# yngch greater than age

**URL:** https://forum.ipums.org/t/yngch-greater-than-age/2770
**Category:** CPS
**Created:** [February 3, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/yngch-greater-than-age/2770 "2019-02-03T19:13:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![ebrantley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@ebrantley](https://forum.ipums.org/u/ebrantley)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/yngch-greater-than-age/2770/1 "2019-02-03T19:13:00Z")

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Hi, I’m using ASEC years 2010-2017.

I’m confused that the value of yngch is sometimes greater than the value of age. (Not ‘99’ values) If I understand yngch that means that the child is older than the parent.

Am I correct that yngch refers to the youngest own child of that individual?

e.g. in 2017, there’s a record cpsid 20151205148200, age 20, yngch 22

Thanks!

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### Author: ![Michelle\_Pratt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/michelle_pratt/32/194_2.png) [@Michelle\_Pratt](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Michelle_Pratt)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2019, 4:09pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/yngch-greater-than-age/2770/2 "2019-02-05T16:09:00Z")

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You are correct that [YNGCH](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/YNGCH#description_section) refers to the age of the youngest own child of an individual. What you are observing appears to be the result of the following three things:

(1) In many of these cases, AGE itself has been allocated. You can identify these cases using [QAGE](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/QAGE#codes_section).

(2) YNGCH includes step-children and adopted children as well as biological children. In many of the cases where YNGCH is greater than AGE, it appears that there is a step-child involved and these could be legitimate differences. For example, there is a household where the head of the household is female/63 and the spouse is male/34. In this household, there is a child who is 45. Using [PEMOMTYP](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/PEMOMTYP#description_section) and [PEDADTYP](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/PEDADTYP#description_section), you can see that this child is the biological child of the head of the household (female/63) but step-child of the spouse (male/34), which appears to be a legitimate composition.

(3) YNGCH is an IPUMS-derived variable using IPUMS-derived family interrelationships. As such, information in YNGCH may differ from family information that comes from just the Census family definitions.

I hope this helps.