Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This project used data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) (available at the UKDA under SN 5151), to compile a dataset of variables relating to the starting, ending date and type of each union (cohabitation or legal marriage) of members of the BHPS. Evidence derived from the answers provided by both partners at each wave has been used. The dataset has been created on the basis of Chiara Pronzato’s project which reconstructed union and childbirth histories from both retrospective and annual interviews (available at the UKDA under SN 5629). Further information about the project is available from the ESRC's Are storks striking for a contract renewal? Childbirth under changing employment, family and welfare arrangements award webpage.

Main Topics:

Inconsistencies across answers provided by both partners or across time, as well as missing information found in those data with respect to the union histories of respondents has been corrected and harmonized, where possible. Both original data and proposed corrections are maintained to grant researchers the option to revert each choice (details about the guiding principles followed are to be found in the documentation). The dataset also contains a single identifier for each union (between the same two partners) ever present (and identified) in at least one wave of the panel.

See main BHPS documentation for details of sampling.

Compilation or synthesis of existing material