Adjusting Units for the Presence of Stepparents, Unmarried parents and Nonparent Partners

In order to indicate to TRIM that input data is available to identify stepparents, unmarried parents, and nonparent partners, the variable list rules ParentIDs and PartnerID must have appropriate variables specified. If no variables are specified, TRIM will not perform any special processing for these types of adults (i.e. stepparents will always be included in the unit, a nonparent partner will remain outside the unit, and a family with two unmarried parents will only include the parent who is the reference person of the children's family). TRIM checks for consistency between the settings of the variable list rules and the rules in the group Parent Eligibility Group:

• If variables are specified for ParentIDs, variables must also be specified for PartnerID, and vise-versa.
• If variables are specified for ParentIDs and PartnerID, then for each state at least one of the rules in the group Parent Eligibility Group must be set to something other than "not modelled", and vise-versa (i.e. if any state has any of these rules set to something other than "not modelled", ParentIDs and PartnerID must be specified).

If ParentIDs and PartnerID are specified (and all consistency checks passed) stepparents, unmarried parents and nonparent partners are identified (and unit composition adjusted) as follows:

• Parents (both married and unmarried) are identified as those persons in the household who are heads or spouses of families and are indicated (by the ParentIDs variables) to be the mother or father of at least one child in the household. To be considered a child, a person can not be the head or spouse of a family of their own. For example, a multigenerational family may consist of three persons -- a mother (person #1), her daughter (person #2), and her daughter's son (person #3). The ParentIDs variables

would indicate that both persons #1 and #2 are parents. However, for our purposes only person #2 would be considered a parent (since person #1's only child -- the daughter -- is herself the head of a family). On the other hand, if this household had included a fourth person -- the daughter's brother, who has no spouse or children -- person #1 would be considered a parent. Any person for whom the result variable FirstChildID is non-zero is considered to be a parent under this definiton.

• A stepparent is identified as the head or spouse of a family who is not a parent but is married to a parent. The result variable StepparentID indicates whether a person is in a family that contains a step parent (i.e. StepparentID > 0) and who the stepparent is (i.e. StepparentID = the PersonID of the stepparent). This stepparent is then excluded from the stepchildren's unit if indicated by the rule StepParentEligibility. Note that this definition does not include stepparents in families where both parents are stepparents (i.e. both parents have children from previous marriages, and neither have adopted the spouse's children). Because of the complexities involved in processing such families, no adjustment to the initial unit composition is made (i.e. the stepparent is treated the same as the biological/adoptive parent).

• Families with unmarried parents can appear on the input data in one of two ways:

  1. One parent is listed as being in the same family (i.e. related to) the child, and the other parent is listed as an "unrelated individual" (i.e. no one else in the household is listed as related to him/her -- note that on the CPS a parent is no necessarily considered "related" to his/her child).
  2. One parent is listed as being in the same family (i.e. related to) the child, and the other parent is listed as being in a different family with relatives.
  Because of the complexities involved with processing the second type, no adjustment is made to the unit composition (i.e. each parent is treated as if the other parent was not in the household). Only the first type receives special processing. In this case, the "other parent" is marked as an "unmarried parent" by assigning to his/her result variable UnmarriedParentOfFamily, the ID of the family to which the other parent and child belong. This unmarried parent is then included in the child's unit if indicated by the rule TreatmentOfUnmarriedParents. Note that the parent who is already in the family containing the child, although also an "unmarried parent", is not similiarly marked (i.e. only the unmarried parent who is outside the child's family is actually identified by the result variable UnmarriedParentOfFamily).

• Families with a nonparent partner can also appear on the input data in one of two ways:

  1. The partner who is the nonparent is listed as an "unrelated individual" (i.e. no one else in the household is listed as related to him/her).
  2. The partner who is the nonparent has relatives in the household.
  Because of the complexities involved with processing the second type, no adjustment is made to the unit composition (i.e. each partner is treated as if the other partner was not in the household). Only the first type receives special processing. In this case, the nonparent partner is marked by assigning to his/her result variable NonParentPartnerOfFamily, the ID of the family to which the parent partner belongs. The nonparent partner is then included in the partner's unit if indicated by the rule NonParentPartnerEligibility.

One of the options allowed in the rules StepParentEligibility and NonParentPartnerEligibility is for the stepparent or nonparent to choose whether or not to be included in the unit. While a variable list rule exists (NonParentChoice) which can specify a variable that indicates what choice is made, usually such a variable does not exist. Instead, an imputation is made as to which way the unit would be better off -- with the stepparent or nonparent included or excluded.

In order to facilitate processing within TRIM, as well as for analysts working from extracts, the result variable CohabitingFamilyID is created as part of the unit adjustment process. This family identifier is identical to the FamilyID identifier except that persons identified as unmarried parents and nonparent partners are included in the same family as their children or partner. Note that they are included regardless of whether they are included in their children's or partner's TANF unit (i.e. CohabitingFamilyID identifies cohabiting families not actual TANF units).