Definition
STEPMOMH indicates for the pre-1950 datasets whether a person's mother, as identified by MOMLOC, was most probably not the person's biological mother. Non-zero values of STEPMOMH 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. Only persons under age 19 are linked to their mothers.
The codes for STEPMOMH are as follows:
0 = Biological mother or no mother of this person present in household.
1 = Age difference between mother and child was less than 12 or greater than 54 years.
2 = Link was established only because the mother was married to father.
3 = Child explicitly identified relationship as stepchild.
5 = Child explicitly identified as adopted.
If more than one value applied to the case, the lowest value was assigned.
See MOMRULEH 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, STEPMOMH will always under-represent their actual number in the population.
