Definition
SPRULEH explains the criteria by which the variable SPLOC linked the person to a probable spouse for the pre-1950 datasets.
Spouse-spouse links are established according to four basic rules, and SPRULEH gives the number of the rule that applied to the link in question.
SPRULEH works the same way for all countries. In all countries both partners are required to be age 12 and older and to either have a marital status of married or be the unmarried partner of the household head (see MARST and RELATEH). In addition, both partners were required to share the same surname, except when linking heads to spouses or in the Scandinavian samples where SURSIM does not capture family relationships (e.g. patronymic surnames in Norway and non-reporting of child surnames in Sweden). In some samples, however, we were compelled to customize the links beyond what could be implemented more generally.
The codes for SPRULEH are as follows. A lower-numbered rule (greater than 0) takes precedence over a higher numbered rule. All relationship pairings are not available in every sample. Additional conditions were added to the rules for some samples.
0 = No spouse of this person present in household.
1 = A married/in-union woman and a married/in-union man were linked because she immediately followed or preceded him in the dataset and both persons' relationship to the household head (see RELATEH) justified a link, as follows:
Head to spouseUnmarried partner to spouseParent to parentParent-in-law to parent-in-lawChild to child-in-lawSibling to sibling-in-law2 = A married woman and a married man who did not appear adjacently on the form were linked because:
they had one of the relationship sets listed in rule 1the woman was at least 13 years oldthe man was at least 15 years oldthe man was not more than 25 years older than the woman, ANDthe woman was not more than 10 years older than the man.3 = A married/in-union woman and a married/in-union man were linked because she immediately followed or preceded him in the dataset and both persons' relationship to the household head (RELATEH) suggested a possible pairing and the female spouse was no more than 10 years older or 25 years younger than the male spouse. The possible relationship pairings are as follows:
Other relative to other relative (RELATEH codes 1000, 1001, 1061)Non-relative to non-relative (RELATEH codes 1000-1303)Child to other relativeSibling to other relativeGrandchild to grandchild-in-lawGrandparent to grandparent/grandparent-in-law/grandparent-in-lawGrandchild to other relativeAunt to uncleNephew/niece to nephew/nieceCousin to cousinUnknown to unknown; missing to missingHead to unknown or missingChild to unknown or missing4 = Same as rule 3, but the married/in-union woman was not adjacent to the married/in-union man in the data.
