Personid of linked spouse. Across the Gold Standard and Completed Data files, spouse_personid uniquely identifies spouses of SIPP respondents. In the SSB, spouse_personid uniquely identifies records within a particular implicate. In order to strengthen confidentiality protection, spouse_personid in the SSB does not link records across implicates or to the Gold Standard and Completed Data files. Linked spouse is defined as the first person to whom the SIPP respondent was married during the time period covered by the SIPP panel. Individuals could enter the panel already married and then each would be linked to the other. Individuals could also get married during the course of the panel. If this was the first observed marriage for each member of the couple, they were linked together. Individuals could also get divorced during the course of the panel and then remarry. In many cases, this later marriage caused a new individual to join the panel. This new SIPP respondent would only be linked to his or her spouse if the spouse (and original SIPP sample member) had not already been observed married to someone else. If the original SIPP sample member had been previously linked by marriage to another SIPP sample member, this original link was maintained in spouse_personid. However the marital history reflects the ending of this marriage and the occurrence of the next marriage for the original SIPP sample member. Likewise, the new SIPP sample member who joins through marriage will have that marriage date recorded in his or her marital history but will have a blank spouse_personid. In summary, this variable captures only one marriage partner and does not provide a history of marriage partners even if this history is (partially) observed in the SIPP. The link between SIPP respondents and their spouses has not been perturbed in any way in the SSB. The same individuals will be linked as married partners in the Gold Standard, the Completed Data, and the SSB.