Imputation of Married Mother's Custodial Children

If imputation is required in order to identify a married mother's custodial children, logit models are used to impute whether both of the children (if two children) or all of the children (if three or more children) are custodial children. If there are two children, and they are not both imputed to be custodial children, then the oldest child is flagged as a custodial child. If there are three or more children and they are not all imputed to be custodial children, then TRIM3 identifies the biggest gap in ages between any two consecutive children. The child defining the top of the biggest age gap and any older children are flagged as custodial children.

Four different logit models are used in the imputation. The models vary by whether there are two children or three or more children, and by whether child support is received:

• Two children, no child support received
• Two children, child support received
• Three or more children, no child support received
• Three or more children, child support received

Two explanatory variables are common to all four models -- the maximum gap in age between any two consecutive children, and the age of the youngest child. Large gaps in age between children make it less likely that all children are custodial children, and the likelihood that all children are custodial children increases with the age of the youngest child. If the family receives child support, then the average amount of child support per child is included as an explanatory variable. The average amount of child support per child is calculated by dividing the family's reported child support by the total number of children. Higher average amounts of child support increase the likelihood that all children are custodial children.