Understanding Society User Support

Hi Alita,

Sorry to bother you again, but I have a follow up question relating to this thread from before:

I am creating a variable that tells me cumulatively the number of natural children a person has ever had (as I want to look only at the sample of individuals who start the sample period never having had a child, and then have a child at some point during the sample period). Whilst there are variables that tell me the current number of children in the household in the main file (e.g. nnatch), I want something that is cumulative (e.g. it could be that nnatch = 1 in two consecutive waves, but it corresponds to two different children as one child leaves and another enters the household).

Now the way I have done this is as follows. I use the egoalt file and count the total number of natural children an individual ever has in the first wave in which they are observed. In successive waves (in which they are observed), I then count 'new natural children' as natural children for whom alwstat = 4 or 6 - i.e. if the natural child is a 'new entrant' or 'new birth'. I can then add the number of 'new children' to the measure from the wave before to update the total number of children that parent has ever had.

I have assumed that a child who was 'co-resident with ego' or 'not living with ego' was alive in the previous wave (either living with that parent or with someone else), and therefore is not a new born child. I have assumed from the definition of 'rejoiner' that you gave below, that this would be a child who has appeared in the UKHLS in a previous wave, just not in the last wave, so again is not a new born child. And I have assumed from the definition of 'not enumerated' that you gave below, that this would be a child who has never appeared in the UKHLS before because they lived in a household that was not part of the UKHLS in all previous years. But again they were alive in previous years, just not ever in an enumerated household. So then no child who is counted as 'co-resident with ego', 'not living with ego', 'rejoiner' or 'not enumerated' is a newborn natural child since the last wave for that household (and so none of these children should be counted in my measure).

Can I just check that this understanding is correct?

Thanks,
Dan

Hi Alita,

Thanks for your reply. So I think that I need to use the egoalt file, because I want to consider only children whom I actually observe in the households (as I need information about those children, such as their gender - which I take from the child file).

My question was more relating to the code 'not enumerated'. If a child is described as 'not enumerated' in the alwstat variable in the egoalt file (i.e. they were 'not enumerated' last wave), then I have assumed that this cannot be a newborn child. I.e. I have assumed that a newborn child who does live in a person's household would either be coded as 'new entrant' or 'new birth, OSM' under the alwstat variable. Is that correct?

Thanks,
Dan

yes.