C. Data Management and Analysis Core1. ObjectiveThe objective of the Data Management and Analysis Core is to continue to provide data managementservices and statistical expertise to Program Project investigators in a wide range of data acquisition andanalysis activities. Integral to the goals of each project is the management and analysis of Core observational,interview, questionnaire, and behavioral data, as well as management and analysis of data from the individualprojects. Data management activities draw on the considerable resources of the Data Management andAnalysis Center (DMAC) at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center (FPG) at UNC and TheMethodology Center (TMC) at PSD.
Specific Aims of the Data Management and Analysis Core are to:1) Implement the planned missing design in conjunction with the Executive Committee.2) Develop and maintain data management strategies that process data collected in the common protocol andthe individual projects efficiently and accurately.3) Design and maintain integrated databases of project and common protocol data.4) Develop and implement data analysis plans using innovative analytic methods for longitudinal dataincluding variable-centered and person-centered approaches to address research questions incollaboration with project investigators.5) To set in place a data archiving system for data sharing.These goals require the collaboration of experienced statisticians and computer programmers. The DMACprogrammers have expertise in all aspects of quantitative data management, from the entry and tracking ofdata to the generation of analysis files and statistical programming. The DMAC and TMC statisticianscollaborated with these and other investigators regarding design and statistical issues across many earlychildhood research projects. The Data Management and Analysis Core provides high level expertise to theProgram Project in each of these areas. The use of an experienced data acquisition and analysis center toprocess and analyze data across the projects will provide both high levels of quality control and costeffectiveness.A central data acquisition and analysis center is especially important for this Program Project because datafrom each project contributes to the common protocol for use by all projects in addressing their hypotheses.In particular, executive functioning and self regulation measures collected by Project I, classroom observationsand child cognitive/academic outcomes collected by Project II, and family process measures collected byProject III, and community measures from the core are primary predictor or outcome measures used inanalyses by all projects. Central coordination of data processing and analysis will ensure the consistent andtimely processing of these data^for-all- inyestigatgrsv Careful documentation of data scoring, including the'reliability and distributions of summary variables, will facilitate the use of one project's data by other projectinvestigators.The services provided by the Data Management and Analysis Core pertain to almost all phases of theresearch including design, data collection, data entry, and analysis. The main advantage of having acentralized facility for data management and computing is the ability to provide coordinated services thataddress the wide range of issues involved in these activities. By coordinating data processing activities for allprojects, duplication of effort is reduced, efficiencies of data management and analyses are generated, andopportunities for higher level analysis across data sets from different projects are made available. Thus,maximum communication is obtained across all projects to further the understanding of data to be analyzed, aswell as the statistical procedures for those analyses. Furthermore, synergy among projects is enhancedthrough having the same programmers and statisticians working across projects.
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