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.

We aim to respond to simple queries within 48 hours and more complex issues within 7 working days.

Best wishes,
Understanding Society User Support Team

Hi Albert,

This is up to the respondents interpretation, that is to say, it depends who the respondent thinks of as their ‘son’ or ‘daughter’, etc. - families are very complex things and some may include/think of foster children, or children-in-law as their children if the bond is strong enough. Same goes for thinking about parents – though here we have separated out ‘step/adoptive’ mothers and fathers in our response options. This should indicate to respondents that ‘mother’ means biological mother, ‘Step/adoptive mother’ means just that, and any others (foster, in-law, etc) shouldn’t be included but this still, at least to some extent, depends on how the respondent thinks of them.

To address this ambiguity we are planning to make the distinction more explicit and clearer by expanding the list of the relationships starting from wave 14.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Piotr,
UKHLS User Support Team