2006 Aboriginal Children's Survey

Question
This is a shot in the dark, but is there any chance that there is something in the works to repeat a survey similar to the 2006 Aboriginal Children's Survey?  I have a researcher looking for similar, but more recent, data for that 0-5 Aboriginal children age range.

Answer
The ACS is inactive, but I found the Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, which is in Pilot for 2016 reference period.

I have contacted the CHSCY analyst and received the following:
"The CHSCY pilot survey will be in collection October 17th to December 10th. The survey explores issues that have an impact on the physical and mental health of children and youth aged 1 to 17, such as physical activity, the use of electronic devices, time spent in school and extracurricular activities and the physical features of their neighbourhoods.  Information from the survey will be used to develop programs and policies to help improve the lives of Canadian children and youth.

Collection will take place in the provinces and territories. The off-reserve aboriginal population are included in the survey.

Collection is planned for either 2018/2019,depending on funding. For the main survey, we anticipate being able to release national estimates for the aboriginal off-reserve population."

I have contacted Social and Aboriginal Surveys Division (SASD) for surveys within their division that may be able to address the researchers needs. Will follow up if there is anything else.

Followup Answer
In follow up with SASD, unfortunately there is no plan to resurrect the 2006 ACS right now. The most similar survey I can think of that would give some information would be the Children's Health Survey that HSD is working on.

ACS and SNC Documentation

Question

I am trying to locate the documentation for the Aboriginal Children's Survey and the Survey of Northern Children.

I found a page on which it said you could link to the questionnaire for ACS http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/af-fdr.cgi?l=eng&loc=http://www.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/instrument/5108_Q2_V1_E-eng.pdf but when I tried that I got to a File Not Found page.

I didn't find the questionnaire or anything else for the SNC.

Answer

Questionnaires for the ACS / SNC 2006 are available at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getInstrumentDocLink&SurvId=29174&SurvVer=1&InstaId=29175&InstaVer=1&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

I accessed this page from the ACSs description in the Definitions, data sources and methods section of the StatCan website (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5108&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2). This page also includes the following information about the SNC: "In 2006, the Survey of Northern Children, originally a component of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (record number 4450), was incorporated into the Aboriginal Children's Survey to provide information on the health and development of children, under the age of 6 years, living in the territories."

If you let me know from which page you linked to the broken link below, I will inform the appropriate unit.

I hope that this helps. Please let me know if you experience any problems accessing these files.

Updated Products: Synthetic File ACS 2006

We are pleased to inform you that the following product is now available to the DLI FTP and website.

Aboriginal Children's Survey 2006 - Synthetic Files

Note: These synthetic files do not contain real data and should never be used for analytical purposes. Their only purpose is to assist users in developing and testing programs that are to be submitted by remote job submission.

"The Aboriginal Children's Survey was designed to provide a picture of the early development of Aboriginal children and the social and living conditions in which they are learning and growing. The survey provides an extensive set of data about Aboriginal (Métis, Inuit, and off-reserve First Nations) children under six years of age in urban, rural, and northern locations across Canada."
(http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5108&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2)

FTP: /DissFTP/dli/DLI-Collection_Other-Products/Aboriginal Children's Survey - Synthetic File/2006

WEB: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/acs-eea-syn-eng.htm

Thank you.

Aboriginal Children's Survey (ACS)

Question

A researcher is requesting access to the Aboriginal Children’s Survey (ACS) which is described at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/aboriginal/acs/5801793-eng.htm. This survey is not yet added to the DLI FTP site (or the DLI web site) so I am wondering if there is a pumf, and, if so, when it will be released to the DLI.

Please note (unless I am missing something) that the DLI web site is quite confusing, as follows:

1) The ACS (survey of under the age of 6 years) is not listed as a DLI product in the Browse the DLI Survey Collection at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/spider/dli.cgi

2) The ACS is listed as a DLI catalogued product in the View catalogued DLI Products at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli_idd/start_debut.do?lang=en.... AND…

a. When you hit the Description link, you are taken to the correct StatCan page for the ACS.

b. BUT… when you hit the DLI link beside this survey, you are taken to the DLI web page for the Aboriginal Peoples Survey, 2006 Children and Youth - aged 6 to 14 (APS) at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/aps-eapa/aps-eapa-2006-cy-eng.htm .

c. This is misleading and confusing because the ACS (survey of under the age of 6 years) is NOT the same survey as the APS survey which has the 6- 14 age group data set.

3) Given there is not yet an ACS folder on the DLI FTP site, I am thinking the ACS should not be listed as DLI Catalogued Product?

The researcher wants the Aboriginal Children’s Survey (ACS), as she is interested in the under 6 age group.

• There is ACS 2006 Concepts and Methods Guide at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=89-634-XWE2008006?=eng#formatdisp.

• There is a Product main page at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=89-634-X?=eng but this only links to a document titled Evaluation of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.

If there is no pumf for the ACS, can you let me know if the master file is available via the RDC program.

Answer

Thank you for your questions regarding the Aboriginal Children's Survey (ACS). I will answer your questions in the order they were asked below.

1) This survey is not listed in the Browse the DLI Survey Collection page because we don't have any products for this survey in the DLI collection presently.

2) The ACS should therefore not be listed as a DLI product in the View catalogued DLI Products at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli_idd/start_debut.do?lang=en

The ACS will be removed from this list.

A. Yes.This link is technically correct but it will disappear when we remove the ACS entry from the View catalogued DLI Products page

B. You are correct, they are not the same. The APS 2006 entry on View catalogued DLI Products presently only links to the Aboriginal Peoples Survey (15 years and over) - 2006 page (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/aps-eapa/aps-eapa-2006-eng.htm). The APS page it links to should provide links to both the APS 15 years and over file and the APS children and youth file. We will modify the APS 2006 page accordingly.

C. You are correct, they are not the same.

3) There is no ACS folder on the FTP site because there aren't any ACS products in the DLI collection presently.
According to the Aboriginal Children's Survey, 2006 : Concepts and Methods Guide (89-634-XWE2008006),

"The master data file for the 2006 ACS is available in Statistics Canada's Research Data Centres (RDCs). Accompanying the file, is the record layout, SAS and SPSS syntax to load the file, as well as metadata in the form of a codebook that describes each variable and provides weighted and unweighted frequency counts.

Supporting data tables that provide provincial and territorial estimates, as well estimates for Inuit regions, for key indicators from the released analytical article are available.

Profiles that provide information on a variety of topics covered in the ACS are available on Statistics Canada's website. Information is displayed for different concepts and levels of geography.

A remote data access service will be available in the spring of 2009. This service will allow researchers to write and test programs on a "synthetic file", which has the same layout as the ACS master data file, however it does not contain the real information from respondents. Once programs have been written and tested, researchers can submit their programs to Statistics Canada, who will run the programs using the master data file, vet the results for confidentiality and return the aggregate data tables to the researchers. This service will be offered on a cost-recoverable basis.
Custom tabulations will be produced, upon request, on a cost-recoverable basis."

Additional Information
I wanted to confirm that the DLI will be receiving a copy of the Aboriginal Children's Survey (ACS) synthetic file. Users will be able to use this file to request data via remote job submission (which will be a fee based service according to the Aboriginal Children's Survey, 2006 : Concepts and Methods Guide (89-634-XWE2008006), cited below) or to prepare a visit to a Research Data Centre (RDC).

The author division hopes to release the file before the end of March but this date may change as the file must be be approved by the Statistics Canada Microdata Release Committee before being released.