TEDS Data Dictionary

1st Contact Study Data Files

Contents of this page:

Introduction

This page relates specifically to data collected in the 1st Contact 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\1c\ directory, and the list below refers to items 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.

  • 1c.accdb. This is the Access database file (2007 format) containing all the cleaned 1st Contact data. This is now treated as the master copy of the data, and is the source of data used to make the analysis dataset. The data from the 1st Contact booklet is split into several database tables, because there are too many columns to be accommodated in a single Access table.
  • \Export\ subdirectory: exported 1st Contact data files.
    These csv files have been exported from the Access database described above, for the purpose of making the analysis dataset. There are 4 exported 1st Contact raw data files, named Part1.csv, Part2.csv, Part3.csv respectively for the booklet data, and Returndates.csv for the file of booklet return dates that were originally logged in the admin system. Each file corresponds to data from a single table in the Access database.
  • \Export\ subdirectory: other exported data files.
    These are raw data files used for deriving background variables as well as for the 1st Contact dataset. The source of these files is the TEDS admin database. The files contain basic descriptive data, which is continually corrected and updated over time through contacts with parents. The files are as follows:
    • TwinOrder.csv - twin IDs, birth orders and sexes
    • ONSbirthdates.csv - twin birth dates
    • TwinMedicalExclusions.csv - medical condition and medical exclusion information for each twin
    • Zygosities.csv - twin DNA zygosity test results
    These are all .csv files. Every one of these files includes data for all 13945 families in the TEDS sample, regardless of what data they have or have not provided.

Dataset files

These files are currently stored in the \System\Datasets\1c\ directory. The following list refers to items within this directory. All are SPSS data files, unless otherwise stated.

  • adb9456.sav - the current version of the 1st Contact dataset, constructed using the SPSS scripts (post-2013)
  • \working files\ - this subdirectory contains various intermediate files, saved during the process of converting the raw data into the dataset. This includes working datasets a1merge, a2double, a3clean, a4derive and a5label, saved at the end of each of the respective SPSS scripts.

Syntax files (scripts)

These files are currently stored in the \System\Scripts\1c\ directory. Note that these are SPSS syntax files. The names of the scripts are A1_merge.sps, A2_double.sps, A3_clean.sps, A4_derive.sps and A5_label.sps. The processing carried out by these scripts is described on another page.