Linking respondents with their children in the household

1

I am doing research on living arrangements and health among older people using IPUMS data. I would like to include the characteristics of older people’s children in my model. Is there a way I can link an older person with his or her children in the household?

Thank you.

Jeofrey

2

I will use IPUMS USA as an example in responding to your question, but other IPUMS datasets include this functionality as well. The attach characteristics extract option allows you to attach characteristics for a person’s spouse or parent onto the person record as a new variable. The value for MOMLOC and POPLOC report the person number (PERNUM ) of the person’s mother and father (use MOMLOC2 and POPLOC2 for same-sex parents). While IPUMS doesn’t provide the child locations for parents, you can leverage the MOMLOC and POPLOC values to link children to parents.

3

Thank you very much!

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