by Matthew Gray, Lixia Qu, Jennifer Renda, David de Vaus
Age measures age of the mother in years. In the public release data set, age is grouped into five year age bands. A continuous measure of age is created by using the mid-point of the age bands.
Lone mother is defined as a woman who has no spouse or partner usually present in the household but who forms a parent-child relationship with at least one dependent child usually resident in the household.
Couple mother is defined as a woman who has a spouse or partner usually present in the household and who forms a parent-child relationship with at least one dependent child usually resident in the household. A couple relationship is based on a consensual union, and is defined as two persons residing in the same household who share a social, economic and emotional bond usually associated with marriage and who consider their relationship to be a marriage or marriage-like union.
Dependent children is defined as all children in the household aged under 15 years or a child in the household who is aged 15 to 19 years and is a full-time student. The Census data do not record the exact relationship between a dependent child and their Ômother'. Since we restrict our sample to women who have given birth to a child, we exclude a small number of mothers who have only step, adopted or fostered child(ren). However, the impact of this restriction will be very minimal because the number of women with only step, adopted or fostered child(ren) is quite small.
Youngest child 0 to 4 years is set to one if the age of the youngest dependent child is 0 to 4 years, and zero otherwise.
Youngest child 5 to 11 years is set to one if the age of the youngest dependent child is 5 to 11 years, and zero otherwise.
Youngest child 12 to 14 years is set to one if the age of the youngest dependent child is 12 to 14 years, and zero otherwise.
Youngest child 15 to 19 years is set to one if the age of the youngest dependent child is 15 to 19 years, and zero otherwise.
Having one or more additional child aged 0 to 4 years is set to one if has two or more children aged 0 to 4 years of age, and zero otherwise.
Having one or more additional children aged 5 to 11 years is set to one if the respondent has two or more children aged 5 to 11 years or has a youngest child aged 0 to 4 years and one child aged 5 to 11 years, and zero otherwise.
Having 4 or more children is set to one if has four or more children, and zero otherwise.
Degree/diploma is set to one if the respondent's highest educational qualification is a higher degree, a post-graduate diploma, bachelor degree, under-graduate diploma or an associate diploma, and zero otherwise.
Vocational is set to one if the respondent's highest educational qualification is a skilled vocational or basic vocational qualification, and zero otherwise. Respondents who reported having a post-secondary qualification but who 'inadequately described' the qualification are coded as having a vocational qualification. Estimates of the model including 'inadequately described' as a separate qualification revealed that there was no difference in the estimated effects of having a vocational and an 'inadequately described' qualification meaning that they can legitimately be combined. Research Paper No. 33, June 2003 Australian Institute of Family Studies 19
No post-secondary qualification and left school aged 17 years or older is set to one if the respondent has no post-secondary qualification and left school aged 17 years or older, and zero otherwise.
No post-secondary qualification and left school aged 15 or 16 years is set to one if the respondent has no post-secondary qualification and left school aged 15 or 16 years of age, and zero otherwise.
No post-secondary qualification and left school aged 14 years or less is set to one if the respondent has no post-secondary qualification and left school aged 14 years or less or never attended school, and zero otherwise.
Capital city is set to one if the respondent lived in a capital, and zero otherwise. The only exception is that Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory are coded as being capital city. It is necessary to do this since the public release data set includes these States and Territories as single areas.
Speak English only is set to one if the respondent does not speak a language other than English at home and zero otherwise.
Good spoken English is set to one if the respondent speaks a language other than English at home and speaks English very well or well and zero otherwise.
Poor spoken English is set to one if the respondent speaks a language other than English at home and speaks English not well or not at all and zero otherwise.
Partner's income: is partner's weekly pre-tax income from all sources. In the census, income data are collected using income brackets. A continuous income variable is constructed using the mid- point of the income bracket. The value assigned to the highest income category is 1.5 times the lower bound of this category. For a small number of couple mothers, their partner's income was negative and coded as zero in the analysis. Also, there were a few couple mothers (3.1 per cent or 556 couple mothers) whose partners were temporarily absent atthe census night.
Australian Institute of
Family Studies, Level 20, 485 La Trobe Street, Melbourne Vic 3000,
Australia.
Tel: (03)
9214 7888. Fax: (03)
9214 7839. URL: http://www.aifs.gov.au/
