Definition
MOMLOC is a constructed variable that indicates whether or not the person's mother lived in the same household and, if so, gives the person number of the mother (see PERNUM). MOMLOC makes it easy for researchers to link the characteristics of children and their (probable) mothers.
The method by which probable child-mother links are identified is described in PARRULE.
The general design of MOMLOC and other constructed variables follows the methods developed for IPUMS-USA "Family Interrelationships," but the details vary significantly. For more details on the construction of MOMLOC, see the Comparability section of PARRULE and this paper on IPUMSI family linking methodology.
Note: MOMLOC identifies social relationships (such as stepmother and adopted mother) as well as biological relationships. The variable STEPMOM is designed to identify some of these social relationships. To restrict MOMLOC to biological mothers, such as for own children fertility estimation, MOMLOC should be reset to zero when STEPMOM is greater than zero.
