Hello,
I am currently working on a project on same-sex married couples and I have read about the procedure designed by the Census to spot potential cases of gender misreporting and adjust the estimated prevalence of same-sex couples accordingly. I was wondering if the data available through IPUMS incorporate this correction or not. Also, I would like to ask if a similar procedure has been put in place for ACS data and, again, if this is reflected in the data available here.
Thank you very much for your help!
The variable SSMC is based on an ACS question (introduced in 2013) that reports whether the head of household and spouse are a same-sex married couple. Beginning in the 2013 ACS, same-sex married couples are included in the “married, spouse present” category. Prior to the 2013 ACS, same-sex married couples were recoded by the Census Bureau from married to unmarried partners. The data quality flag QRELATE identifies same-sex married couples who had been recoded prior to the 2013 ACS. For information about Same-Sex Married Couple Households in the ACS, see this Census Bureau Fact Sheet and this Census Bureau page Same Sex Couples, as well as this documentation on SSMC and IPUMS Family Interelationship Variables.