Instructions to Create Family Estimates. To make estimates at the family level, it is necessary to prepare a family-level file containing one record per family. Each MEPS family unit is uniquely identified by the combination of the variables DUID and FAMID13. Only persons with positive, nonzero family weight values (WGTRU13>0) are candidates for inclusion in family estimates. Following is a summary of steps that can be used for family-level estimation: 1. Concatenate the variables DUID and FAMID13 into a new variable (e.g., DUFAM13). 2. To create a family-level file, sort by DUFAM13 and then subset to one record per DUFAM13 value by retaining only the reference person record (RNDREF13=1) for each value of DUFAM13. If the analyst chooses to eliminate single person units from family analyses, it is also necessary to exclude records where FAMSIZ13=1. If aggregate measures for families are needed for analytic purposes (e.g., means or totals), then those measures need to be computed using person-level information within families and attached to the family record. For other types of variables, analysts frequently use characteristics of the reference person to represent family characteristics. 3. Apply the weight WGTRU13 to the analytic variable(s) of interest to obtain national family estimates.
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Samples: Data Use Agreement, Data Use Agreement, Data Use Agreement
