Catalogue description Department of Health and Social Security: Children's Difficulties on Starting Infant School Dataset

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Details of BN 94
Reference: BN 94
Title: Department of Health and Social Security: Children's Difficulties on Starting Infant School Dataset
Description:

The Children's Difficulties on Starting Infant School dataset provides descriptive information on the nature and extent of children's difficulties on starting infant school, and the extent to which these difficulties were affected by factors concerned with the organisation of the school intake, such as the age at which children started, the time of year when they started, and the size of the class which they joined. A subsample of the original entrants was followed up 18 months later to obtain some idea of how long their difficulties persisted. Difficulties were assessed by a 13 item rating scale covering all aspects of the child's behaviour: settling, cooperation, relation with teacher, concentration, use of play materials, self-reliance, verbalisation, ability to follow instructions, ability to cope with personal needs, sociability, physical coordination, fine motor control, and general difficulty. This scale was completed for each child individually by the child's teacher. Other information covers age on entry and sex of child.

The datasets in this series are available to download. Links to individual datasets can be found at piece level.
Date: 1975-1976
Arrangement:

The original hardware, Operating System, application software, and user interface are not known.

Logical structure and schema: The Children's Difficulties on Starting Infant School survey consists of one dataset containing three tables. Data was originally recorded on three separate decks of cards. These had been converted into digital format, and were transferred to NDAD as three separate data files in SPSS format, corresponding to the original decks of cards.

How data was originally captured and validated: The data was captured by means of three separate questionnaires, which were completed by the children's teachers. The data for each child was originally recorded on a card, with three separate decks of cards being created, one for each questionnaire. It is not known what methods were used to validate the data originally, although totals of each coded response to each question are shown in the documentation. It is not known at what stage the data was transferred to SPSS format, or whether any other formats of application software were involved in the validation or use of this data.

The Children's Difficulties on Starting Infant School dataset is closed in that once the data was entered they were archived and not subsequently overwritten by other data.

Validation performed after transfer: Details of the content and transformation validation checks performed by NDAD on the Reasons for Retirement dataset are contained in the catalogues of individual datasets.

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Copies held at:

A copy of the dataset is also held at the Data Archive at the University of Essex where it has been given the Study reference number 1514.
Former reference in The National Archives: CRDA/33
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Department of Health and Social Security, 1968-1988
Physical description: 2 datasets and documentation
Restrictions on use: The Children's Difficulties on Starting Infant School dataset and related dataset documentation is subject to Crown Copyright; copies may be made for private study and research purposes only.
Access conditions: Open
Immediate source of acquisition:

In 2010 the United Kingdom National Digital Archive of Datasets
Custodial history: This dataset was deposited by the Department of Health and Social Security at the Economic and Social Research Council Data Archive, University of Essex, before 1981. The dataset was then transferred to the United Kingdom National Digital Archive of Datasets (NDAD) who held it until 2010 when it was transferred to The National Archives (TNA).
Accumulation dates: 1975
Selection and destruction information: Dataset selected in entirety.
Accruals: No further accruals are expected.
Unpublished finding aids:

Extent of documentation: 6 documents, Dates of creation of documentation: 1975-1976

Administrative / biographical background:

The Children's Difficulties on Starting Infant School dataset comes under the auspices of the Department of Health and Social Security which existed from 1968 to 1988. The principal investigators were Martin Hughes and G Pinkerton from the Thomas Coram Research Unit within the Institute of Education, University of London. The Thomas Coram Research Unit is a multidisciplinary research unit within the Institute of Education and a designated research unit of the Department of Health.

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