My thanks to Dr.
Silvia Bigatti and the health psych faculty who contributed these data sources.
(Not all of these
will be readily available; some require submission of a proposal first; check
with each before making plans)
1. The National Survey of American
Life: Coping with Stress in the 21st
Century
University of
Michigan Institute for Social Research
The primary goal of
the NSAL was to gather data about the physical, emotional, mental, structural,
and economic conditions of Black Americans at the beginning of the new
century. The PRBA hopes that the
information gathered will contribute to more consistent improvements in the
quality of life for Black Americans and aid in reversing the deterioration that
has occurred over the prior two decades (see significance section).
• Personal Data – Early Life
• Neighborhood
• Employment
• Family and Friends
• Discrimination
• Politics and Government
• Income/financial strains/food
insufficiency
• Housing
• Detention
• Chronic Stress
• Activities and School
• Employment
• Social Support
• Racial Identity
• Discrimination
• Health
• Neighborhood
2. National Survey of Midlife Development
in the US (MIDUS II), 2004-2006
Delaney, R. K.
(2014). National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. The
International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 79(4), 329-331.
“With support from
the National Institute on Aging, a longitudinal follow-up of the original MIDUS
samples: core sample (n = 3,487), metropolitan over-samples (n = 757), twins (n
= 998 pairs), and siblings (n = 950), was conducted in 2004-2006. Guiding
hypotheses for it, at the most general level, were that behavioral and
psychosocial factors are consequential for physical and mental health. MIDUS II
respondents were aged 35 to 86.”http://www.midus.wisc.edu/midus2/project1/
Self-administered
questionnaires (134 pages): consistent
series across context that rates now, 10 years ago, and projecting 10 years
into future.
• Health
• work/unemployment
• finances
• community involvement
• neighborhood
• children
• marriage/close relationship
• discrimination (various causes)*
page 128
• life overall
MIDUS II Daily
Stress Project and Study of Daily Experiences, of use??http://www.midus.wisc.edu/midus2/project2/
3. Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Study
• Father-mother relationships
• Relationships with extended kin
• Environmental factors and government
programs
• Education and Employment
• Income
4. Health and Retirement Study (National
Institute on Aging)
Document provides
original source for all the questions.
BELOW AND MORE (62
pages)
• Retrospective Social Participation
• Life Satisfaction
• Social Network (Quality)
• Neighborhood Disorder/Social
Cohesion
• Everyday
Discrimination/Attributions, pages 29, 31:
• Quality of Relationship with parents
in early life / with mother, pages 32, 42
• Major experiences of lifetime
discrimination, page 40
• Lifetime traumas, page 41
• Recent stressful life experiences,
page 43
• Satisfaction with Domains of Life
(?), page 44
• Financial Strain, page 45
• Subjective social status, page 48
• Chronic work discrimination, page 51
• Job stressors and satisfaction, page
53
• Work support, page 54
5. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System
For BRFSS Survey
Questions
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC). Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey
Questionnaire. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, [appropriate year or years].
• Self-rated health
• Chronic Health conditions
• Health risk behaviors?
• Industry and occupation
• Social context module
• Reactions to race module
• Emotional Support and life
satisfaction module
• (Ever been a time when…] you needed
to see a doctor but could not due to cost
• Health care access
• Adverse Childhood Experiences module
(most recent year = 2012, modified/collapsed responses)
6. National Survey of Children’s Health
• Family Stress
• Adverse Family Experiences
• Neighborhood and Community
Characteristics
7. General Social Survey (GSS)
• Women, work, and family
• Social support and networks
• Social inequality
8. Health Information National Trends
Survey (HINTS)
What HINTS Does
HINTS collects
nationally representative data routinely about the American public's use of
cancer-related information. The survey:
• Provides updates on changing
patterns, needs, and information opportunities in health
• Identifies changing communications
trends and practices
• Assesses cancer information access
and usage
• Provides information about how
cancer risks are perceived
• Offers a testbed to researchers to
test new theories in health communication
How HINTS Data Are
Used
The HINTS data
collection program was created to monitor changes in the rapidly evolving field
of health communication. Survey researchers are using the data to understand
how adults 18 years and older use different communication channels, including
the Internet, to obtain vital health information for themselves and their loved
ones. Program planners are using the data to overcome barriers to health
information usage across populations, and obtaining the data they need to
create more effective communication strategies. Finally, social scientists are
using the data to refine their theories of health communication in the
information age and to offer new and better recommendations for reducing the
burden of cancer throughout the population. Hints data are available for public
use.
9. Study of Women’s Health across the
Nation (Swan Study)
The SWAN Public Use
Datasets provide access to longitudinal data describing the physical,
biological, psychological, and social changes that occur during the menopausal
transition. Data collected from 3,302 SWAN participants from Baseline through
the 10th Annual Follow-Up visit are currently freely available to the public.
