Understanding Society User Support

Hi Leilah,

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.

We aim to respond to simple queries within 48 hours and more complex issues within 7 working days. While we will aim to keep to this response times due to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) related situation it may take us longer to respond.

Best wishes,
Understanding Society User Support Team

Hello,

The variable w_mastat_dv is "de-facto" marital status and not the legal marital status. To know about the legal marital status see w_marstat. The variable w_marstat is combined with whether the person was living with someone as a couple to compute w_mastat_dv

As the note on the mastat_dv variable description says "De facto marital status. Recode of MARSTAT to add two further categories: children aged under 16 (based on _age_dv and _ivfio) and respondents who are presently living in a couple (based on _LIVEWI). Not harmonised with the BHPS because LIVEWI is only included in the UKHLS." https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/variable/mastat_dv

So, if a married individual moves in with a partner who is not their husband/wife, they would be classified as "living as a couple" in w_mastat_dv and as "separated but legally married" in w_marstat. For example, in Wave 1 there are 117 such cases.
// Stata syntax to identify such cases
count if a_marstat==4 & a_mastat_dv==10

Hope this helps. If not, please let us know.