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21st Century Americanism: Nationally Representative Survey of the United States Population, 2004 (ICPSR 27601)

Released/updated on: 2015-04-02

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 2004-07-12--2004-10-08

The 21st Century Americanism survey was conducted to study (1) the multidimensional nature of American identity ("Americanism"); (2) resentment among Whites toward immigrants, Latinos, and Asians, fueled by perceptions that these groups violate the cherished norms that constitute American identity ("symbolic nativism"); (3) how perceptions of discrimination affect the process of "becoming American" among ethnic minorities ("reactive ethnicity"); and (4) the relationships among these issues and public opinion on policies that address ethnic change. The data collection began in July 2004 and was completed by October 2004. This nationally representative random-digit dial telephone survey has 2,800 respondents and includes oversamples of Blacks, Latinos, and Asians in the United States. It contains questions that allow for the examination of the causes and consequences of two facets of American identity: (1) how people define the normative content of American identity ("identity content"); and (2) the extent to which people think of themselves primarily as American rather than primarily as a member of a pan-ethnic (i.e., Latino or Asian) or national origin group ("identity attachment"). The survey can be used to test hypotheses regarding whether the alleged traditional consensus on what it means to be American is breaking down, or whether people are increasingly rejecting an American identity and instead prioritizing pan-ethnic or national origin identities. It can also be used to examine how these aspects of one's identity affect political attitudes and behaviors, such as trust in government, voting, and one's sense of obligation to the national community. Demographic variables include gender, age, country of origin, United States citizenship status, race, Hispanic origin, and language and educational attainment. Variables focusing on economic characteristics include employment status and household income.

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Adaptation Process of Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States, 1972-1979 (ICPSR 9672)

Released/updated on: 2006-01-18

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 1972-01-01--1979-12-31

For this data collection, Cuban and Mexican male immigrants were interviewed upon their entry into the United States in 1973-1974, with follow-up interviews in 1976 and 1979. The project sought to explore the causes and results of changes that occur following immigration by examining the complex interrelationships between the effects of what immigrants "bring with them" and the social and economic context that receives them. The first interview elicited demographic information such as marital status, number of children, education, parental information, present and prior occupations, date and community of birth, prior residency in the United States, present residency, relatives and friends in the United States, religious practices, and association membership. Respondents were also asked about their reasons for coming to the United States, plans to change residency, perceptions of discrimination in the United States, and aspirations concerning future occupations, salaries, education, and opportunities to reach their goals. Subsequent interviews expanded upon or recorded changes in these areas and also added wife's information and items on perceptions of problems in the United States, ethnicity of social relationships and neighborhood, satisfaction with living in the United States, plans to return to their homeland, languages spoken, read, and listened to, whether residence was owned or rented, and whether respondent had become a United States citizen. The study also recorded Duncan Scores, Treiman Scores, and scores on the Kahl Modernity Index, Knowledge of English Index, and Knowledge of U.S. Index.

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Americans' Changing Lives: Waves I, II, III, IV, V, and VI, 1986, 1989, 1994, 2002, 2011, and 2021 (ICPSR 4690)

Released/updated on: 2024-12-12

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 1986-01-01--2021-12-31

The Americans' Changing Lives (ACL) survey series is an ongoing, nationally representative, longitudinal study focusing especially on differences between Black and White Americans in middle and late life. These data constitute the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth waves in a panel survey covering a wide range of sociological, psychological, mental, and physical health items. Wave I of the study began in 1986 with a nation face-to-face survey of 3,617 adults ages 25 and up, with Black Americans and people aged 60 and over over-sampled at twice the rate of the others. Wave II constitutes face-to-face re-interviews in 1989 of those still alive. Survivors have been re-interviewed by telephone, and when necessary face-to-face, in 1994 (Wave III), 2001/02 (Wave IV), 2011 (Wave V), and 2019/21 (Wave VI).

Please note that for Wave VI, the majority of data collection occurred in 2019, with only a small subset (n=39) of participants surveyed in 2021.

