Databases

Benefits

The primary advantage of using databases for research purposes is related to economics. Specifically, since databases consist of information that has already been collected, they save researchers time and money because the data are readily available. As with many investigators, the primary hindrance to conducting original field research is limited monetary resources. Collecting data from large samples is time-consuming, and many direct and indirect costs are associated with obtaining access to specific populations for collection of specific data. This limitation is eliminated by using large-scale databases. Depending on the topic of interest, the use of databases provides researchers access to randomly sampled and nationally representative populations.

Databases also provide researchers with access to populations they may not have had access to individually. Specifically, the recruitment of individuals from diverse backgrounds (e.g., Black, Latino) has generally been a problem in the social and medical sciences due to historical issues centering on mistrust of researchers (e.g., the Tuskegee Experiment). While this is the case, databases such as the National Institute of Mental Health–funded Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES) provide access to diverse subjects. Specifically, CPES joins together three nationally representative surveys: the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), and the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). These studies collectively provide the first national data with sufficient power to investigate cultural and ethnic influences on mental disorders. Although existing databases offer numerous benefits, they have limitations as well.

Limitations

The key limitation of using databases is that questions and the theoretical orientation of the original [Page 322]researchers may not be congruent with those of the secondary investigator. So if a researcher was not part of the original research team, the conceptualization of the constructs of interest in the database may not be to his or her liking. Although numerous available databases encompass a variety of topics, this limitation can be virtually impossible to ignore. To combat it, researchers generally undertake the task of recoding questions and variables to fit their research questions of interest.

In addition to question conceptualization problems, another limitation of databases is the date the data were collected. Specifically, if an individual uses a database that is dated, this may impact his or her ability to generalize his or her findings to the present day. This threat to internal validity can be lessened if researchers use the most up-to-date database on their topic of interest. An example of this is the U.S. Department of Education–funded Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. This study is a direct follow-up to the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Although the 1988 study resulted in a high-quality, longitudinal database with significant policy implications, stakeholders realized that the database was dated, and the result was the initiation of the 2002 study.

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