Search Results

This project builds on a large, prospective longitudinal study of adolescents and young adults' intimate relationships (Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study [TARS]). In addition to four waves of interview data (N=1319), a fifth wave of interviews with the youngest cohort (about one-third of the existing sample) is conducted and focuses on violent victimization and perpetration. Interviews are also conducted with the two older cohorts (ages 24 and 26 at interview) who are at the peak ages of intimate partner violence (IPV). Separate in-depth interviews are also conducted with both partners of a subsample of respondents (50 couples, N=100) who report experience with IPV.

In 1995-1996, the MacArthur Midlife Research Network carried out a national survey of 7,108 Americans aged 25 to 74 (MIDLIFE IN THE UNITED STATES (MIDUS), 1995-1996 [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 twins and the siblings of main sample respondents), and its creative use of in-depth assessments in key areas (e.g., daily stress and cognitive functioning). A description of the study and findings from it are available at http://www.midus.wisc.edu. With support from the National Institute on Aging, a longitudinal follow-up of the original MIDUS samples: core sample (N = 3,487), metropolitan over-samples (N = 757), twins (N = 925 complete pairs), and siblings (N = 950), was conducted in 2004-2006. Guiding hypotheses for it, at the most general level, were that behavioral and psychosocial factors are consequential for physical and mental health. MIDUS 2 respondents were aged 35 to 86. Data collection largely repeated baseline assessments (e.g., phone interview and extensive self-administered questionnaire), with additional questions in selected areas (e.g., cognitive functioning, optimism and coping, stressful life events, and caregiving). To add refinements to MIDUS 2, an African American sample (N = 592) was recruited from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who participated in a personal interview and completed a questionnaire paralleling the above assessments. Survey data for the Milwaukee sample are available in a separate project [ICPSR 22840]. Also administered was a modified form of the mail questionnaire, via telephone, to respondents who did not complete a self-administered questionnaire.

These data were gathered to provide information on Kahn and Antonucci's life-span developmental model, "convoys of social support," which explores interpersonal relationships over time. Older adults (aged 50+) were interviewed on their health status, labor force status, and other demographic characteristics, and on the composition and degree of closeness of members of their current support network (e.g., spouses, children, friends). Three concentric circles of closeness were defined, varying in terms of transcendence of the relationship beyond role requirements, stability over the life span, and exchange of many different types of support (confiding, reassurance, respect, care when ill, discussion when upset, and talk about health). The principal respondents named a total of 6,341 network members, ranging in age from 18 to 96 years. Detailed structural and functional characteristics were collected from the principal respondents on the first ten named members of each support network. Similar interviews were then conducted with one to three network members of those 259 principal respondents who were 70+ years old. Two data files are provided: Part 1 contains merged data from the interviews of both the principal respondents aged 70+ and their network members, and Part 2 contains data from the principal respondents aged 50+.

The Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT): Baseline Wave collection contains data collected as part of the Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) Study. TLT is a longitudinal study in Balaka, Malawi designed to examine how young people navigate reproduction in an AIDS epidemic. Tsogolo la Thanzi means "Healthy Futures" in Chichewa, Malawi's most widely spoken language. New data is being collected to develop better understandings of the reproductive goals and behavior of young adults in Malawi -- the first cohort to never have experienced life without AIDS. To understand these patterns of family formation in a rapidly changing setting, TLT used the following approach: an intensive longitudinal design where respondents are interviewed every fourth months at TLT's centralized research center. Data collection began in May of 2009 and was completed in June of 2012. To assess changes on a longer time-horizon, a follow-up survey we refer to as Tsogolo la Thanzi 2 (TLT-2) was fielded between July and October of 2015. The Women dataset (dataset 1) contains variables that pertain to pregnancy, family composition, partners and relationships, mental health, marriage, sex and protection, sexually transmitted diseases, goods purchases, and diet. The Male Partners dataset (dataset 2) contains variables that pertain to relationships, religion, politics, family composition, mental health, sex and protection, pregnancy, marriage, sexually transmitted diseases, goods purchases, and diet. The Random Men dataset (dataset 3) asked respondents about their mental health, partners and relationships, sexually transmitted diseases, sex and protection, family composition, goods purchases, and diet. The Male Partners at Alternative Waves dataset (dataset 4) includes baseline data collected for male partners who began participating in the study between Wave 2 and Wave 8. If male partners entered the study at Wave 2 or later, their first interview was the baseline questionnaire (Wave 1), and at the next round of data collection they received the current wave's questionnaire. This dataset includes variables that pertain to relationships, religion, mental and physical health, family composition, sex and protection, fatherhood, marriage, sexually transmitted diseases, good purchases and diet. Demographic variables in each dataset include age, tribe, language, and education.