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Creating a 1994 Parents File with One Record per Respondent
In 1994, parent information was asked of the designated family respondent. She (or he) provided information about her (or his) mother, father and, if married (or partnered), mother-in-law and father-in-law. This information was combined and reformatted for distribution. The distribution file contains records for mothers, fathers, parents, mothers and stepfathers, fathers and stepmothers, stepfathers, and stepmothers of family respondents and analogous records for in-laws. Unique identifiers for the 1994 W2PARS file are HHID, PN, CPARCODE, and CSUBHH.
The W2PARS file includes both records for individuals and records for couples. The value of PARCODE [1] designates the type of record in the W2PARS file. See table below for an overview of the variables included in the various record types in the distribution file.
Variables |
PARCODE |
PARCODE |
W8201 Parent still living?
|
1 Mother
|
8 Mother-in-law
|
W8209 Parents married?
|
1 Mother
|
8 Mother-in-law
|
W8210 Parent(s) own home?
|
1 Mother (and stepfather)
|
8 Mother-in-law (and stepfather-in-law)
|
W8212 Parent(s) live together? |
3 Parents |
10 Parents-in-law |
W8213 Parent(s) live with whom?
|
1 Mother (and stepfather)
|
8 Mother-in-law (and stepfather-in-law)
|
In order to create the standardized, respondent-level file, information from mother, father, and parents records will need to be combined into one record with information about the family respondent's parents. Similarly, information from mother-in-law, father-in-law, and parents-in-law records will need to be combined into one record with information about the non-family respondent's parents. The steps required are described in detail below (Overview Flowchart).
[1] PARCODE, which designates the relationship to the RPN, has values of 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10; CPARCODE, which designates the relationship to the PN, has values of 1, 2, and 3.
Step 1: Sort W2PARS File
Sort the W2PARS file by HHID, PN, and CSUBHH. Be very sure to use the 1994 parent file, W2PARS that was issued 2/25/2003 or later. See Data Alert: W2PARS (Parents) File Replaced 1994 HRS (Final) (v.1.0).
Step 2: Create File with Mother Records
Create a file including only mother records. Select records where CPARCODE equals 1. Rename variables W8201-W8211 and W8213-W8219, e.g., W8201=W8201M. Keep these identification variables HHID PN CSUBHH ASUBHH CPN_SP COPN_CS CCSR CFAMR CFINR RPN FAMFLAG and these renamed variables w8201-w8211 w8213-w8219. The output file will have 5,194 records and twenty-nine variables.
Step 3: Create File with Father Records
Create a file including only father records. Select records where CPARCODE equals 2. Create father variables using an analogous procedure to that used to create mother variables. The output file will have 2,486 records and twenty-nine variables.
Step 4: Create File with Parent Records
Create a file including only parent records. Select records where CPARCODE equals 3. Create parent variables using an analogous procedure to that used to create mother variables. Rename variables W8209-W8219, e.g., W8209= W8209P. Keep these identification variables HHID PN CSUBHH ASUBHH CPN_SP COPN_CS CCSR CFAMR and these renamed variables w8209-w8219. The output file will have 1,154 records twenty-two variables.
Step 5: Merge Mother, Father, and Parent Files to Create Respondent-level File with Information about Each Parent
Merge these three files by HHID, PN, and CSUBHH. This is a one-to-one match although the input files will contain different number of records. Null values will be present for mother variables if an input mother record was not present. Similarly, null values will be present for father and parent variables when an input record was not present. The output file will have 5,985 records fifty-eight variables.
Mother |
Father |
Parents |
|
Number of input records |
5,194 |
2,486 |
1,154 |
Number of records in output file with null values |
791 |
3,499 |
4,831 |
Step 6: Inspect Output Records
The variables in the first twenty-five records in this file should look something like this:
Be aware of the possibility of more than one report about a particular set of parents. This happens eleven times because both core and exit interviews contained information about the parents of the surviving spouse/partner and the deceased spouse/partner. These records will have the same values for HHID and PN, but a different value for CSUBHH. CSUBHH values of “3” may be used to identify exit interviews.
Listing of 1994 Parents File C C W W W W W W W W W W W S C P 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 H U F N 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 O H B A _ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 b I P H M S 1 2 5 6 9 1 2 5 6 9 9 s D N H R P M M M M M F F F F F P 1 010003 030 0 1 020 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 010004 010 0 5 040 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 010004 040 0 1 010 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 4 010013 040 1 1 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 5 010038 040 0 1 010 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 6 010050 010 0 1 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 7 010075 020 0 1 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 8 010075 030 0 . 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 9 010083 010 0 . 1 72 0 0 0 1 71 0 0 0 1 10 010083 020 0 1 1 0 0 0 5 8 0 0 0 0 5 11 010090 010 0 1 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 12 010094 010 3 3 5 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 . 13 010097 010 0 5 040 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 14 010097 040 0 1 010 1 0 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 5 5 15 010124 011 0 . 1 98 0 0 1 1 98 0 0 8 5 16 010155 010 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 17 010240 010 0 1 . . . . . 5 0 1991 81 0 . 18 010299 010 0 1 1 0 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 1 5 19 010325 010 0 . 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 20 010325 020 0 1 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 21 010346 010 3 3 5 0 1993 81 0 1 0 0 0 0 . 22 010378 010 0 1 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 23 010394 010 0 5 040 1 0 0 0 5 . . . . . . 24 010394 040 0 1 010 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 25 010395 010 0 5 020 1 0 0 0 1 . . . . . .
Overview Flowchart
Sample code in SAS, SPSS, or Stata is available.