Personid of linked spouse, 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 recorded 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. In the SSB, the marital link between SIPP respondents denoted by personid and spouse_personid has been synthesized so that family characteristics cannot be used as a blocking variable in a re-identification attack.