ACL was designed and sought to investigate the following: (1) The ways in which a wide range of activities and social relationships that people engage in are broadly "productive," (2) how individuals adapt to acute life events and chronic stresses that threaten the maintenance of health, effective functioning, and productive activity, and (3) sociocultural variations in the nature, meaning, determinants, and consequences of productive activity and relationships. Among the topics covered are interpersonal relationships (spouse/partner, children, parents, friends), sources and levels of satisfaction, social interactions and leisure activities, traumatic life events (physical assault, serious illness, divorce, death of a loved one, financial or legal problems), perceptions of retirement, health behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption, overweight, rest), and utilization of health care services (doctor visits, hospitalization, nursing home institutionalization, bed days). Also included are measures of physical health, psychological well-being, and indices referring to cognitive functioning.

Demographic information provided for individuals includes household composition, number of children and grandchildren, employment status, occupation and work history, income, family financial situation, religious beliefs and practices, ethnicity, race, education, sex, and region of residence.

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Combined Generations Wave 1 and TransPop surveys, United States, 2016-2018 (ICPSR 38421)

Released/updated on: 2024-08-29

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 2016-01-01--2018-12-31

This collection includes a combined dataset of the Generations study wave 1 (baseline) survey and the TransPop study transgender survey. The two studies have many overlapping variables, and they examined topics such as respondents' health outcomes and behaviors, experiences with discrimination, identity, and transition-related experiences. Data from these studies were merged to allow for analysis of the combined LGBT populations. This dataset has also been reweighted to be representative of these populations.

The complete Generations study data (baseline, wave 2, and wave 3 survey data) can be found under study number 37166, and the complete TransPop study data (transgender and cisgender survey data) can be found under study number 37938. For detailed information on the Generations and TransPop studies, including related publications, please refer to their respective DSDR/ICPSR study pages.

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Generations: A Study of the Life and Health of LGB People in a Changing Society, United States, 2016-2019 (ICPSR 37166)

Released/updated on: 2023-01-05

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 2016-01-01--2017-12-31, 2017-01-01--2018-12-31, 2018-01-01--2019-12-31

The Generations study is a five-year study designed to examine health and well-being across three generations of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGB). The study explored identity, stress, health outcomes, and health care and services utilization among LGBs in three generations of adults who came of age during different historical contexts. This collection includes baseline, wave 1, and wave 2 data collected as part of the Generations study.

The study aimed to assess whether younger cohorts of LGBs differed from older cohorts in how they viewed their LGB identity and experienced stress related to prejudice and everyday forms of discrimination, as well as whether patterns of resilience differed between different LGB cohorts. Additionally, the study sought to examine how differences in stress experience affected mental health and well-being, including depressive and anxiety symptoms, substance and alcohol use, suicide ideation and behavior, and how younger LGBs utilized LGB-oriented social and health services, relative to older cohorts.

In wave 2, respondents were re-interviewed approximately one year after completion of the baseline (wave 1) survey. Only respondents who participated in the original sample of participants were surveyed at wave 2 (i.e., the enhancement oversample was not included in the longitudinal design of this study).

In wave 3, respondents were re-interviewed approximately one year after the completion of the wave 2 survey.

Demographic variables collected as part of this study include questions related to age, education, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, gender identity, income, employment, and religiosity.

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Japanese-American Research Project (JARP): a Three-Generation Study, 1890-1966 (ICPSR 8450)

Released/updated on: 2006-01-12

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 1890-01-01--1966-12-31

This data collection is a sociohistorical study of the ways in which three generations (Issei, Nisei, and Sansei) of Japanese American families adapted to social, cultural, educational, occupational, and other institutions of American life. The study examines the experience of the first immigrants to the United States (Issei), and their children (Nisei) and grandchildren (Sansei). Interviews with Issei families stressed the difficulties faced by the immigrants during their early years in the United States, as well as aspects of social and cultural life. Interviews with Nisei included questions on employment, attitudes toward work, income, education, marriage, social relationships, discrimination, and religion. Topics covered in Sansei interviews included birth order, age, marital status, children, social relationships, occupation, industry, income, education, Japanese value systems, marital choices, influence of parents and grandparents, discrimination, religion, political attitudes, and migration.

