As a household panel study, Understanding Society gives an unprecedented window on the relationships between different family members. The dataset allows researchers to study families across generations and within and across different households. No other study in the UK gives this breadth of information about family life.
Making family connections across different households over time can be difficult, so to help researchers link families we have created a new family matrix. This datafile identifies all family relationships across the Study, allowing researchers to see where people and households connect. The cross-wave file contains familial relationship identifiers reported over the survey period and generate an origin household identifier variable so that sample members who are connected with each other can be identified.
The Family Matrix is available in the main survey dataset, which can be downloaded from the UK Data Service.
In this video Survey Data Officer, Nicole James, describes the family matrix and how it can be used.
