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Support #2137

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Help with Mother's Age and Employment History Variables

Added by Martina Ponassi 5 months ago. Updated 4 months ago.

Status:
Feedback
Priority:
High
Assignee:
Understanding Society User Support Team
Category:
Derived variables
Start date:
08/12/2024
% Done:

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

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 #1

Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 5 months 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

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 #2

Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 5 months ago

  • Private changed from Yes to No
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 #3

Updated by Martina Ponassi 5 months 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

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 #4

Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 5 months 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

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 #5

Updated by Martina Ponassi 4 months 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

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 #6

Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 4 months 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

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