Some activities are reportedly done alone and with other people at the same time. What does this mean? Any guidance on how to interpret this is appreciated.
Could you provide a bit more detail about how you’ve identified these cases? I’ve just looked into this and can’t seem to replicate your observation of the same activity (via ACTLINEW) being done “Alone” and with other people (via RELATEW). I agree that this situation would seem a bit strange, but I need more information to provide any guidance.
There are instances in the 2003 data where the with whom information for a given activity contains alone and with others. For an example, see recid 20030909032032 activity line 7. This respondent is doing interior cleaning alone and with a foster child. I appreciate your guidance on interpreting this.
Thanks for sending over more information. This is clearly some sort of error, either in enumoration or on behalf of the respondent. As is noted in the ATUS data dictionary for 2003: “There will be one record for activities done alone and multiple records for activities with multiple people present.” It seems to be that cases like this are relatively rare. So, you may have a couple of options. You could exclude them from your sample. You could examine each case individually and recode the responses as appropriate. Or you could contact the BLS about this issue, as they may have more detailed information about what is going on in these cases.