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Latino National Survey (LNS), 2006 (ICPSR 20862)

Released/updated on: 2013-06-05

Geographic coverage: North Carolina, United States, Fort Worth, Arkansas, Washington, San Diego, Atlanta, Colorado, Denver, Dallas, Arizona, Nevada, New York, District of Columbia, Seattle, San Antonio, Chicago, California, Florida, New Jersey, Miami, Iowa, Illinois, Texas, Los Angeles, Georgia, Houston

Time period: 2006-01-01--2006-12-31

The Latino National Survey (LNS) contains 8,634 completed interviews (unweighted) of self-identified Latino/Hispanic residents of the United States. Interviewing began on November 17, 2005, and continued through August 4, 2006. The survey instrument contained approximately 165 distinct items ranging from demographic descriptions to political attitudes and policy preferences, as well as a variety of social indicators and experiences. All interviewers were bilingual, English and Spanish. Respondents were greeted in both languages and were immediately offered the opportunity to interview in either language. Interviewers also provided a consent script that allowed respondents to opt out of the survey. Demographic variables include age, ancestry, birthplace, education level, ethnicity, marital status, military service, number of people in the household, number of children under the age of 18 living in the household, political party affiliation, political ideology, religiosity, religious preference, race, and sex.

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Latino National Survey (LNS) Focus Group Data, 2006 (ICPSR 29601)

Released/updated on: 2015-08-19

Geographic coverage: North Carolina, United States, Fort Worth, Arkansas, Washington, San Diego, Atlanta, Colorado, Denver, Dallas, Arizona, Nevada, District of Columbia, Seattle, San Antonio, Chicago, California, Florida, New York (state), New Jersey, Miami, Iowa, Illinois, Texas, Los Angeles, Georgia, Houston

Time period: 2006-01-01--2006-12-31

The focus groups conducted by the research team for the project presented here offer precisely this convergence of both breadth and depth. The team used a common protocol to guide discussion in fifteen focus groups -- with more than 150 participants in nine cities across eight states -- that were designed to include Spanish and English-speaking respondents, in different regions of the country, with differing compositions by generation and country of origin. The number and range of the participants in these Latino focus groups are unique in the social science literature. This study presents the results of a unique data set, the results of fifteen focus groups conducted across the United States with Latino residents, including foreign-born -- both legal and undocumented immigrants and native-born. These data provide more range than allowed by the typical interview-based project and not only give key insights into Latino residents' thoughts about community, language, discrimination, ties to their countries of origin, and the like, but also provide some sense of participants' explanations of their reasoning and motivations, something not achievable through structured survey data alone.

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Latino National Survey (LNS)--New England, 2006 (ICPSR 24502)

Released/updated on: 2015-07-17

Geographic coverage: Rhode Island, United States, Massachusetts, Connecticut

Time period: 2006-01-01--2006-12-31

The Latino National Survey (LNS)--New England is the New England extension of the LATINO NATIONAL SURVEY (LNS), 2006 (ICPSR 20862), which was conducted in 2005-2006. The Latino National Survey (LNS)--New England contains 1,200 completed interviews (unweighted) of self-identified Latino/Hispanic residents of the United States. The questionnaire is the same as that used in the original LNS. Interviewing began on November 17, 2005, and continued through August 4, 2006. The survey instrument contained approximately 165 distinct items ranging from demographic descriptions to political attitudes and policy preferences, as well as a variety of social indicators and experiences. All interviewers were bilingual, English and Spanish. Respondents were greeted in both languages and were immediately offered the opportunity to interview in either language. Interviewers also provided a consent script that allowed respondents to opt out of the survey. Demographic variables include age, ancestry, birthplace, education level, ethnicity, marital status, military service, number of people in the household, number of children under the age of 18 living in the household, political party affiliation, political ideology, religiosity, religious preference, race, and sex.

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Mexican Origin People in the United States: Detroit Pretest, 1978 (ICPSR 8000)

Released/updated on: 1992-02-16

Geographic coverage: Detroit, United States, Michigan

Time period: 1978-01-01--1978-12-31

This study was conducted for the purpose of developing an appropriate measurement instrument for the Chicano Survey, which would be conducted one year later. Four different questionnaires were administered over a period of three months to 111 people of Mexican descent who agreed to participate in the survey. Due to attrition, subsequent surveys had fewer respondents. The data for all four questionnaires have been combined into a single dataset. Variables provide information on respondents' feelings about Mexican political and cultural history, the extent of their cultural affiliation, their mental health, marriage, and aspirations for themselves and their children.

