Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2015 (ICPSR 36408)

Version Date: Oct 25, 2016 View help for published

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Lloyd D. Johnston, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center; Jerald G. Bachman, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center; Patrick M. O'Malley, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center; John E. Schulenberg, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center; Richard A. Miech, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36408.v1

Version V1

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MTF 2015 (12th Grade)

This survey of 12th-grade students is part of a series that explores changes in important values, behaviors, and lifestyle orientations of contemporary American youth. Students are randomly assigned to complete one of six questionnaires, each with a different subset of topical questions, but all containing a set of "core" questions on demographics and drug use. There are about 1,400 variables across the questionnaires. Drugs covered by this survey include tobacco, smokeless tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, hashish, prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, LSD, hallucinogens, amphetamines (stimulants), Ritalin (methylphenidate), Quaaludes (methaqualone), barbiturates (tranquilizers), cocaine, crack cocaine, GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate), ecstasy, methamphetamine, and heroin. Other topics include attitudes toward religion, changing roles for women, educational aspirations, self-esteem, exposure to drug education, and violence and crime (both in and out of school).

Johnston, Lloyd D., Bachman, Jerald G., O’Malley, Patrick M., Schulenberg, John E., and Miech, Richard A. Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2015. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-10-25. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36408.v1

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United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA001411)

Users are reminded that these data are to be used solely for statistical analysis and reporting of aggregated information and not for the investigation of specific individuals.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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2015
2015 (Spring)
  1. Conducted by the University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, Survey Research Center.

  2. To protect the privacy of respondents, all variables that could be used to identify individuals have been collapsed or recoded in the public use files. These modifications should not affect analytic uses of the public use files.

  3. Variables omitted from the Western region questionnaires are noted in each codebook.

  4. A user guide is provided with the study documentation. It contains a year-to-year cross-time question index for the MTF 12th-grade surveys, which is sorted by subject area, item reference number, and questionnaire form.

  5. Frequency and percentage distributions displayed in the 2015 codebooks are unweighted, rather than weighted by variable "ARCHIVE_WT" (previously named "V5") as they had been in previous years. This change was made to simplify both the production of the codebooks and their interpretation by the analyst.

  6. MTF does not release detailed geography codes in its public use files because of the disclosure risk it would cause. The MTF sample is drawn to generate representative samples of the four Census Bureau regions of the country (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West), but it does not generate representative samples of smaller geographic areas such as states, counties, or cities. For additional information about data that is withheld from the public use files please contact MTF directly at mtfinformation@umich.edu.

  7. With the approval of the MTF Principal Investigators ICPSR created a series of dichotomous recodes for 10 substances for the three standard time periods (lifetime, past 12 months, and past 30 days). The substances include tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, LSD, other psychedelics, amphetamines, sedatives/barbiturates, tranquilizers, inhalants, and other narcotics. These variables have been placed at the end of the Core data file (DS1). Each variable has the same name and label as the original, but with the addition of the letter "D" at the end of the variable name and the words "(dichotomous recode)" included at the end of the variable label. This was only done for the core file.

  8. Using these new dichotomous recode variables ICPSR has created interactive maps to show the weighted response for each dichotomous variable by Census region. To create a map simply select the desired year/grade and question/variable. Then click on "Go". The resulting map will rank the regions by color. The Census region with the darkest shade will show the highest frequency of use. A frequency table is also provided.

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A multistage area probability sample design was used involving three selection stages: (1) geographic areas or primary sampling units (PSUs), (2) schools (or linked groups of schools) within PSUs, and (3) students within sampled schools. Of the 72 PSUs, 8 were selected with certainty, 10 were selected with a probability of .50, and the remainder were selected using a probability based on their 2000 Census household count. Generally speaking, in schools with more than 350 seniors, a sample of seniors or classes was drawn. In schools with less than 350 seniors, all seniors were asked to participate unless logistical challenges required a sample be taken. Each school was asked to participate for two years so that each year one-half of the sample would be replaced. Schools refusing participation were replaced with similar schools in terms of geographic location, size, and type of school (e.g., public, private/Catholic, private/non-Catholic). The participation rate among schools has been between 66 and 85 percent since the inception of the study. The total sample of 12th graders was divided into 6 subsamples, each to be administered a different form of the questionnaire. "Core" drug and demographic questions were included in all questionnaire forms.

Longitudinal: Trend / Repeated Cross-section

High school seniors in the contiguous United States.

individual

The overall student response rate for 2015 was 83 percent.

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2016-10-25

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Johnston, Lloyd D., Jerald G. Bachman, Patrick M. O'Malley, John E. Schulenberg, and Richard A. Miech. Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2015. ICPSR36408-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-10-25. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36408.v1

2016-10-25 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Standardized missing values.
  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Each of the seven parts contains a weight variable, ARCHIVE_WT. They were originally varied by school but were modified to protect respondent confidentiality. Users should use the weight variable for all analyses, the results of which will differ slightly from published data tables that used original data.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.