The information and data appearing on these Internet pages are a product of a project conducted by the Louisiana Population Data Center at Louisiana State University with support from the Louisiana Office of Community Services. The primary purpose of this project was to update and maintain a statewide automated database of basic demographic and family well-being indicators for the Louisiana Children's Cabinet and Office of Community Services. These data are to be used by Louisiana parishes to assess the socioeconomic, preservation and support needs of children and families, and to develop programs and services that will best meet these needs. Additional objectives of the project were the production of a statewide data book containing parish level demographic and needs information, establishment of a system for responding to ad- hoc requests for information about and from the database on a timely basis, and development of a format to enable the database activities to be self-supporting once the three year period of federal funding ended.
1. Database Development
The most current data available were collected in the following categories:
Agencies and sources used to obtain the data include:
Kids Count; the U.S. Census; Louisiana Department of Education; Louisiana Department of Labor; Research Division; Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources, Office of Prevention and Recovery from Alcohol and Drug Abuse; The Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics, Social Security Administration; Louisiana Office of Family Support; Department of Health and Hospitals; the Louisiana State Data Center, Office of the Governor, and the Louisiana Population Data Center, LSU.
2. Creation of Summary Measures
Summary indexes of risk indicators were produced by using two basic statistical techniques
-- factor analysis and the calculation of z-scores. Factor analysis is a procedure that
groups multiple indicators into categories by identifying similarities among them. A
factor score for each of the risk items is calculated to indicate the strength of its
association with each of the categories. The individual items that score highest within
each category are weighted by these factor scores and summed. This procedure reduced the
risk indicators reported in this profile to six identifiable categories as follows:
| Summary Category | Risk Indicators |
|---|---|
| Family Structure |
|
| Poverty and Unemployment |
|
| Income Transfer Recipients |
|
| Educational Stability |
|
| Disruptive Events |
|
| Low Birth Weight |
|
We then converted the summary category scores for each parish to z-scores, which are standardized measures of deviation from the mean score of all parishes combined. The z-scores represent the relative extent to which individual parishes score above or below the mean score for the state, where negative scores are below the state average and positive scores are above the state average. Because these are standardized scores, comparisons can be made across parishes. Finally, we rank ordered the z-scores by parish, where a ranking of 1 reflects the parish with the least risk and a ranking of 64 reflects the parish with the highest risk, for that indicator. See Appendix D in this report, "Parish Portrait Data Tables and Sources," for tables reporting the summary scores by parish.
3. Data Posters
The LPDC produced the 1997 Louisiana Families at Risk Data Sheet as
part of the dissemination of information from the project (See Appendix C). These data
sheets contain non-technical demographic information pertinent to families and children by
parish and are packaged in an attractive format, suitable for display. The data tables
contain information on such factors as population characteristics and projections; percent
of children in poverty, receiving food stamps, and in female headed households; percent of
births to women under 19; children in foster car; student drop-out rates; and
low-birth-weight births. In addition, the posters have thematic maps showing the
distribution of many of these characteristics. Copies were distributed to Louisiana
agencies, government offices, state libraries, legislators, and other pertinent groups and
individuals. The demand for the posters has been very enthusiastic; with many requests for
additional copies. Almost all of the 1000 produced have been sent out.
4. Parish Portraits
Individualized parish portraits were produced that provide detailed
"risk" data for each of Louisiana's 64 parishes (See Appendix D). In addition to
demographic data, the portraits contain summary risk measures as discussed above. The
summary measures are rank ordered by parish to allow comparisons along various categories
of risk (i.e., family structure, poverty and unemployment, income transfer, educational
stability, disruptive events, and low birthweight newborns). Five thousand portraits were
produced and distributed to OCS offices and libraries throughout the state.
5. Data Diskettes
All data, code books, and information about sources are being made
available on a PC diskette. The diskette is organized into three folders -- Parish
Portraits, Poster, and Database. The data files are in Lotus 123 wk1 table format which
should be compatible with most PC-based spreadsheet programs. Files containing code book
information and data descriptions are in ASCII text format. Ten diskettes will be provided
to the Office of Community Services. The LPDC will produce diskettes on request on an ad
hoc basis.
Data Assistance. Questions about the data on this disk or about other available data should be directed to: