Just Released: Pittsburgh Youth Study Mental Health Constructs, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1987-2001 (ICPSR 36034).
Summary:
The Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS) is part of the larger "Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency" initiated by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 1986. PYS aims to document the development of antisocial and delinquent behavior from childhood to early adulthood, the risk factors that impinge on that development, and help seeking and service provision of boys' behavior problems. The study also focuses on boys' development of alcohol and drug use, and internalizing problems.
PYS consists of three cohorts of boys who were in the first, fourth, and seventh grades in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania public schools during the 1987-1988 academic year (called the youngest, middle, and oldest cohorts, respectively). Using a screening risk score that measured each boy's antisocial behavior, boys identified at the top 30% within each grade cohort on the screening risk measure (n=~250), as well as an equal number of boys randomly selected from the remainder (n=~250), were selected for follow-up. Consequently, the final sample for the study consisted of 1,517 total students selected for follow-up. 503 of these students were in the oldest sample, 508 were in the middle sample, and 506 were in the youngest sample.
Assessments were conducted semiannually and then annually using multiple informants (i.e., boys, parents, and teachers) between 1987 and 2010. The youngest cohort was assessed from ages 6-19 and again at ages 25 and 28. The middle cohort was assessed from ages 9-13 and again at age 23. The oldest cohort was assessed from ages 13-25, with an additional assessment at age 35. Information has been collected on a broad range of risk and protective factors across multiple domains (e.g., individual, family, peer, school, and neighborhood). Measures of conduct problems, substance use/abuse, criminal behavior, mental health problems have been collected.
This collection contains data and syntax files for mental health constructs. The datasets include constructs on symptoms and contributing factors from both the DSM-IIIR and DSM-IV for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Anxiety, Conduct Disorder, depressed mood, substance abuse, Major Depressive Episode and Dysthymia, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Psychopathy with and without delinquency, Schizophrenia, help-seeking behavior, institutionalization, and other diagnoses and constructs. Additionally, the collection includes data on scores from the following scales: Problem Scale, DSM-Oriented Scale, Child Behavior Checklist (CBPRB), and Young Adult Problem Scales.
The mental health constructs were created by using the PYS raw data. The raw data are available at ICPSR in the following studies: Pittsburgh Youth Study Youngest Sample (1987 - 2001) [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania], Pittsburgh Youth Study Middle Sample (1987 - 1991) [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania], and Pittsburgh Youth Study Oldest Sample (1987 - 2000) [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania].
Oct 24, 2019