How do I match children to their parents?

A child can be matched to their mother or father via:

• _hhmxid and _hhfxid , the cross-wave identifiers for mothers and fathers; or
• _hhmid and _hhfid , the two-digit person number for mothers and fathers, which can be appended to the end of the household identifier _hhrhid to create the mother’s and father’s identifiers for a particular wave; or
• _hhmxid and _hhfxid, the cross-wave identifiers for biological mothers and fathers.

Note that the first four identifiers for mothers and fathers are only available for people who live in the same household as their parent or parents. These identifiers include step and de facto parents. The last two identifiers are for the biological parents and require the parent to have lived in the same household as the child in at least one wave. The identifier is then distributed to every wave the child is in.

Note: Replace the underscore with the appropriate letter for the wave, where ‘a’ corresponds to Wave 1, ‘b’ corresponds to Wave 2, and so on.