Using Arts Data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study
December 7, 2023
This webinar, hosted by the National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture (NADAC), introduces participants to the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study and explains how it is used to understand the arts’ potential impacts on child health and brain development.
During this webinar, Dr. Gay Dowling will give an overview of the ABCD Study, the largest prospective longitudinal study of brain development and child health in the U.S. Having enrolled nearly 12,000 diverse youth from across the country starting at ages 9-10 and assessing them repeatedly for a decade, the ABCD Study is poised to answer myriad questions about adolescent development. Dr. Dowling will describe the origins of the study, its methods, and its open science framework, which allows researchers from around the world to analyze ABCD data, thereby enriching the value of the study.
Dr. Iversen will describe the arts-specific measures within ABCD. He will discuss how these measures are used in concert with the comprehensive characterization of brain and cognitive measures to understand the impact of the arts on development. Dr. Iversen will give examples of connections between arts experiences and measures of development, showing a high prevalence of the arts, with music being the most impactful activity among a wide range of artistic and athletic activities.