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 28

support for re‐ordering the first four categories so that the two opposite‐sex categories come first, and

then the two same‐sex categories.

A couple of reasons support the decision to use this version. For one thing, respondents preferred that

version by a 2‐to‐1 margin. For another, delineating same‐ and opposite‐sex in the relationship

categories would help reduce classification errors by providing a check against mismarks in the sex

question. Similar categories are used by Statistics Canada and have shown to reduce misreporting of

opposite‐sex couples as same‐sex couples (Lathe, personal communication). This delineation may,

however, also open the door for more same‐sex couples without legal status to select “same sex

husband/wife.” Reordering the categories to place the two same‐sex categories together should reduce

the extent of this potential misreporting somewhat. But in the end, we cannot know the impacts of this

delineation until we can obtain quantitative results from a controlled experiment.

The recommendation for the marital status question is murkier. Although the respondents’ preferences

for the question including the “in a registered domestic partnership or civil union” category were

overwhelming, their understanding of the concept is marginal at best. Further qualitative testing using

the embedded question with larger numbers of same‐sex couples without legal status and with

opposite‐sex unmarried couples would provide a better sense of whether reports of domestic

partnerships and civil unions would be inflated by respondents misreporting because they don’t

understand the category. For now, it may be safer to collect this information in a separate question and

not tamper with the current marital status categories.

Finally, we recommend adding the cohabitation question as part of the marital history series. This

serves two purposes. It provides a place for respondents without legal relationships to acknowledge

their partnership status, which responds to some of the negative feedback we heard during the focus

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Parent category: Legal