I used the SDA tool to do some analysis of parents ages 18-24 (young parents) in New Mexico using the ACS 5yr 2020 data, and I was able to get a lot of great information!
Now, I’m interested in doing an analysis of the children of these young parents, and I think I need to download a dataset. I know I have to attach characteristics, but I’m not sure if I need to attach characteristics for every variable I want to look at or just one specific variable to connect the records.
And when I attach characteristics, would I just need to select mother and father next to the appropriate variables? Finally, will the child information in this dataset be comparable to what I did with the SDA tool for young parents?
You will need to check the box to attach characteristics for each of the variables that you’re interested in for the mother and father. Doing so will create a new variable for each checked box that reports the respondent’s family member’s response to the particular question. Note that the attach characteristics tool uses IPUMS created variables MOMLOC and POPLOC to determine each individual’s parents. You may be interested in reviewing the documentation on family interrelationship variables to better understand how these links are constructed (e.g. including social relationships such as step and adoptive parents). This video tutorial, though showing an older version of the website, should nevertheless help guide you through using the tool.