Hello,
I am currently working with IPUM-CPS data and encountering a challenge in distinguishing between different family units within the same household. My goal is to create unique identifiers for each family, and I am seeking advice on the best approach.
I have access to several variables that should be helpful. These include:
- Household serial ID: A unique identifier for each household.
- Person number: Identifies each person within a household.
- Family type variable: Categorizes families as primary, secondary related, or secondary unrelated.
- Family relationship variable: Specifies relationships within secondary families, such as primary reference person, spouse, and child.
- Pointer variables: Indicate the location of the mother and father of an individual within the household, if present.
Initially, I attempted to create unique family Ids Family by concatenating the household serial ID and the family type variable. This method works well in most cases, effectively differentiating families within a household. However, it falls short when there are multiple secondary related families or multiple secondary unrelated families within the same household. In such instances, the concatenation method results in the same identifier for distinct families, which is not what I need.
To illustrate this issue, consider the data snapshot provided below. In household 1001, persons #3-5 constitute one family, and persons #6-7 form another. Similarly, in household 1002, persons #5-7 are one family, and persons #8-11 are another. My current method fails to differentiate these related subfamilies, assigning them the same ids family.
I believe that the solution might lie in leveraging the variables that indicate the locations of mothers and fathers within the household, or perhaps the other relationship variables available in the IPUM-CPS data. However, I have not yet been able to devise a data management strategy to effectively group these observations into unique subfamilies and generate distinct ids family for each.
Therefore, I am reaching out to the community for data management expertise. Does anyone have suggestions or techniques that could help me accurately identify and group these observations to create unique ids family for related subfamilies within households in IPUM-CPS data?
Any assistance or insights would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much!
