Interviewer instructions
Martial Information: For Persons 12 Years and Over
P - 24 Marital Status
41. This question will be asked of/for all persons 12 years and above. For persons who are 12 years of age and above at the time of your interview, the following codes will be entered in the boxes provided.
42
1. Married: Marriage may be any permanent living arrangement
between a. man and a woman to live together and will include church marriages, other religiously approved unions, civil registration at a Boma or other civil ceremony, traditional marriages, or even where no ceremony has been performed but the man and woman are living as husband and wife. All those persons who have a husband/wife at present are to be recorded as married and given code 1.
2. Separated: A man or a woman who is separated, but not legally (civil or customary) divorced from his/her partner, and has no other wife/husband now will be given code 2.
3. Divorced: A man who has divorced (or has been divorced by) Ills wife and has no other wife now or a woman who has divorced (or has been divorced by) her husband and has no husband now will be given code 3.
4. Widowed: A man or woman whose partner died and he/she has no wife/husband at present will get code 4.
5. Never Married: Are those who have never been in any marital union (marriage). These will be given code 5.
Marriage
42. This question is meant for all men and women who have ever been married (including those currently in marriage). If the person has been recorded as married, separated, divorced or widowed in P - 24, ask him/her about his/her age at his/her very first, marriage. Quite a number of people find it difficult to remember their age at first marriage. You have to probe before you can get the correct response. One of the ways to go about it is by getting the age of the first-born of the respondent, in his/her first marriage. Find out the time lapse between the respondent's first marriage and when this child was born. If it took just a few months, then the age at first marriage of this respondent will be just the difference between the age of the respondent and his/her first-born. If it took some time before the first child was born, then age at first marriage will be the same difference minus the duration between the date of the respondent's first marriage and the date of birth of the first-born. However, if the respondent remembers the date of the first marriage, then you just work out the number of years that have passed since this date and subtract this from the respondents' age now. Enter the age in the boxes provided.
[Examples are omitted here.]
Note: If it is a male you have been interviewing go to the next person or to Mortality Section.
44