| Description: | Project Background:
There is currently concern that the strain of war on military personnel might be leading to increased rates of risky or unhealthy behavior, such as substance abuse and crime. Our goal is to assemble existing data collected by multiple federal agencies and military organizations, and summarize in a series of reports noteworthy behavioral trends in current military personnel and veterans. These reports will provide a resource for policy makers and military leaders, who are called upon to provide information on the well-being of military personnel and to develop support programs as needed. We will present longitudinal statistical data for three target groups, i.e. service members on active duty, including Regular, Reserve, and National Guard troops, non-activated Reserve and National Guard service members, and veterans, with comparisons made between combat veterans and non-combat veterans when possible.
There are several major data sources being used by this project. Some data, like the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) data collected by the Bureaus of Labor Statistics and the Census, require minimal preparation before starting original analyses. Other data, such as the Status of Forces (SOF) survey data, require considerable clean-up work before they can be used. The data are used to analyze behavioral outcome variables, and the results are formatted as PowerPoint slides for a general audience.
Tasks:
1. Data management - requires experience using Excel and SPSS. Generally, each data set contains between 10,000 and 155,000 cases with between 200 and 400 variables. Some data sets have more than 500,000 cases and more than 500 variables. The data are generally received in non-SPSS format (e.g., .txt or .dat files), so appropriate SPSS syntax is either written or modified to import the data files. Survey data from multiple time periods (e.g., SOF data collected 3 times each year) must be checked for consistency among variable labels and values and then aggregated into a single data set. New composite variables are frequently created.
2. Data analysis - requires experience using SPSS (e.g., writing syntax, reading output, etc.) and knowledge of appropriate univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical tests/analysis. Written documentation of results to be included in the finished product include information on the original variables and subsequent changes/transformations, as well as an explanation/justification of the tests/techniques/analysis used.
3. Presentation of results - requires experience using Excel (e.g., creating charts/graphs) and PowerPoint. The finished product will be a series of PowerPoint slides designed for a general audience.
Up to 75% of time may be spent on data management, with the remaining time split between data analysis and presentation of results. Actual allocation of time between the three tasks will be influenced by a number of factors, especially the arrival of data from outside agencies.
Work location:
All work must be completed on-site at the Naval Health Research Center, 140 Sylvester Road, San Diego, CA 92106-3521. NHRC is located on the Navy's Sub Base, Point Loma.
Work hours:
The work schedule can be very flexible - the only constraint may be if more than 1 person is assigned to a specific computer workstation, but this is unlikely. In general, the work week would consist of 15 to 20 hours, which could be scheduled any time between the hours of 7 am and 6 pm Monday - Friday, but no more than 9 hours worked per day.
Period of employment:
August 2009 - December 2009. Depending upon funding provided for the new fiscal year (begins Oct 2009), continued employment from Jan 2010 - June 2010 may be possible.
Employer:
SDSU Foundation, 5250 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182 will employ selected applicants as contractors for NHRC.
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