National Longitudinal Survey
of Children and Youth Guide

WHAT IS NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL SURVEY OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH?

The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) is a long-term survey, conducted by Statistics Canada, designed to measure child development and well-being. At Memorial University, it is accessible on the Internet via University of Western Ontario Internet Data Library System (IDLS). IDLS is an Internet-based system for providing access to and retrieval of machine readable data files. The primary objective of the NLSCY is to develop a national database on the characteristics and life experiences of children and youth in Canada as they grow from infancy to adulthood .

The requirement for the NLSCY design was to select a representative sample of children in Canada and to follow and monitor these children over time into adulthood. The target population of the NLSCY consisted of Canadian children aged newborn to 11 years of age. The NLSCY design and sample has been constructed so that it will be possible to produce both cross-sectional and longitudinal estimates.

HOW TO ACCESS NLSCY

You may access NLSCY via the Internet by typing the URL :

http://www.sscl.uwo.ca/sscl/drl/ndls/nlscyw1p.html

SCOPE OF THIS GUIDE

This guide has been prepared for users who have some familiarity with Netscape. It guides the user through using IDLS. More detailed information is available in the accompanying binder (MEDIA HQ 792 C3 N35 1996).

MOVING AROUND NLSCY

IDLS is intended to be a straight forward system to use. The main menu includes six buttons, which may be selected depending on the task the user wishes to accomplish.

1) VIEW FILE DESCRIPTION

2) SELECT VARIABLES

3) ENTER E-MAIL ADDRESS

4) SUPPLEMENTAL FILES

5) RETRIEVE DATA

6) HELP WITH IDLS

To access each button, use the mouse pad and click on the button.

HELP WITH IDLS - the help note gives an overview of the Internet Data Library System (IDLS).

VIEW FILE DESCRIPTION - The file description, which will appear in the lower window may contain information about the population sampled, sampling techniques used, information about the investigators etc.

When you are done with this file, use the BACK button provided by your browser. It is recommended that you look at the file description before beginning to select variables.

THE PROCESS OF RETRIEVING INFORMATION INVOLVES FOUR STEPS. THESE STEPS MUST BE FOLLOWED IN ORDER.

1.Click on SELECT VARIABLES - Only those variables which you select by clicking in the check-box to the left of the variable name will be retrieved when you submit your request. If you click on the variable label to the right of the variable name, information specific to the variable will be displayed in the upper window of your screen. Once you have selected the variables you wish to use, you can go to step 2-4.

2. This step is optional-

Click on ENTER E-MAIL ADDRESS - When you submit your request, it will take a variable length of time for the data to be returned to you. If you are still attached to IDLS when the retrieval is completed, you will be prompted to download the file. If you wish to exit, by providing your e-mail address the system has the ability to notify you where the data you have requested is stored, and what the URL for that file is.

You should expect to wait a few minutes. The more variables requested, the longer you should expect to wait.

Once you have entered your e-mail address, you can go to step 3.

3.This step is optional: as many or as few supplemental files desired can be selected.

Click on SUPPLEMENTAL FILES -IDLS can automatically generate SPSS, SAS and BMDP data set descriptions for the subset of data which you request. This will include record/column locations, variable and value labels, and missing value declarations, as appropriate.

4. Click on RETRIEVE DATA - When you click on this button, a button will appear

labelled CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH THE DATA RETRIEVAL JOB. By clicking on this button, you submit a request to the SSCL computer system to construct your data subset.

The data that you requested will be extracted from the source data file and a new file created. This subset, and any supplemental files you have requested, will be compressed using a ZIP program.

Once these tasks are completed, you will be sent an E-mail message containing your request. You will be sent a second e-mail message which tells you the URL of the file where your data is stored.

If you are still connected to IDLS, a message will appear when the data requested is ready. This message will be similar to the following:

Download idls123456789.zip

By clicking on this, you can FTP the data to your computer.

NOTE: THIS FILE HAS BEEN ZIPPED. IN ORDER TO ACCESS IT YOU MUST HAVE AN UNZIP PROGRAM.

Once you click on the message, a box will appear asking you what you wish to do with the file:

Open it

Save it to disk

Choose one option and click OK.

Depending on the type of unzip program available to you, you will now be prompted through the unzipping process.

FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE

For help in using IDLS or the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, contact the staff at the Media and Data Centre.

March 24, 2010
Gillian Byrne