Users are able to download datasets in a variety of formats, search variables
and view recent publications.
10. Center for Disease Control Data
The National Health
and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is NCHS' most in-depth and
logistically complex survey, operating out of mobile examination centers that
travel to randomly selected sites throughout the country to assess the health
and nutritional status of Americans. This survey combines personal interviews
with standardized physical examinations, diagnostic procedures, and laboratory
tests to obtain information about diagnosed and undiagnosed conditions; growth
and development, including overweight and obesity; diet and nutrition; risk
factors; and environmental exposures.
The National Health
Care Surveys provide information about the organizations and providers that
supply health care, the services they render, and the patients they serve.
Provider sites surveyed include physician offices, community health centers,
ambulatory surgery centers, hospital outpatient and emergency departments,
inpatient hospital units, residential care facilities, nursing homes, home
health care agencies, and hospice organizations. The National Health Care
Surveys are used to study resource use, including staffing; quality of care,
including patient safety; clinical management of specific conditions;
disparities in the use and quality of care; and diffusion of health care
technologies, including drugs, surgical procedures, and information
technologies.
The National Health
Interview Survey (NHIS) provides information on the health status of the U.S.
civilian noninstitutionalized population through confidential interviews
conducted in households by Census Bureau interviewers. NHIS is the Nation's
largest in-person household health survey, providing data on health status,
access to and use of health services, health insurance coverage, immunizations,
risk factors, and health-related behaviors.
The National Vital
Statistics System (NVSS) provides the Nation's official vital statistics data
based on the collection and registration of birth and death events at the state
and local levels. NCHS works in partnership with the vital registration systems
in each jurisdiction to produce critical information on such topics as teenage
births and birth rates, prenatal care and birth weight, risk factors for
adverse pregnancy outcomes, infant mortality rates, leading causes of death,
and life expectancy.
11. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data
Archive (SAMHSA) & The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)
SAMHSA and NSDUH
staff collected the data to be used in this study from the 2006 through 2010
survey results. The public access data will be obtained through the NSDUH
website http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/SAMHDA/browse and downloaded for analysis. Data will be
stored on this researcher’s computer during the dissertation process. At the conclusion of this study, all data
outputs and syntax will be stored on an external drive and locked in a secured
housing unit. Because the entire dataset is public domain, no personal
identifiers or residential locations were provided. Thus, all participants are
anonymous and no additional precautions are necessary. Based on the NSDUH
Codebook for each year, the aforementioned variables were identified based on
codes. Given all data had been previously formatted for SPSS analysis, a simple
extraction of the necessary variables from the database was performed. The
variables that were extracted from the database did not disclose identifiable
aspects of any respondent and was compared as part of a trend analysis across
all 5 years of data (Office of Applied Studies, 2009). The NSDUH series
(formerly titled National Household Survey on Drug Abuse) was formulated
specifically to measure the frequency and possible contributing factors of drug
use in the United States (Office of Applied Studies, 2009). For the purposes of
this study, all participants (approximately over 60,000 per year) within the
public access data file will be analyzed for each year. Note: this file
excludes regional information and all participants under the age of 18 and
other protected populations. All data collected by the NSDUH was prepared under
a contract with the Research Triangle Institute (RTI), a nonprofit organization
that provides research and technical services located in Research Triangle
Park, North Carolina (Office of Applied Studies, 2009). Each NSDUH respondent
was provided an incentive payment of $30 to participate (Hughes et al., 2002;
Hughes et al., 2009; Hughes et al., 2012). GDP figures for analysis will be
downloaded from The World Bank GDP data website at
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG.
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/SAMHDA/browse. For a more detailed description of survey
methods and questions as well as tables and figures illustrating regional
overlap, please refer to
http://www.samhsa.gov/data/population-data-nsduh/reports?tab=32 and click on
desired year of inquiry.
12. Nurses’ Health Study
This is a large
observational cohort investigation to study health status and its antecedents
across the life span. The original Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) begun in 1976,
and the Nurses’ Health Study 2 (NHS2) begun in 1989, NHS3 became available in
2011. These studies represent the largest and most longterm studies ever
conducted on women’s health. Headquartered at Harvard University, the principal
investigators (PIs) are Drs. Frank Speizer (founding PI), Susan E. Hankinson
(current PI and a nurse), and Walter C. Willett (NHS2 PI). Funded by the
National Institutes of Health, the NHS investigated the long-term consequences
of oral contraceptive by enrolling approximately 122,000 nurses from 11 states
who were ages 30 to 55. Every 2 years, participants are surveyed about their
health status, including diseases, smoking, hormone use, and menopausal status.
