Support #2137
Help with Mother's Age and Employment History Variables
80%
Description
Good morning.
As a research assistant, I am currently working on a projects concerning the child penalty of mothers, i.e. studying whether the birth of a child leads female employment and wages to decrease and never reach the previous level. I am using the harmonized BHPS-Usoc data, but I need a clarification about the availability of some information I need.
1. Mother's Age at First Childbirth: I need to extract the mother's age at the birth of her first child but can’t seem to find this info. The only plausible variable is maagyb (Age of mother when R was born), but it is present only in wave BH13. Any other suggestion? Or should I just generate myself the variable?
2. Employment History: I would like a variable that I could use as a proxy of the mother's working/employment history. I'm considering using basrate (basic pay hourly rate) and fimnlabgrs_dv (total monthly labor income gross) to track employment history. Would these be the best options, or is there something better suited?
Thank you in advance!
Martina
Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 19 days ago
- Status changed from New to Feedback
- % Done changed from 0 to 80
Hello Martina,
1.
In the file "xwavedat" (when you download the data this file is in the subfolder ukhls), you will find the variables:
ch1by_dv: Year of birth of first child
ch1bm_dv: Month of birth of first child
You can use these variables and the date of birth of the respondent, doby_dv and dobm_dv to get their age at first birth
Please note,
ch1by_dv doby_dv are available in the End User License version of the data, SN6614 (https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6614)
ch1by_dv, doby_dv, dobm_dv & ch1bm_dv are available in the Special License version, SN6931 (https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6931)
2. What information about the mother's employment history do you need? If you wanted to get their complete employment history you can use the syntax files produced by Liam Wright (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/syntax/user-deposited-syntax/working-life-histories/) or the updated version produced by Jennifer Smith (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/syntax/user-deposited-syntax/labour-market-flows/)
Hope this helps. If you have further questions, please let us know.
Best wishes,
Understanding Society User Support Team
Updated by Martina Ponassi 18 days ago
Thank you, that is really helpful. I have still one doubt: What if I use birthy instead of doby_dv? What is the difference?
Best regards,
Martina
Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 18 days ago
- Category changed from Data analysis to Derived variables
Deart Martina,
We recommend using doby_dv - it is a derived variable for which we have run some additional data checks, so it should be "cleaner", have less inconsistencies etc.
Best wishes,
UKHLS User Support
Updated by Martina Ponassi 7 days ago
Good morning,
I apologize for reaching out again, but I was hoping you could provide further clarification. The syntax files for constructing employment history were incredibly helpful, and I’m now exploring the possibility of creating a pregnancy history using SN6614, including the birth order of children.
If you have any suggestions or resources that could assist with this, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you very much for your continued support.
Best regards,
Martina
Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 5 days ago
Hello Martina,
There is a related issue (# 1177) regarding birth order. You can check the advice given at this link https://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/1177
Additionally, you might find it helpful to look at two papers where the authors create a birth order variable using UKHLS data:
• Sibling similarity in education and employment trajectories in the UK: Same, but different? - https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/working-papers/2024-02.pdf
• Why does fertility remain high among certain UK-born ethnic minority women? - https://www.demographic-research.org/articles/volume/35/49
I hope this information is helpful.
Best wishes,
Roberto Cavazos
Understanding Society User Support Team