Hello,

I am part of a research team analyzing survey data regarding attitudes towards a specific health practice. Individuals were asked what is good or bad about a specific practice, and the answers were collected in a text format (open-ended). The research team then recoded these open-ended answers into specific categories. The recoded data looks like this - at least for some of the good reasons for the practice:

Code:
clear
input double id str70 FGCgood_Numeric
30 "26"
31 "26"
32 "26"
33 "14"
34 "21"
35 "21"
36 "19"
37 "26"
38 "26"
39 "26"
40 "26"
end
And here is summary of responses to this question to the question - that reflect the good reasons.


Code:
Practice Good ?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                       |      Freq.    Percent      Valid       Cum.
-------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------
Valid   1  Cleanliness-Avoid Itching                   |          6       1.12       1.14       1.14
        2  Reglious Requirement-Ancestors, Gods, Koran |         13       2.42       2.46       3.60
        3  Bonding with peers                          |          2       0.37       0.38       3.98
        4  Teach Traditional Discipline                |          1       0.19       0.19       4.17
        5  Education-Teach Values                      |          8       1.49       1.52       5.68
        6  Socialization‎/Initiation‎/RitesPassage       |          9       1.67       1.70       7.39
        7  SelfIdentity‎/Makes you a woman‎/Respect      |          2       0.37       0.38       7.77
           Among Peers                                 |                                            
        9  CommunityCelebration-DanceMusicFood         |          8       1.49       1.52       9.28
        10 Culture Values and Practices                |          3       0.56       0.57       9.85
        11 Culture-Discipline‎/Teach Discipline         |          3       0.56       0.57      10.42
        12 Culture-DressPretty                         |          1       0.19       0.19      10.61
        13 Culture-Girls Excited                       |          1       0.19       0.19      10.80
        14 Culture-Girls trained for family life,      |         12       2.23       2.27      13.07
           better woman                                |                                            
        15 Culture-learn manners                       |          1       0.19       0.19      13.26
        16 Culture - Marriage                          |          1       0.19       0.19      13.45
        18 Culture-Moral and traditional training      |          2       0.37       0.38      13.83
        19 Maintains culture                           |         32       5.95       6.06      19.89
        21 Chastity‎/Chaste‎/Modesty                     |          6       1.12       1.14      21.02
        22 Tame Clitoris‎/ClitorisOvergows‎/Cant Hide    |          3       0.56       0.57      21.59
           Clitoris                                    |                                            
        23 Control‎/Reduce women's libido appetitie,    |         20       3.72       3.79      25.38
           premature sexuality                         |                                            
        24 Decrease‎/Prevent                            |         11       2.04       2.08      27.46
           Promiscuity‎/Fidelity‎/KeepOneMan             |                                            
        26 None‎/Dont Know‎/Not                          |        383      71.19      72.54     100.00
           Good‎/Nothing‎/Wrong‎/Mistake                  |                                            
        Total                                          |        528      98.14     100.00          
Missing .                                              |         10       1.86                      
Total                                                  |        538     100.00
Now, I want to turn these individual responses into a series of variables that could ultimately be used to construct a scale that covers the reasons - both good and bad - in all about 50 reasons - a series of dummy variables, so to speak. In many cases, individuals give multiple good and bad reasons for the practice, we could go back into the data and code them.

Is there any way to achieve what I want here?

Once I create the series of single variables (that will represent statements that either agree or disagree with a reason, I will then run Factor Analysis to extract the underlying dimensions.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

/cY