC Working Paper Series

Publication Number: 2016-5

Institution: Minnesota Population Center

Pages: 1-39

Publisher Location: Minneapolis, MN

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Methodology and Data Collection, Other

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