This SBIR Phase I project will examine the feasibility of expanding Sociometrics' efforts in enhancing the public availability and dissemination of the best and most current data on the status and well- being of American families and children. The project has two specific aims: first, to update, expand, and augment the American Family Data Archive collection by including new data sets and by adding searchable, machine-readable instruments to the archive; and, second, to create two data products on the American family that demonstrate how scientific data can produce information of use for individual decision-making and informed judgment, as well as social policymaking: (a) a factbook organized around the status of the American family and children on various educational, economic, health, social, and psychological indicators; and (b) a multimedia CD-ROM disk organized around the same family problems and issues as the factbook, showing in interesting fashion (with pictures, sound, graphics, and animation) what science can tell us about the current status and well being of the American family.
