The BHPS contains rich information on many important individual characteristics, such as partnership and family events, educational level, educational enrollment, household composition, housing tenure, housing type, and housing conditions. At each interview, respondents were asked whether they changed residence since the previous interview and if so, what was the year and month of this residential change. If more than one move happened between two waves, only the most recent one will be recorded. This may lead to an underestimation of residential mobility if short-term moves are present. In our case, this could mean that we underestimate mobility rates 0–4 months after separation. Thus, our estimates will be conservative. Additionally, because retrospective information on residential mobility is not available, when we mention a first or second move, we refer to a first or second
observed move. Nonetheless, mobility rates are in line with what we know from previous studies. Respondents’
partnership status is created using combined retrospective and prospective information
6 on the year and month of the formation and dissolution of up to 10 unions (both cohabitations and marriages) from the Consolidated Marital, Cohabitation, and Fertility Histories data set (Pronzato
2011), and it is categorized as single, married, cohabiting, or separated.
7 When we study long-term effects of separation, we replace the variable “separated” with time since separation (i.e., 0–4 months, 5–11 months, 12–35 months, and 36 or more months). Respondents’
age is measured in five-year age groups: 16–19 (reference), 20–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–39, 40–44, and 45–49. Current
housing type (i.e., housing type before the move) is measured with a categorical variable: detached house, semidetached house (reference), terraced house, flat, and other.
Housing tenure is measured as homeownership (owned outright or with mortgage) (reference), social renting (from local authority, housing association, or employer), and private renting (furnished or unfurnished). Respondents’
educational level is categorized as high (university degree or teaching qualification), medium (A level) (reference category), and low (O levels, CSE, none).
Employment status is categorized as self-employed, full-time employee (reference), part-time employee, student, unemployed, and other. Additionally, we distinguish between six
types of area of residence based on the size and population density of the local authority district: the capital city of London, large cities with a population of more than 400,000 (reference), medium cities (200,000–400,000 inhabitants), towns (fewer than 200,000 inhabitants but a population density of at least 1,000 individuals per km
2), small towns (fewer than 200,000 inhabitants and a population density of 250–1,000 individuals per km
2), and rural areas (fewer than 200,000 inhabitants and fewer than 250 individuals per km
2) (see Kulu and Washbrook
2014).
We control for
order of move and
order of union. Additionally, to control for
period effects in the risk of residential moves, we distinguish four periods: 1991–1994 (reference), 1995–1999, 2000–2004, and 2005–2008. We also control for whether the woman was
pregnant in a given month, and the number of children (one, and two or more children). Last, the separation equation also includes information on whether separation was from cohabitation or marriage. Table S1 (in Online Resource
1) reports the number and proportion of person-months and residential moves in each category of the variables used in the multivariate analyses.