Over the years additional data have been collected about diet, quality of life,
and biologic samples. Similar in intent to the original NHS, NHS2 enrolled more
than 116,000 nurses between ages 25 and 42 in 1989. The NHS and NHS2 have
sustained response rates of 90% for each 2-year cycle. Because the lifestyle
and environmental exposures of women have changed, NHS3 is currently enrolling
nurses between ages 22 and 42 from across the United States using a totally
web-based data collection method. The central purpose of NHS3 is to examine how
new hormone preparations, dietary patterns, and occupational exposures affect
women’s health. An important goal of NHS3 is to broaden the racial and ethnic
composition of the sample, while more closely studying fertility and pregnancy
events, adolescent diet, and breast cancer risk. You may have already received
an invitation to participate in the NHS3. However, if you were born after
January 1, 1965, are a female nurse, and have not enrolled, I encourage you to
visit the NHS3 website (http://www.nhs3.org/) and consider the opportunity to
become a participant. Similar to NHS and NHS2, participants will be part of a
cohort of more than 100,000 nurses and be asked to respond to surveys about
their health every 2 years. More than 15,000 nurses have already enrolled.
13. National Children’s Study
Mandated by the Children’s
Health Act of 2000, the NCS is being implemented by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH to prospectively
investigate the influence of biological, environmental, genetic, and social
factors on the health and development of children in the United States until
age 21. The NCS broadly defines environment as factors such as air, water,
diet, sound, family dynamics, community and cultural influences, and genetics.
Participants are being enrolled through approximately 105 (79 urban and 26
rural) NCS Centers in 43 states strategically chosen to provide an unbiased,
statistically valid participant cohort representative of the U.S. population.
Participants in the NCS can be women between age 18 and 49 who live in one of
the designated geographic study areas and anticipate becoming pregnant, their
offspring, and the fathers of their children. In addition to these
participants, data sources include their physical, community, social, and
familial environments. Children will be followed until age 21. The NCS website
(http://www.nationalchildren sstudy.gov/) identifies the current and developing
NCS centers. Approximately 37 of the eventual 105 NCS centers are currently
enrolling participants in the Vanguard Study, a pilot study designed to assess
the feasibility, acceptability, and cost of three different recruitment
strategies as well as the study procedures and outcome assessments to be used
in the main study. The NCS website has comprehensive information about the
Vanguard and main studies and links to the study centers
14. Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and
Neglect (Longscan)
LONGSCAN is a
consortium of research studies operating under common by-laws and procedures.
It was initiated in 1990 with grants from the National Center on Child Abuse
and Neglect through a coordinating center at the University of North Carolina
Injury Prevention Research Center and five satellite sites. Each site is
conducting a separate and unique research project on the etiology and impact of
child maltreatment. While each project can stand alone on its own merits,
through the use of common assessment measures, similar data collection methods
and schedules, and pooled analyses, LONGSCAN is a collaborative effort.
The coordinated LONGSCAN
design permits a comprehensive exploration of many critical issues in child
abuse and neglect on acombined sample of sufficient size for unprecedented
statistical power and flexibility. Built into the design is also the ability to
replicate and extend findings across a variety of ethnic, social and economic
subgroups.
The goal of
LONGSCAN is to follow the children and their families until the children
themselves become young adults. Comprehensive assessments of children, their
parents, and their teachers are scheduled to occur at child ages 4, 6, 8, 12,
14, 16, and 18. Maltreatment data is collected from multiple sources, including
record reviews, at least every two years. Yearly telephone interviews allow the
sites to track families and assess yearly service utilization and life events.
TheNational Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) makes a restricted
dataset available to members of the research community who meet eligibility
criteria and agree to the requirements of the data license.
15. National Longitudinal Study of
Adolescent to Adult Health (ADD Health)
The National
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) is a longitudinal
study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7-12 in
the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The Add Health cohort has
been followed into young adulthood with four in-home interviews, the most
recent in 2008, when the sample was aged 24-32*. Add Health combines
longitudinal survey data on respondents’ social, economic, psychological and
physical well-being with contextual data on the family, neighborhood,
community, school, friendships, peer groups, and romantic relationships,
providing unique opportunities to study how social environments and behaviors
in adolescence are linked to health and achievement outcomes in young
adulthood. The fourth wave of interviews expanded the collection of biological
data in Add Health to understand the social, behavioral, and biological
linkages in health trajectories as the Add Health cohort ages through
adulthood.
Next time I will
examine the Abstract. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me
to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your
ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
Chapter One begins your
dissertation, it is separate from the abstract and any information mentioned in
the abstract needs to be repeated. (Please note that I go into much more detail
on each required element in my book). As a faculty member reading your paper, I
will look for an introduction to your study, which puts the study into context,
addressing the "why do we care about this?" question. Also in the
introduction, briefly discuss the current literature, indicating how your study
addresses the gap in the literature. By the time, I finish reading this section,
I should understand the key issues that your study addresses and why your study
is important. 
