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reference person weights

Added by Amelia Watts about 1 year ago. Updated 11 months ago.

Status:
Resolved
Priority:
Normal
Category:
Weights
Start date:
10/12/2023
% Done:

100%


Description

Dear Olena/support team,

I'm selecting reference persons from households across waves to form a panel. Can the individual longitudinal weights for these respondents in the last wave be used as suboptimal weights in the analysis?

Many thanks,
Amelia

Actions #1

Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team about 1 year ago

  • Status changed from New to In Progress
  • % Done changed from 0 to 10
  • Private changed from Yes to No

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

Actions #2

Updated by Olena Kaminska about 1 year ago

Amelia,

Our weights will be 'optimal' if you have a clear definition of the reference person that's works outside of our study. For example if you define reference person as a head of a household (based on whatever demographical / economic characteristics) this will be just seen as a subgroup in the population, and our weights will represent them as any other subgroup.

I do not recommend using any non-substantive variables for a definition of reference people. For example, adults who answered the household questionnaire. There is no such subgroup in the population, and our weights are not design to represent subgroups that don't exist in the population.

I hope this helps,
Olena

Actions #3

Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team about 1 year ago

  • Status changed from In Progress to Feedback
  • % Done changed from 10 to 50
Actions #4

Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team about 1 year ago

  • Status changed from Feedback to Resolved
  • % Done changed from 50 to 100
Actions #5

Updated by Amelia Watts 11 months ago

Thank you Olena for your response.

A further question is in studying such representative persons (one person per household, based on demographical/economic characteristics), using a combination of personal level (eg age, gender) and household level information (eg household size, household income), which weights are correct to use, individual weights or household weights? The size of this sample equals the size of the household sample.

Many thanks,
Amelia

Actions #6

Updated by Olena Kaminska 11 months ago

Amelia,

Depends on your definition. Is the 'representative person' represents whole households? Or do you want to describe specific people? If the latter you need to have a definition outside of our study, meaning a definition that holds in a society. For example a head of a household (however defined) is a definition in a society, and you would just use individual weights (same as for any other subgroup). This won't be different from studying females, for example. But it is not possible to study people who answered household questionnaire, because such subgroup does not exist in the population. In the latter situation it may be better to study households, or think of a better subgroup definition.

Hope this helps,
Olena

Actions #7

Updated by Amelia Watts 11 months ago

Thank you Olena for your helpful response. The representative person is defined as a head of a household, therefore the size of this sample in my study equals the size of the household sample (1 person per household). I will use data at both the household level (eg household aggregated income) and individual level (eg age) to study the relationship between individual-level variables and household aggregated outcomes, so the correct weight to use is individual weights rather than household weights. Please let me know if my above understanding is correct. Thank you.

Actions #8

Updated by Olena Kaminska 11 months ago

Yes, that's correct.
Olena

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