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Midlife in the United States (MIDUS 1) National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE), 1996-1997 (ICPSR 3725)

Released/updated on: 2023-01-25

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 1996-03-01--1997-03-31

The National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE) is one of the in-depth studies that are part of the MacAuthur Foundation National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS). The purpose of the NSDE is to examine the day-to-day lives, particularly the daily stressful experiences, of a subsample of MIDUS respondents. Although previous daily diary research has advanced understanding of daily stress processes, there are important limitations in these studies that are addressed in the NSDE. First, previous studies in this area have relied on small and often unrepresentative samples that limit the ability to generalize findings. For this reason, the NSDE uses a large national sample of adults in the United States. Second, previous studies of individual differences in exposure and reactivity to daily events have typically examined only one source of variability, such as personality, to the exclusion of others. The NSDE corrects this problem by utilizing the data collected in the larger MIDUS survey on a wide array of sociodemographic and psychosocial variables to study the determinants of exposure and reactivity to daily stress. Third, previous studies have failed to investigate the role of genetics in both exposure and reactivity to daily stressors. The NSDE has a subsample of identical and fraternal same-sex twin pairs in order to explore this issue. The twins were selected if twin pairs had high self-reported certainty of zygosity, had completed the MIDUS interview and questionnaires, and had mailed in their cheek cell samples. A wide range of information was obtained using the daily telephone interview. Conducting interviews for an entire year provided information about seasonal variation in daily experiences. Respondents completed an average of 7.2 of the 8 interviews resulting in a total of 10,397 days of interviews. Data collection consisted of 40 separate "flights" of interviews with each flight representing the eight-day sequence of interviews from approximately 33 respondents. The entire interview was CATI programmed, which enabled researchers to incorporate skip patterns and open ended probe questions as well as to keypunch data during the interview, allowing data cleaning throughout the data collection. Demographic information includes gender and age.

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Midlife in the United States (MIDUS 3), 2013-2014 (ICPSR 36346)

Released/updated on: 2019-04-30

Geographic coverage: Contiguous United States

Time period: 2013-05-01--2014-11-30

In 1995-1996, the MacArthur Midlife Research Network carried out a national survey of over 7,000 Americans aged 25 to 74 [ICPSR 2760]. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of behavioral, psychological, and social factors in understanding age-related differences in physical and mental health. The study was innovative for its broad scientific scope, its diverse samples (which included siblings of the main sample respondents and a national sample of twin pairs), and its creative use of in-depth assessments in key areas (e.g. daily diary of stressful experiences [ICPSR 3725] and cognitive functioning [ICPSR 3596]) on a subset of participants. A detailed description of the study and findings generated by it are available at: http://www.midus.wisc.edu

With support from the National Institute on Aging, a follow-up of the original Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) sample was conducted in 2004 (MIDUS 2 [ICPSR 4652]). The daily stress and cognitive functioning projects were repeated and expanded at MIDUS 2; in addition the protocol was expanded to include biomarkers and neuroscience.

In 2013 a third wave (MIDUS 3) of survey data was collected on longitudinal participants. Data collection for this follow-up wave largely repeated baseline assessments (e.g., phone interview and extensive self-administered questionnaire), with additional questions in selected areas such as economic recession experiences. Cognitive functioning data were also collected at the same time, while data collection for the daily diary, biomarker, and neuroscience projects commenced in 2017.

MIDUS also maintains a Colectica portal, which allows users to interact with variables across waves and create customized subsets. Registration is required.

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National Couples' Health and Time Study (NCHAT), United States, 2020-2022 (ICPSR 38417)

Released/updated on: 2025-03-25

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 2020-01-01--2022-12-31

The National Couples' Health and Time Study (NCHAT) is a population-based study of couples in America that contains representative samples of racial and ethnic diverse and sexual and gender diverse individuals. NCHAT entered the field on September 1, 2020, and data collection completed in April 2021. A follow-up survey (Wave 2) was fielded in 2022. The Wave 1 sample includes 3,642 main respondents. The sample frame included adults in the United States who ranged in age from 20-60 years old, who were married or cohabiting, and who were able to read English or Spanish. About 1,515 partners participated. NCHAT sample participants were recruited through the Gallup Panel. About 9 percent of the sample was non-Latinx Black, 6 percent non-Latinx Asian, 5 percent non-Latinx Multirace, 16 percent Latinx, and 1 percent another racial or ethnic identity. Approximately 55 percent of the sample identified as heterosexual, 20 percent as gay or lesbian, 10 percent as bisexual, and 15 percent as another sexual identity or multiple sexual identities. The sample was about evenly split between men and women, and almost 3 percent identified as another gender identity. 27 percent of couples were the same gender, and 4 percent were non-binary. About 75 percent were married and the remainder were cohabiting. The average age was 45. 65 percent of the sample had no children. One-third of the sample was in an interracial couple. 10 percent were born outside the US. Survey, time diary, experience sampling method, and geospatial data were collected. NCHAT is uniquely suited to address COVID, stress, family functioning, and physical and mental health and includes an abundance of contextual and acute measures of race and racism, sexism, and heterosexism.

