Definition
STEPMOM indicates whether a person's mother, as identified by MOMLOC, was most probably not the person's biological mother. Non-zero values of STEPMOM explain why it is probable that the person's mother was a step- or adopted mother. A value of 0 indicates no likely stepmother because (1) the mother identified in MOMLOC was probably the biological mother or (2) there is no mother of this person present in the household.
The codes for STEPMOM are as follows:
0 = Biological mother or no mother of this person present in household.
1 = Mother has no children borne or surviving.
2 = Child reports mother is deceased.
3 = Explicitly identified relationship (stepchild, adopted child, child of unmarried partner).
4 = Mother reports no children in the home.
5 = Age difference between mother and child was less than 12 or greater than 54 years.
6 = Child exceeds known fertility of mother.
See PARRULE for a description of the linking process.
Users should note that there are many stepmothers and adopted mothers in the population that cannot be identified with information available in the censuses. Therefore, STEPMOM will always under-represent their actual number in the population.
