Invited Seminar Talk

Studying Finnish Children and Adolescents with Administrative Register Data

Joonas Pitkänen
Online Talk, May 18, 2022

Joonas Pitkänen from the University of Helsinki discusses the structure of a large dataset covering all Finnish 0–14-year old children in 2000 and the strengths and limitations of administrative data.

Abstract

Finnish administrative registers encompass a wide variety of routinely collected data, which can be applied for research purposes. These data include, for instance, annually updated information on demographic and socioeconomic indicators, causes of death, health care use and criminal offences. With personal identifiers, individual-level data from different sources can be linked reliably. Besides the possibility of data linkages, the major advantages of administrative data for demographic and social epidemiological research are long-term follow-ups without attrition, reliable repeated measurements of the same individuals and the possibility to link family and household members together. This presentation is about a pre-existing large dataset covering all Finnish 0–14-year old children in 2000 (N=900,000) and their biological and social parents. For all these individuals, data from several registers with follow-up times dating back to 1970s are available. The presentation discusses the structure of the dataset and the strengths and limitations of administrative data, and gives several examples of published and ongoing research using the dataset. The examples include topics such as interpersonal and self-directed violence in adolescence and young adulthood and psychiatric treatment use among youth and their parents.

Register to Take Part

You would like to attend the Online Seminar Talk? You are very welcome. Please register by writing an e-mail to office-myrskyla@demogr.mpg.de.

Online Seminar Talk, May, 18th from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. (Rostock time)