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National Survey of American Life - Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A), 2001-2004 (ICPSR 36380)

Released/updated on: 2016-07-28

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 2001-01-01--2004-12-31

The National Survey of American Life Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A), 2001-2004, was designed to estimate the lifetime-to-date and current prevalence, age-of-onset distributions, course, and comorbidity of DSM-IV disorders among African American and Caribbean adolescents in the United States; to identify risk and protective factors for the onset and persistence of these disorders; to describe patterns and correlates of service use for these disorders; and to lay the groundwork for subsequent follow-up studies that can be used to identify early expressions of adult mental disorders. In addition and similar to the NSAL adult dataset (Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), 2001-2003 [United States] (ICPSR 20240)), the adolescent dataset contains detailed measures of health; social conditions; stressors; distress; racial identity; subjective, neighborhood conditions; activities and school; media; and social and psychological protective and risk factors. Numerous variables from the adult dataset have been merged into the adolescent dataset, as the NSAL adult and adolescent respondents reside in the same households. Some of these variables apply to the entire household (i.e. region, urbanicity, and family income), while others apply specifically to the NSAL adult respondent living in the adolescent's household (i.e. adult years of education, adult marital status, and adult nativity [foreign-born vs. US born]). The immigration measures were asked of Caribbean black adult respondents only. No comparable measures assess the immigration and generational status of the Caribbean black adolescent respondents. The adult dataset measures are merged into the adolescent dataset to assist in approximating these measures for adolescent respondents. The NSAL adolescent dataset also includes variables for other non-core and experimental disorders. These include tobacco use/nicotine dependence, premenstrual syndrome, minor depression, recurrent brief depression, hypomania, and hypomania sub-threshold. Demographic variables include age, race and ethnicity, ancestry or national origins, height, weight, marital status, income, and education level.

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Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Discrimination, Wave 3, 2000-2002 (ICPSR 13692)

Released/updated on: 2007-02-06

Geographic coverage: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Time period: 2000-01-01--2002-12-31

The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) was a large-scale, interdisciplinary study of how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development. One component of the PHDCN was the Longitudinal Cohort Study, which was a series of coordinated longitudinal studies that followed over 6,000 randomly selected children, adolescents, and young adults, and their primary caregivers over time to examine the changing circumstances of their lives, as well as the personal characteristics, that might lead them toward or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. Numerous measures were administered to respondents to gauge various aspects of human development, including individual differences, as well as family, peer, and school influences. One such measure was the Discrimination survey. It was administered to subjects' primary caregivers in Cohorts 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12. It was drawn from the Puerto Rican Adolescent Survey and addressed both actual instances of discrimination and fear of this occurring in specific settings. These questions also appear in the Personal Identity instrument used with older subjects and young adults (PROJECT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS (PHDCN): IDENTITY-PERSONAL, WAVE 3, 2000-2002 [ICPSR 13717]).

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Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Personal Identity, Wave 3, 2000-2002 (ICPSR 13717)

Released/updated on: 2007-04-27

Geographic coverage: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Time period: 2000-01-01--2002-12-31

The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) was a large-scale, interdisciplinary study of how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development. One component of the PHDCN was the Longitudinal Cohort Study, which was a series of coordinated longitudinal studies that followed over 6,000 randomly selected children, adolescents, and young adults, and their primary caregivers over time to examine the changing circumstances of their lives, as well as the personal characteristics, that might lead them toward or away from a variety of antisocial behaviors. Numerous measures were administered to respondents to gauge various aspects of human development, including individual differences, as well as family, peer, and school influences. One such measure was the Personal Identity instrument. It was administered to subjects in Cohorts 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 and obtained information related to racial and ethnic identity, which was originally collected in PROJECT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS (PHDCN): DEMOGRAPHIC FILE, WAVE 1, 1994-1997 (ICPSR 13581), and PROJECT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS (PHDCN): DEMOGRAPHIC FILE, WAVE 2, 1997-2000 (ICPSR 13609). It also contained future orientation and discrimination questions, as well as questions relating to group importance that were drawn from the Puerto Rican Adolescent Survey.

