Understanding Society User Support

To whom it may concern,

I have been having some issues with understanding the f_closenum variable for the number of close friends an individual has. It appears online that the UNIVERSE for this question specifies that it is only asked if the individual has already said that they either have friends in f_simage or identify their family as friends in f_simfam. However, there are several respondents that are coded as having no friends in these filtering questions (value 5) and yet reporting having several friends for f_closenum.

If you could please clarify who is filtered out of this questions and why these inconsistencies have emerged that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance

Ella