The CHRR Database Investigator
3.0 Contents Window
In the Contents window, the Cohort drop-down box should display "NLSY79 - 1979-1998 Public Version 10.x". If not, make sure it appears by selecting it from the drop-down menu.
 | The top frame of the Contents window should display a tree under the root directory, NLSY79 - 1979-1998 Public Version 10.x. This tree contains the subdirectories, "Documents" and "Indexes". Any of these directories may be expanded by clicking on the '+' box or collapsed by clicking on the '-' box. |
Figure 1 shows the Contents window maximized. You may switch among the windows by clicking on the three buttons in the top right: Contents, Variables, and Text/Cdbk.
3.1 Indexes
We are going to look at the contents of the subdirectory "Indexes" first. The contents of this subdirectory are methods of access (indexes) to the variables collected in the survey. They provide multi-faceted access to the variables. When starting out the first index to look at closely is the "Area of Interest" index.
| To select the Area of Interest index from the subdirectory, double-click on it. A list of the areas of interest will appear in the frame entitled Area of Interest. The contents of each index are groupings of like variables. To view the individual variables in a group you must open the group to display its contents. |
3.2 Areas of Interest
Variables sharing a common factor, such as topic, research use, or source; or variables which have been asked identically over time are stored in organizational units called "areas of interest". Each variable is assigned to an "area of interest" group. In this tutorial we will be looking more closely at three areas of interest that users should be aware of:
- COMMOM: respondent's identification, sample, race, sex, reason for non-interview, number of weeks worked, etc.;
- KEYVARS: created variables like age, residence, employment status, weeks worked , highest grade achieved, marital status, family size, total family income, poverty level & status, sampling weight, etc.;
- FERTILE: age at first marriage, age at first birth, number of children in the household, children's' dates of birth, sex of children, residence of children, etc.
To open a group of variables, for example, go to the area of interest called COMMON by typing 'c', 'o', 'm'. The highlight bar should jump to the first occurrence of 'com'. (You can also scroll down and click on COMMON or place the cursor in the Search for box and begin typing 'c', 'o', etc.)
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| Figure 1 Contents Window - Area of Interest Frame |
| Double-click on COMMON to view the list of variables assigned to the term COMMON. The number of occurrences of the variable is indicated in the Entries field of the Contents window. When you double-click on COMMON the Variables window will appear displaying all the variables assigned to the COMMON area of interest. |
Next section, 4.0 Variables Window - Variables List.