Understanding Society User Support

Imogen,

Thank you for your question. How do you define household longitudinally? What happens if someone moves out, if household splits or if someone moves in, stays for 2 years, and moves out? Generally, because of this, we don't have any users using household longitudinally, and therefore we don't provide longitudinal household weights. Yet, if you think you have a clear definition, please let me know and I will help you with the weights.

There are two alternatives: to study households cross-sectionally, and to study individuals longitudinally, but you could study their household characteristics.

Hope this helps,
Olena

Olena,

I'm wanting to see how the characteristics of these households (e.g. max personal income, average financial security score) change over time and how that compares to another national dataset over time. So, it might make more sense to look at the household cross-sections in each wave and then compare those on a year by year basis if that makes sense?

So I could aggregate up the average household income for one wave using the cross sectional weights and then I can compare that cross-sectional picture between years?

Let me know if that doesn't make sense.

Imogen

Imogen,

Yes, this is definitely a possible option. In comparison over the years it is best to do it at an individual level with longitudinal weights. If you do it at household level, make sure you take into account that these are the same people, so possibly doing it through a cross-classified model may be a good option for you.

Hope this helps,
Olena