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Information Before You Order NSCAW

This page contains important information about the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being NSCAW General Release and NSCAW Restricted Release data.

Overview

Two different versions of the NSCAW data are available to members of the research community who meet eligibility criteria and agree to the requirements of the data license. The NDACAN distribution of NSCAW data has been established in consultation with the Research Triangle Institute and the NSCAW Research Group, to permit dissemination of NSCAW data to responsible researchers while satisfying concerns about respondent anonymity.

The least restrictive version is known as the NSCAW General Release Data. Identifying information and geographic detail have been removed from this version and variables posing a risk of respondent disclosure have been recoded to make identification of individuals unlikely. NDACAN recommends that researchers initially obtain the General Release Data when they are learning to use the NSCAW data.

If you plan to publish research results using NSCAW data, NDACAN highly recommends that researchers obtain the NSCAW Restricted version for publication-level research, not the General Release version. The General Release version is only suitable for gaining an understanding of the study structure and the required statistical methods, but the Restricted Release version has more data and greater research utility because geographic detail is present and fewer variables have been recoded. For more information about why the Restricted Release is recommended over than the General Release, please contact NDACAN.

The NSCAW Restricted Release presents a higher risk to respondent confidentiality than the NSCAW General Release Data, and are, therefore, only made available to researchers who can justify a need for high level access and who are willing to follow additional application requirements.

If you are unsure whether the NSCAW Restricted Release version contains variables that will address your research topic, please request the NSCAW Restricted Release documentation by e-mailing NDACANsupport@cornell.edu with your complete contact information.

Eligibility and Instructions to Obtain NSCAW Data

NSCAW General Release: these data are available to most researchers and requires submission of an NDACAN Terms of Use Agreement and the other information listed in the instructions for ordering non-restricted datasets.

NSCAW Restricted Release: Researchers must apply to receive the NSCAW Restricted data by following the instructions to request a restricted dataset. This process creates a 3-year license which is valid for receiving any or all of the NSCAW Restricted datasets. As indicated on that page, student access is permitted only as research staff who are listed on a license created and maintained by a faculty person at the same institution.

Please note: employees at child welfare agencies are not presently eligible to obtain any version of the NSCAW data.

NSCAW File Format and Sizes

Data files are distributed in SPSS, SAS, and STATA compatible formats.
Approximate File sizes:

  • NSCAW I General Release: 2 Gigabytes
  • NSCAW II General Release: 1.02 Gigabytes
  • NSCAW III General Release: 180 Megabytes
  • NSCAW I Restricted Release: 2.3 Gigabytes
  • NSCAW II Restricted Release: 1.2 Gigabytes
  • NSCAW III Restricted Release: 600 Megabytes