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linking responsible adult to youth

Added by Akansha Naraindas 1 day ago. Updated about 16 hours ago.

Status:
Feedback
Priority:
Normal
Category:
Data management
Start date:
01/26/2026
% Done:

80%


Description

Hi,

I am linking youth data from Wave 13 to Wave 15 and would also like to link each young person to their Wave 13 responsible adult in order to incorporate parent-level variables (e.g. mental health) when examining youth outcomes at Wave 15.

I can see that a responsible adult PNO is provided in the youth files, but I am unsure how this corresponds to the adult identifiers in the indresp dataset. Could you please advise on how the responsible adult PNO can be used to correctly link to the relevant adult records so that the appropriate parent-level information can be merged with the youth dataset?

Thank you!
Akansha

Actions #1

Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team about 16 hours ago

  • Category set to Data management
  • Status changed from New to Feedback
  • % Done changed from 0 to 80
  • Private changed from Yes to No

Hi Akansha,

To link youth to themselves across waves, use their PIDP. To link to their parents, the easiest way is to use the identifiers of parents available in the youth file based on PIDP:

o_fnpid — Natural father: PIDP
o_mnpid — Natural mother: PIDP
o_pn1pid — Natural parent 1: PIDP
o_pn2pid — Natural parent 2: PIDP
o_pns1pid — Nat/step/adopt parent 1: PIDP
o_pns2pid — Nat/step/adopt parent 2: PIDP

For each youth respondent, this variable gives you their parent’s PIDP.
For example, if there was a youth respondent identified by PIDP=234572 in Wave 15, then in Wave 13 this PIDP=234572 identifies the same youth respondent/child (in any relevant file, not only w_youth, of course assuming that they were enumerated and completed a given interview in this wave). If, for this youth respondent (PIDP=234572), o_fnpid=98890, then this means that the respondent identified by PIDP=98890 is their natural father; this will apply to any other individual-level file, not only indresp (again, subject to their participation, eligibility and interview completion).

To learn more about linking household members, I recommend:

1. checking worksheets 7 and 8 in our Moodle course (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/help/training/introduction-to-understanding-society-self-paced-moodle/
),

2. checking this forum for similar questions, as some of these include syntax files posted by us and may be useful,

3. checking our syntax website (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/syntax/
), particularly “Matching individuals within a household” and “Matching co-resident parents’ information”

I hope this helps,

Best wishes,
Piotr Marzec
UKHLS User Support

Actions #2

Updated by Akansha Naraindas about 16 hours ago

Thanks for this! My issue is that i want to use the https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/innovation-panel/variables/adresp15_dv/ 'responsible adult' variable to identify which of the parents are responsible for the children in the 'youth' dataset. I am unsure how to interpret this variable as im unsure what the person numbers correspond to

so basically im unsure how to link the youth to the 'responsible adult'

Understanding Society User Support Team wrote in #note-1:

Hi Akansha,

To link youth to themselves across waves, use their PIDP. To link to their parents, the easiest way is to use the identifiers of parents available in the youth file based on PIDP:

o_fnpid — Natural father: PIDP
o_mnpid — Natural mother: PIDP
o_pn1pid — Natural parent 1: PIDP
o_pn2pid — Natural parent 2: PIDP
o_pns1pid — Nat/step/adopt parent 1: PIDP
o_pns2pid — Nat/step/adopt parent 2: PIDP

For each youth respondent, this variable gives you their parent’s PIDP.
For example, if there was a youth respondent identified by PIDP=234572 in Wave 15, then in Wave 13 this PIDP=234572 identifies the same youth respondent/child (in any relevant file, not only w_youth, of course assuming that they were enumerated and completed a given interview in this wave). If, for this youth respondent (PIDP=234572), o_fnpid=98890, then this means that the respondent identified by PIDP=98890 is their natural father; this will apply to any other individual-level file, not only indresp (again, subject to their participation, eligibility and interview completion).

To learn more about linking household members, I recommend:

1. checking worksheets 7 and 8 in our Moodle course (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/help/training/introduction-to-understanding-society-self-paced-moodle/
),

2. checking this forum for similar questions, as some of these include syntax files posted by us and may be useful,

3. checking our syntax website (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/syntax/
), particularly “Matching individuals within a household” and “Matching co-resident parents’ information”

I hope this helps,

Best wishes,
Piotr Marzec
UKHLS User Support

Understanding Society User Support Team wrote in #note-1:

Hi Akansha,

To link youth to themselves across waves, use their PIDP. To link to their parents, the easiest way is to use the identifiers of parents available in the youth file based on PIDP:

o_fnpid — Natural father: PIDP
o_mnpid — Natural mother: PIDP
o_pn1pid — Natural parent 1: PIDP
o_pn2pid — Natural parent 2: PIDP
o_pns1pid — Nat/step/adopt parent 1: PIDP
o_pns2pid — Nat/step/adopt parent 2: PIDP

For each youth respondent, this variable gives you their parent’s PIDP.
For example, if there was a youth respondent identified by PIDP=234572 in Wave 15, then in Wave 13 this PIDP=234572 identifies the same youth respondent/child (in any relevant file, not only w_youth, of course assuming that they were enumerated and completed a given interview in this wave). If, for this youth respondent (PIDP=234572), o_fnpid=98890, then this means that the respondent identified by PIDP=98890 is their natural father; this will apply to any other individual-level file, not only indresp (again, subject to their participation, eligibility and interview completion).

To learn more about linking household members, I recommend:

1. checking worksheets 7 and 8 in our Moodle course (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/help/training/introduction-to-understanding-society-self-paced-moodle/
),

2. checking this forum for similar questions, as some of these include syntax files posted by us and may be useful,

3. checking our syntax website (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/syntax/
), particularly “Matching individuals within a household” and “Matching co-resident parents’ information”

I hope this helps,

Best wishes,
Piotr Marzec
UKHLS User Support

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