Archiving and Sharing Data from a Nationally Representative Survey on Sexual and Reproductive Behavior and Health
openNICHD - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The United States (U.S.) faces numerous challenges related to sexual and reproductive health. These include high rates of unintended pregnancy, sexually transmissible infections, and sexual dysfunction; declining rates of partnered sex which has implications for relationship/marital satisfaction as well as family formation; uneven access to reproductive health care; sexual abuse, which occurs in both in-person and digital spaces; and sexual violence. There is also wide variation between and within U.S. states in regard to young people’s access to school-based reproductive and relationship education. U.S. health education curricula, health policies, and health services require accurate and up-to-date data on the sexual and reproductive behaviors, attitudes, and experiences of the U.S. population. Since 2009, our interdisciplinary team at Indiana University has led the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB)—the nation’s only U.S. nationally representative probability survey that is focused on sexual and reproductive health, includes detailed assessments of sexual and reproductive behaviors, and samples individuals from adolescence through advanced age. More than 30,000 U.S. adolescents and adults have contributed data to at least one wave of NSSHB data collection including a subset who have participated in multiple waves of data collection. However, NSSHB Waves 1-7 were privately funded and did not include support for data sharing activities. Given the widespread sexual and reproductive health challenges facing the U.S., there is a critical need to make NSSHB data widely available so that researchers can address important sexual and reproductive health questions in their work. The overall objective of this submission is to make NSSHB Waves 1 – 7 data on contemporary sexual and reproductive health issues widely available. Our project is focused on four aims. We will: (1) Archive the NSSHB data sets for Waves 1-7 with the Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR) project that is housed within the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research; (2) Create detailed codebooks for NSSHB Waves 1-7 that will support people in using the data sets. (3) Develop a training module that addresses ethical use of the data; and (4) Create additional materials to support NSSHB data users. The NSSHB Waves 1-7 data are unparalleled in the behaviors they assess, the breadth of ages they include, and the opportunities to examine changes in sexual and reproductive health over time. By making these data sets and their associated materials widely available, we will make a substantial impact on the scientific community, leading to new knowledge and numerous publications that will support researchers, policy makers, educators and clinicians in their work.
Up to $159K
health research