Support #2234
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Merging Datasets and Missing Variables in UK Household Study
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Description
hello,
I have two concerns and would like to thank you in advance for your support!
First, a brief description of my project: I aim to analyze gender differences in pro-environmental behavior (PEB) using data from the UK Household Study. My analysis focuses on Waves 10 and 13. Since the PEB variables and the variable "sex" are not in the same dataset, I need to merge the datasets.
1st Concern:
I attempted to merge the following two datasets from Wave 13: "m_hhresp" and "m_indresp". Unfortunately, I was unable to do so using the syntax provided on your website:
https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/documentation/main-survey/syntax/spss/sps-distributing-household-level-information-individual-level.sps
Additionally, merging via the SPSS menu did not work either. I received the following error message:
"Warning number 5132: Duplicate key in a file. The BY variables do not uniquely identify each case in the specified file. Please check the results carefully."
I also attempted the same process for Wave 10 with "j_hhresp" and "j_indresp", but encountered the same issue.
Do you have any suggestions on how to correctly merge these datasets? Alternatively, is it possible to obtain pre-merged datasets?
2nd Concern:
In Waves 10 and 13, I was unable to find some variables in the dataset, even though they are listed on your website:
https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/variables/?wpsolr_fq%5B0%5D=index_term_str%3AEnvironmental%20Issues&wpsolr_fq%5B1%5D=variable_wave_mainstage_str%3A10&wpsolr_fq%5B2%5D=variable_wave_mainstage_str%3A
The missing variables are as follows:
Wave 13: carfuel and solar (Note: recglass, recpaper, and recplastic are available in Wave 13). According to the website, these variables should be in "m_hhresp".
Wave 10: carbuy, carfuel, envhabit1 - envhabit11, flyes, nflyeu, nflyin, nflyos, recglass, recpaper, recplastic, and solar. These variables should be in "j_hhresp" and "j_indresp" according to the website.
Were these variables actually collected for these waves, or are they located in a different dataset?
Thank you very much in advance for your help!
Best regards,
Leon Arlt
Files
Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 1 day ago
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Hello Leon
I recommend taking the self-paced Moodle training "Introduction to Understanding Society" (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/help/training/introduction-to-understanding-society-self-paced-moodle/). It includes practical exercises on data management, particularly exercises 4 (“Distributing household-level information to individuals”) and 5 (“Aggregating individual-level information to households”) will help you in your task.
The SPSS training section is especially helpful, as it includes step-by-step video tutorials showing how to complete the exercises using both the menus and syntax.
Regarding the variables you mentioned, I can confirm that they are indeed available in waves 13 and 10 datasets. I suggest checking the original files you downloaded from the UK Data Service. If the variables are still missing, it’s possible the download was incomplete due to a connection issue, so I recommend re-downloading the files to ensure you have the full dataset.
. use "Y:\m_hhresp.dta", clear
(Substantive data from responding households)
. use "Y:\j_hhresp.dta", clear
(Substantive data from responding households)
. use "Y:\j_indresp.dta", clear
(Substantive data for responding adults (16+), incl. proxies)
I hope this information is helpful.
Best wishes,
Roberto Cavazos
Understanding Society User Support Team