Understanding Society User Support

Thank you for your answer.

So, this means that, in both the surveys, I am allowed to know only the changes between t and t+1 and I cannot know the presence of different marital statuses throughout the year (for example, single in t --> cohabiter in t+0.5 --> married in t+1). I can only access this information through UKHLS for what concerns cohabitation spells (b_lmcbm1,...).

Best,
Lydia

Dear Lydia,

I see what you are asking for now. We do have that information available as follows:

For BHPS, there is a consolidated marital, cohabitation and fertility history dataset available here: https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=5629

For Understanding Society, there will be a consolidated partnership history dataset released through UKDS at the end of this month. In the meantime, the historical data is collected in the partnership history module (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/wave/7/questionnaire-module/partnershiphistory_w7) when the respondent joins the survey, and the changes between each interview are collected in the annual event history module (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/wave/7/questionnaire-module/annualeventhistory_w7) and the data from both is available for each wave in w_indresp.

Best wishes,
Stephanie

Dear Stephanie,

thank you very much for your answer.

I am aware of the consolidated histories. I am just wondering whether
they do not suffer from interval censoring for what concerns outcomes of non-partnership.

Let me just make an example:

Let me suppose that an interviewee belongs to BHPS and that we are considering a period of analysis that goes beyond wave 2 (when the cohabitation history is asked) and that the marital status of the individual in the panel looks like this:

t=3 never married, not in a partnership
t=4 legally married

I guess that I cannot identify if, between t=3 and t=4, there was a pre-marital cohabitation.

I know that it is possible from the third wave of USoc, but I am not sure in BHPS.

Thank you very much for your patience.
Best,
Lydia

Dear Lydia,

We have checked the BHPS questionnaires and it looks like you are correct. The marital status was only recorded at the time of the interview, and changes between interviews were not recorded. Additionally, the date of legal marital status change was asked, but the start date of a cohabitation was not, so must have been imputed by the researcher who created these consolidated histories.

Best wishes,
Stephanie

Dear Stephanie,

I would like to understand if the consolidated partnership history for Understanding Society has been released or not. According to the previous posts, it should have already been released.
If yes, could you please tell me the number of the dataset? I cannot find it through the website of the UK Data Archive.

Thank you and best,
Lydia

Dear Lydia,

We have had some issues and the release of this data has been delayed. It should now be released in January.

Best wishes,
Stephanie

Dear Stephanie,

Apologies for stepping in, but I thought this was the most appropriate place to ask this question. I was wondering if the USoc consolidated partnership history dataset been released yet?

Many thanks,

Ashley

Dear Stephanie,

Sorry to jump in with the same question as above - but are you able to give any indication of when the UKHLS consolidated partnership histories might be released?

Kind regards,
Lewis

Dear Lydia, Ashley and Lewis,

We apologise for the delay in releasing this data. In April we should be able to give you an updated release date.

Best wishes,
Stephanie

Dear Stephanie,

I was wondering if you are able to provide us with an updated release date for the UKHLS consolidated partnership histories?
Apologies if I have missed the information elsewhere on the Understanding Society website.

Many thanks,

Ashley