Survey Methodology #2012-02 - New Relationship And Marital Questions: A Reflection Of Changes To The Social And Legal Recognition Of Same-Sex Couples In The U.s. - U.s. Census Bureau Page 20

this interview. This was a case of answering based on the respondent’s perception of the legal status of

his relationship.

Another related situation occurred with a male respondent in an opposite‐sex domestic partnership who

reported his legal marital status (never married for himself, divorced for his partner) because he said

that a domestic partnership is not a marital status. He took the question wording seriously and

answered accordingly.

The final case in which the respondent’s report was inconsistent with his actual status was a gay

respondent who was in a civil union and reported “divorced” for himself and “never married” for his

partner. This occurred because he did not see the term “civil union” in the new response category. He

noticed the new category, but did not see the part of the category that applied to him.

The inconsistencies in reporting of the legal status of these respondents resulted in inconsistent

reporting across the two question versions for only one of them. The respondent who was married in

Canada marked “now married” in the version with the follow‐up question. Even though the marriage is

not legally recognized in this country, this category was closer to the truth than his only other option,

“never married.” Thus, in one version he demoted his status to one that he thought was more legal

even though it wasn’t true; in the other version he answered correctly ‐‐ even though he thought he

shouldn’t ‐‐ because it was the closest option. In the other three cases, the domestic partnership or civil

union was reported in the follow‐up question and the respondent’s actual marital status was reported in

the first part of the question. When respondents who answered this question series initially were asked

whether they thought these questions adequately captured their status, they generally said yes; they

were able to report their domestic partnership in the follow‐up question, and if they were not

registered, they were able to report that they were partnered with someone in the household.

0 votes

Parent category: Legal