FILE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

FILE STRUCTURE

The 2016 PSS microdata file has a hierarchical structure, as illustrated below:

1. Household level
	2. Person level
		3. Violence most recent incident level
		4. Violence prevalence level
		5. Partner violence level
		6. Partner emotional abuse level

For the Household and Person levels, each person (noting there is one selected person per household) is represented in a single record. In the other levels, a person may be represented by one or more records, depending on how many different types of violence/partner violence/partner emotional abuse they have experienced.

The Household and Person levels can be linked to each other, in a one-to-one relationship. For example, the ‘Sex’ data item (found on the Person level) can be cross tabulated with the ‘State or Territory of usual residence’ data item (found on the Household level).

Each of the lower levels can be linked to the Person level and Household level (in a one-to-many relationship) but not to each other. For example, the Violence prevalence level can be linked to the Person level (and in turn to the Household level) as the single record found on the Person level can be applied to each of the records for the same person found on the Violence prevalence level. However, the Violence prevalence level cannot be simply linked to the Partner violence level due to differing numbers of records per person and differing content focuses for each record. For example, a respondent may have 7 records on the Violence prevalence level and 2 records on the Partner violence level, and the second record on the Partner violence level may not be related to violence reported in the second record of the Violence prevalence level.


FILE CONTENT

The 2016 PSS microdata contains data available across six levels:

• Household level - information about the household size and structure, geography and household income details.
• Person level - information on all demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the survey respondents and their current partner (if applicable). Additionally, this level also contains information on the respondents’ experiences of Abuse before the age of 15, Sexual harassment and Stalking. The Person level also contains a number of high level aggregate items which provide summary information related to the various topics covered in the 2016 PSS.
• Violence most recent incident level - information on characteristics of the most recent incident (MRI) for each type of violence (physical/sexual assault/threat by a man or woman) experienced within the 10 years prior to the survey (and that occurred since the age of 15).
• Violence prevalence level - information on each type of violence experienced since the age of 15. In addition, this level can also produce data on the detailed relationship(s) to perpetrators by each type of violence, or, timeframe of the most recent incident by each broad perpetrator grouping for each type of violence experienced.
• Partner violence level - information regarding men’s and women’s experience of violence by a partner (current and/or previous partner) since the age of 15.
• Partner emotional abuse level - information about men’s and women’s experiences of emotional abuse by a partner (current and/or previous partner) since the age of 15.

INDEX ITEMS

Index items are used to ensure that data in each level is presented appropriately. Because one person may have experienced multiple types of violence/partner violence/partner emotional abuse, the Index item categories are needed to specify which experience(s) the other data items relate to.

Each of the four levels below the Person level contains a corresponding Index item:

• VIOLENCE MRI INDEX (Violence most recent incident level)
• VIOLENCE PREVALENCE INDEX (Violence prevalence level)
• PARTNER VIOLENCE INDEX (Partner violence level)
• EMOTIONAL ABUSE INDEX (Emotional abuse by a partner level).

For more detailed information about these levels and Index items, refer to the relevant Using the level pages outlined below.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

When using TableBuilder and the Detailed Microdata products, it is important to understand:

• what information was collected and how it was collected,
• how the data can be interpreted and used, and
• on which levels this information can be found.

Details on what information was collected and how it was collected can be found in the Personal Safety Survey, Australia: User Guide 2016 (cat.no. 4906.0.55.003).

Details on interpreting the data can be found in the Personal Safety Survey, Australia: User Guide 2016 (cat.no. 4906.0.55.003). More technical details about using the levels and data items can be found in the webpages attached to this page:

• Using the Household and Person Levels
• Using the Violence Most Recent Incident Level
• Using the Violence Prevalence Level
• Using the Partner Violence Level
• Using the Partner Emotional Abuse Level
• Using Data Items Across Levels
• Using Aggregate Data Items
• Notes on Data Item Types and Special Categories.

The availability by microdata product type and level location of data can be found by referring to the Data Item List contained in the Downloads tab of this product.