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TransPop, United States, 2016-2018 (ICPSR 37938)

Released/updated on: 2021-06-23

Geographic coverage: United States

Time period: 2016-01-01--2018-12-31

The TransPop study is the first national probability sample of transgender individuals in the United States (it also includes a comparative cisgender sample). A primary goal of this study was to provide researchers with a representative sample of transgender people in the United States. The study examines a variety of health-relevant domains including health outcomes and health behaviors, experiences with interpersonal and institutional discrimination, identity, transition-related experiences, and basic demographic characteristics (age, race/ethnicity, religion, political party affiliation, marital status, employment, income, location, sex, gender, and education).

Co-investigators (in alphabetical order): Walter O. Bockting, Ph.D. (Columbia University); Jody L. Herman, Ph.D. (UCLA); Sari L. Reisner, Ph.D. (Harvard University and The Fenway Institute, Fenway Health).

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Youth Development Study, 1988-2020 [St. Paul, Minnesota] (ICPSR 24881)

Released/updated on: 2023-09-28

Geographic coverage: United States, St. Paul, Minnesota

Time period: 1988-01-01--2020-12-31

The Youth Development Study (YDS) was initiated as a school-based study of adolescent children and their parents to examine the consequences of formative experiences in adolescence for mental health, value formation, educational achievement, and multiple facets of behavioral adjustment. Particular attention was directed to the impacts of early work experience. Data were also obtained about parent-child and peer relationships and experiences in school. As the study continued, the focus shifted to adult development and attainment and, most recently, mid-life adjustment and health. This comprehensive longitudinal study now encompasses three generations: the initial cohort studied from adolescence to mid-life (G2), their parents (G1), and their adolescent children (G3). Data from three generations in the same families enable study of intergenerational relationships and differences in the experience of adolescence and transition to adulthood across parent and child cohorts. The YDS covers a wide range of topics of interest to sociologists, social psychologists, developmental psychologists, and life course scholars, including the development and impacts of agentic resources, socioeconomic attainment, processes of inter- and intra-generational mobility, objective and subjective work conditions, family relationships, intergenerational relationships, mental and physical health, and well-being.

In-school administration of paper surveys during the first four years of the study was supplemented by mailed surveys. Subsequent data collection took place entirely by mail, with 19 surveys conducted between 1988 and 2011. A final survey was conducted on-line in 2019. Survey data was obtained from the parents (G1) of this cohort during the first and fourth waves of the study (1988 and 1991). Surveys of the children (G3) began in 2009, continued in 2010 and 2011 (by mail) and in 2019-2020 (online).

The Youth Development Study measures a wide range of formative experiences and both psychological and behavioral variables, using survey methodology.

The G1 surveys obtained information about socioeconomic background as well as attitudes toward teenage employment, the parents' own employment as teenagers, their current work experiences, and educational expectations for their children.

The G2 surveys during the high school years included detailed questions about students' work and volunteer experiences, as well as experiences in their family, school, and peer groups, with an emphasis on the ways that working affected other life domains, mental health, and well-being. Shorter surveys containing many of the same topics were administered to students in 1992, 1993, and 1994, and included questions about current family and living arrangements. In 1995, a full survey was administered covering the wide range of topics included in previous surveys as well as information about career plans and life events that had occurred in the past five years. G2 Waves 9 through 19 (1997-2011) included many of the same questions contained in earlier surveys and additional sections that focused on the respondents' educational experiences, family relationships, sources of living expenses, and health and well-being. The most recent G2 survey (2019), administered on-line, included questions about support of aging parents. The YDS is unique in its coverage of both objective and subjective work experiences from adolescence to mid-life.

The topics covered by the G3 surveys are very similar to the G2 variables described above. Variables in each G2 and G3 wave are included in cross-wave codebooks, available at the Data Archive Codebook website.

For an overview of the Youth Development Study, see Mortimer, Jeylan T. (2012) "The Evolution, Contributions, and Prospects of the Youth Development Study: An Investigation in Life Course Social Psychology." Social Psychology Quarterly 75(1, March):5-27.