Codes

This variable is not available for any of the currently selected samples.

Description

GOTALCH indicates whether the respondent received income from alimony and/or child support during the previous calendar year. For 1976-1987, the amounts of income from alimony and child support were subsumed in a residual category for income from various "other" sources (sources other than wages, business, farm, welfare, Social Security, welfare, Supplemental Security Income, other government programs, retirement income, interest, dividends, rent, estates and trusts, and royalties) in the INCALOTH variable.

Along with alimony and child support, the other specific income sources included in INCALOTH for 1976-1987 are regular contributions from persons outside the household and the residual "anything else" category (e.g., income from hobbies, severance pay, and foster child payments). If respondents did not receive income from regular contributions from people living outside the household during the previous calendar year (i.e., they have a code of 1 in GOTREGCT), they did not receive income from "anything else" not covered by more specific income questions during the previous calendar year (i.e., they have a code of 1 in GOTELSE), and they did receive income from alimony and/or child support during the previous calendar year (i.e., they have a code of 2 in GOTALCH), then the dollar amount in INCALOTH for 1976-1987 should indicate the amount of income specifically from alimony and/or child support. If individuals reported receiving income from regular contributions and/or "anything else" in addition to receiving alimony or child support, then the amount of income specifically from alimony and child support cannot be identified during these years. Even in this case, however, researchers can use GOTALCH to analyze the characteristics of the recipients of alimony and/or child support.

Comparability

This variable is comparable over time. The original public use data files for the ASEC CPS for 1969-1975 also contain this variable, but the results are not reliable. In the 1969-1975 files, many persons coded as yes in GOTALCH do not have reported income in INCALOTH, which included income from alimony and child support during those years.

Beginning in 1988, the amounts of income received from alimony and child support during the previous calendar year are reported in the INCALIM and INCCHILD variables, respectively. Persons with income in INCALIM and/or INCCHILD (i.e., those with values between 1 and 99998 in either variable) for 1988-2004 can be compared to persons with a yes response (code 2) in GOTALCH for 1976-1987.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables

• UH_INCS11_A2