Group Children into Sibling Sets

Creates sibling groups from eligible children within a synthetic population.

Usage

group_children(object, mask, child_position)

Arguments

object

A ReplicaStructure object.

mask

Logical vector identifying agents eligible for child grouping.

child_position

Position definition returned by getPositionForName for the "child" role.

Value

A list of sibling groups.

Each sibling group is represented as a character vector of agent identifiers.

The updated ReplicaStructure object is attached as:

attr(result, "object")

Details

Children are grouped according to the child-position specification stored in a ReplicaStructure object.

The algorithm:

• Identifies all eligible children.

• Randomises the candidate pool to avoid systematic ordering effects.

• Selects an initial child.

• Iteratively finds the most age-similar sibling using findSiblingFromPool.

• Creates sibling groups of the required size.

• Marks assigned children as unavailable for future household generation.

This method is typically called indirectly through createFromMembers during household generation.

The number of children per sibling group is determined by the amount element of the child-position definition.

Children are assigned exactly once. Assigned children are recorded in sampled_agents and removed from the pool of eligible children.

Age similarity between children is evaluated using score_sibling_age_suitability.

See also

matchAdultsWithChildren, createFromMembers, ReplicaStructure

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{

child_position <- getPositionForName(
  hh,
  "child"
)

groups <- group_children(
  hh,
  mask = rep(
    TRUE,
    nrow(pop)
  ),
  child_position = child_position
)

groups

} # }