Understanding Society User Support

Many thanks for your enquiry. The Understanding Society team is looking into it and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Best wishes,
Stephanie Auty - Understanding Society User Support Officer

Dear Ashley,

All of the variables and data files from BHPS have a bw_ prefix in the harmonised data, that is how we distinguish Wave 1 of BHPS from Wave 1 of UKHLS.

During harmonnisation a variable was given a _bh suffix if it had the same name as a UKHLS variable but was different in some way. This could be in the question wording or response options. You can check this by reading the questionnaires: https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/questionnaires

I am waiting for a response regarding the last part of your question, apologies for the delay. Reading the questionnaires may also help with this in the meantime.

Best wishes,
Stephanie

Yes, you are correct about civil partnership not being asked in the BHPS retrospective marriage histories but grouped together in UKHLS. Also note that the current marital status at each interview (w_mastat_dv) distinguishes between marriage and civil partnership for all UKHLS waves and for the last 3 BHPS waves: P, Q & R (2016 2017 2018).

Note the BHPS marriage and cohabitation histories were asked in Wave 2 for the Essex sample and so will be missing for anyone who was interviewed in Wave 1 but not in Wave 2. For the BHPS regional boost samples these are asked later (waves K & L). In UKHLS, these histories were asked in Wave 1 for the GPS (General Population Sample) & EMBS (Ethnic Minority Boost sample) and then in Wave 6 for IEMBS (Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Boost sample).

Here is a list of all marriage and cohabitation history variables in the UKHLS & BHPS:
https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/index/marital-and-cohabitation-history

Hi Ashley,

We used the cohabitation and marital history data collated by Pronzato from the BHPS indresp and marital and cohab files. You are correct, in the BHPS, while changes in marital status since last interview was asked changes in cohabiation spells since last interview was not asked.

Best wishes,
Alita