Affiliations: [a] Economics and Political Science, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN, USA | [b] Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, MN, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Marina Mileo Gorsuch, Economics and Political Science, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN 55105, USA. Tel.: +1 857 247 4952; E-mail: mmgorsuch952@stkate.edu.
Abstract: In demographic datasets, researchers frequently want to identify how members of a household are related. In this paper, we develop a new method of estimating parental and spousal relationships using data on fertility patterns and family interrelationships. The improved method includes cohabiting and same-sex couples and is comparable across all modern US IPUMS data projects. A detailed variable indicates how the relationship was inferred and the level of ambiguity around that inference. The new IPUMS family interrelationship variables are very accurate, matching self-reported spouse/partner for 99.99% and parent for over 99.00% of respondents. Among those identified as same-sex couples, we match self-reported spouse/partner for 100% of respondents, 87.57% of whom self-identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. We further demonstrate that the new family interrelationship variables closely track temporal variation in teenage fertility.
Keywords: Family interrelationships, demographic datasets, family composition
