Identify "lone-parent" household from family relationship matrix

Question

I have a survey dataset which includes intra-household relationships and I'm trying to write code to identify lone parent households, defined as a household where the parent of a dependent child does not have a cohabiting partner.

Intra-family relationships are coded as:

1 = Spouse, 2= Cohabiting partner, 3 = Son/daughter, 4 = Step son/daughter, 5 = Foster child, 6 = Son-in-law/daughter-in-law, 7 = Parent/guardian, 8 = Step-parent, 9 = Foster parent, 10 = Parent-in-law, 11 = Brother/sister, 12 = Step-brother/sister, 13 = Foster brother/sister, 14 = Brother/sister-in-law, 15 = Grand-child, 16 = Grand-parent, 17 = Other relative, 18 = Other non-relative.

The identifiers of a parent therefore are 7, 8, or 9 in any of a person's relationship columns, however whether their child is dependent (under18) is represented in the child's depchild column. Whether the parent of a depchild has a partner is identified by 1 or 2 in any of the parents relationship columns.

I can't preclude the possibility of multiple families within a given household, e.g. (two lone mothers independently living with two dependent children) therefore the presence of two parents within a household with dependent children does not automatically mean a non-lone-parent household. If there are any lone-parents in a household i.e. a parent of a dependent child who does not have a partner, the household should be tagged as lonepar = 1.

Example Data

  household person depchild R01 R02 R03 R04 R05 R06
1          1      1        0  NA   1   7   7  NA  NA
2          1      2        0   1  NA   7   7  NA  NA
3          1      3        0   3   3  NA  11  NA  NA
4          1      4        1   3   3  11  NA  NA  NA
5          2      1        0  NA   7  16  NA  NA  NA
6          2      2        0   3  NA   7  NA  NA  NA
7          2      3        1  15   3  NA  NA  NA  NA
8          3      1        0  NA  18  NA  NA  NA  NA
9          3      2        0  18  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA
10         4      1        0  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA
11         5      1        0  NA   9  NA  NA  NA  NA
12         5      2        1   5  NA  18  NA  NA  NA
13         5      3        0   2  18  NA  NA  NA  NA

In the above example, dependent children depchild are on rows 4, 7 and 12. The parents of the child on row 4 have spouses, indicated by 1 in R02 and R01 respectively; the household is therefore not a lone-parent household, so should be lonepar = 0. The parent of the depchild on row 7 however (row 6) does not have a spouse 1 or a cohabiting partner 2, the household should therefore be lonepar = 1

Output sought

   household person depchild R01 R02 R03 R04 R05 R06 lonepar
1          1      1        0  NA   1   7   7  NA  NA       0
2          1      2        0   1  NA   7   7  NA  NA       0
3          1      3        0   3   3  NA  11  NA  NA       0
4          1      4        1   3   3  11  NA  NA  NA       0
5          2      1        0  NA   7  16  NA  NA  NA       1
6          2      2        0   3  NA   7  NA  NA  NA       1
7          2      3        1  15   3  NA  NA  NA  NA       1
8          3      1        0  NA  18  NA  NA  NA  NA       0
9          3      2        0  18  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA       0
10         4      1        0  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA       0
11         5      1        0  NA   9  NA  NA  NA  NA       0
12         5      2        1   5  NA  18  NA  NA  NA       0
13         5      3        0   2  18  NA  NA  NA  NA       0

Example Code

df <- data.frame(household = c(1,1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,4,5,5,5),
                  person = c(1,2,3,4,1,2,3,1,2,1,1,2,3),
                  depchild = c(0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,0),
                  R01 = c(NA, 1, 3, 3, NA, 3, 15, NA, 18, NA, NA, 5,2),
                  R02 = c(1, NA, 3, 3, 7, NA, 3, 18, NA, NA,  9, NA, 18),
                  R03 = c(7, 7, NA, 11, 16, 7, rep(NA,5), 18, NA),
                  R04 = c(7, 7, 11, rep(NA, 10)),
                  R05 = rep(NA, 13),
                  R06 = rep(NA, 13))

user_12500315 · Answer

Rather than concentrating on relationships of the parents, concentrate on the relationships of the dependent children. If a dependent child only has a single relation with a value of 3, 4, or, 5, then that dependent child only has a single parent in the household.

Essentially, we count up the instances of 3, 4, and 5 in each row for every person in the data frame. Then we group by household. If anyone in that household is a dependent child who only had one instance of a 3, 4, or 5 relationship code, then that household contains a dependent child with only one parent. It is therefore a lone parent household.

library(tidyverse)

df %>%
  rowwise() %>%
  mutate(n = length(na.omit(match(c(R01, R02, R03, R04, R05, R06), 3:5)))) %>%
  group_by(household) %>%
  mutate(lonepar = as.numeric(any(depchild == 1 & n == 1))) %>%
  select(-n)
#> # A tibble: 12 x 10
#> # Groups:   household [5]
#>    household person depchild   R01   R02   R03   R04 R05   R06   lonepar
#>                       
#>  1         1      1        0    NA     1     7     7 NA    NA          0
#>  2         1      2        0     1    NA     7     7 NA    NA          0
#>  3         1      3        0     3     3    NA    11 NA    NA          0
#>  4         1      4        1     3     3    11    NA NA    NA          0
#>  5         2      1        0    NA     7    16    NA NA    NA          1
#>  6         2      2        0     3    NA     7    NA NA    NA          1
#>  7         2      3        1    15     3    NA    NA NA    NA          1
#>  8         3      1        0    NA    18    NA    NA NA    NA          0
#>  9         3      2        0    18    NA    NA    NA NA    NA          0
#> 10         4      1        0    NA    NA    NA    NA NA    NA          0
#> 11         5      1        0    NA     9    NA    NA NA    NA          1
#> 12         5      2        1     5    NA    NA    NA NA    NA          1

^{Created on 2022-05-16 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}

Identify "lone-parent" household from family relationship matrix

1 Answers