Recoding Marital Status
Table 2A has five categories for marital status. We might want to simplify that table by recoding marital status so that it has fewer categories. This would be especially desirable if we feel that the differences between some categories are small. For example, if we think that the difference in voting behavior between single individuals and divorced or separated individuals is quite small, and the difference between these two groups and those who are married is much larger, then we might want to recode the variable.
If we want to recode marital status so that it has just two categories, we would want to place single and divorced/separated individuals into one category, and married individuals into a different category. Conceptually, single and divorced people are in a different family situation than married people are. Moreover, Table 2A shows us that married voters were much more likely to vote Republican than were the single or divorced voters, who were fairly similar in their voting.
It is less clear where we should place those who are widowed. Should widowed individuals be placed with the married individuals or with the single or divorced/separated individuals? The widowed individuals are conceptually between these two groups in terms of their marital situation. They are not currently married, making them similar to the separated or divorced individuals in that sense. On the other hand, most of them probably were married for a long time and became widowed only in old age, and they presumably did not want their marriage to end, giving them more in common with those who are now married. In terms of their likelihood of voting Republican (or Democratic), they are somewhere between these two groups — more Republican than single people, but less Republican than married people. One might suggest that if widowed individuals are not clearly in either category, they should be left as a separate category. However, there are only about 200 widowed voters in the survey, so this might result in small Ns in our tables if we try to further explore this relationship by introducing another variable (e.g., gender or income) into the analysis.
Those who are not married but who have a domestic partner present a similar problem for recoding. Having a domestic partner would in some ways make them close to those who are married — as both groups are people who are in a committed, monogamous, romantic relationship — so it would seem that they should be recoded into the married group, not into the single or divorced group. On the other hand, these people have chosen not to get married, although perhaps some are not able to legally marry because their partner is of the same sex. Also, this group is very strongly Democratic in its voting, making them quite different from the married individuals in their political behavior — even if they are similar in their marital situation.
While a case can be made for either decision regarding how widowed individuals or those with domestic partners should be categorized, we think that it makes more sense to put both groups with the married individuals, as they seem more similar in their marital or domestic situations or experiences, so that is how we suggest that you recode marital status. Thus, your recoded marital status variable should have two categories:
Individuals who are married, widowed, or living with a domestic partner; and
Single and divorced or separated individuals.
Although one could argue that both the widowed and living with a domestic partner groups should each be retained as separate categories, rather than recoded into the married group, doing so would leave us with four groups after recoding, which would not be much different from the five groups in the original variable. Reducing marital status from five categories to four does not achieve our goal of simplying the table.
Another possibility would be to combine widowed individuals with those who have domestic partners into one separate category, thus yielding three categories:
- Married;
- Widowed and domestic partners;
- Single, divorced, and separated individuals.
However, this method combines two quite different groups, widowed individuals and those with a domestic partner, into one category even though they do not seem to have much in common. Each group seems to have more in common with married people than they do with each other.
We emphasize that the method of recoding marital status that we suggest is not the only logical way of doing so. Someone else might think that it makes more sense to place those who are living with a partner into the same category as those who are single or divorced. Others might think that widowed individuals belong in that category as well. Still others might opt for having three categories. Recoding often involves making decisions on theoretical grounds. One must think about the underlying concept that the variable is attempting to measure and recode in a manner that best captures it. Sometimes there is not one clearly best way to recode a variable.