TEDS Data Dictionary

4 Year Study Data Files

Contents of this page:

Introduction

This page relates specifically to data collected in the 4 Year booklet study. More general issues relating to the storage and organisation of TEDS data files are discussed on another page.

Raw Data files

These files and sub-directories are currently stored in the \System\Rawdata\4yr\ directory, and the list below refers to files and sub-directories within this directory.

The Access database has been periodically updated to keep it in the most recent Access format, to avoid software compatibility issues. Nevertheless, the essential data from the tables are also stored in exported "copies" in the form of the csv files in the Export folder.

  • 4yr.accdb. This is the Access database file (2007 format) containing all the cleaned 4 Year raw data. This is now treated as the master copy of the data, and is the source of data used in the analysis dataset. The tables in the database are:
    • Adult1, Adult2, Adult3 - data from the body of the 4 Year parent booklet (there are too many columns to be accommodated in a single Access table, so the columns are split between three tables)
    • Child1, Child2, Child3 - data from the 4 Year child booklet (there are too many columns to be accommodated in a single Acess table, so the columns are split between three tables)
    • 4yrProgress - events and dates originally logged in the TEDS admin database, including booklets sent and returned, return dates, and reminders sent
  • \Export\ subdirectory, containing exported 4 Year raw data files.
    These csv files have been exported from the Access database described above, for the purpose of making the analysis dataset. The files are called:
    • Child1.csv, Child2.csv, Child3.csv (twin booklet data),
    • Adult1.csv, Adult2.csv, Adult3.csv (parent booklet data)
    • ReturnDates.csv (dates when 4 Year booklets were logged as returned)

Dataset files

These files are currently stored in the \System\Datasets\4yr\ directory. The following list refers to items within this directory:

  • ddb9456.sav - the current version of the 4 Year dataset (SPSS data file)
  • \working files\ - this subdirectory contains various intermediate files, saved during the process of converting the raw data into the dataset. This includes working datasets d1merge, d2derive, d3label and d4double saved at the end of the first, second, third and fourth script respectively.

Syntax files (scripts)

These files are currently stored in the \System\Scripts\4yr\ directory. These are SPSS syntax files. The names of the scripts are D1_merge.sps, D2_derive.sps, D3_label.sps and D4_double.sps. The processing carried out by these scripts is described on another page.