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The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS, formerly known as the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study) follows a cohort of nearly 5,000 children born in large, U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000. The study oversampled births to unmarried couples; and, when weighted, the data are representative of births in large U.S. cities at the turn of the century. The FFCWS was originally designed to address four questions of great interest to researchers and policy makers:

1. What are the conditions and capabilities of unmarried parents, especially fathers?
2. What is the nature of the relationships between unmarried parents?
3. How do children born into these families fare?
4. How do policies and environmental conditions affect families and children?

The FFCWS consists of interviews with mothers, fathers, and/or primary caregivers at birth and again when children are ages 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, and 22. The parent interviews collected information on attitudes, relationships, parenting behavior, demographic characteristics, health (mental and physical), economic and employment status, neighborhood characteristics, and program participation. Beginning at age 9, children were interviewed directly (either during the home visit or on the telephone). The direct child interviews collected data on family relationships, home routines, schools, peers, and physical and mental health, as well as health behaviors.

A collaborative study of the FFCWS, the In-Home Longitudinal Study of Pre-School Aged Children (In-Home Study) collected data from a subset of the FFCWS Core respondents at the Year 3 and 5 follow-ups to ask how parental resources in the form of parental presence or absence, time, and money influence children under the age of 5. The In-Home Study collected information on a variety of domains of the child's environment, including: the physical environment (quality of housing, nutrition and food security, health care, adequacy of clothing and supervision) and parenting (parental discipline, parental attachment, and cognitive stimulation). In addition, the In-Home Study also collected information on several important child outcomes, including anthropometrics, child behaviors, and cognitive ability. This information was collected through interviews with the child's primary caregiver, and direct observation of the child's home environment and the child's interactions with his or her caregiver.

Similar activities were conducted during the Year 9 follow-up. At the Year 15 follow-up, a condensed set of home visit activities were conducted with a subsample of approximately 1,000 teens. Teens who participated in the In-Home Study were also invited to participate in a Sleep Study and were asked to wear an accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist for seven consecutive days to track their sleep (Sleep Actigraphy Data) and that day's behaviors and mood (Daily Sleep Actigraphy and Diary Survey Data).

An additional collaborative study collected data from the child care provider (Year 3) and teacher (Years 9 and 15) through mail-based surveys. Saliva samples were collected at Year 9 and 15 (Biomarker file and Polygenic Scores). The Study of Adolescent Neural Development (SAND) COVID Study began data collection in May 2020 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It included online surveys with the young adult and their primary caregiver.

The FFCWS began its seventh wave of data collection in October 2020, around the focal child's 22nd birthday. Data collection and interviews continued through January 2024. The Year 22 wave included a young adult (YA) survey with the original focal child and a primary caregiver (PCG) survey. Data were also collected on the children of the original focal child (referred to as Generation 3, or G3).

In 2017, the FFCWS team announced the Fragile Families (FF) Challenge, a collaborative effort in which participants were tasked with using machine learning methods and FFCWS data (Baseline to Year 9) to build a model that would predict six key outcomes at Year 15. Materials used in the FF Challenge have been archived in this collection.

Documentation for these files is available on the FFCWS website under Data and Documentation. For details of updates made to the FFCWS data files, please see the project's Data Alerts page.

Data collection for the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01HD36916, R01HD39135, and R01HD40421, as well as a consortium of private foundations.

Below is the citation for use of the FFCWS data accessed through ICPSR. For information on additional citation requirements when using FFCWS in publications, please refer to this FAQ on the FFCWS project site.

This catalog record includes detailed variable-level descriptions, enabling data discovery and comparison. The data are not archived at ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners (via the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research) directly for details on obtaining the data.

This collection includes variable-level metadata of the 2014 poll What Shapes Health, a survey from National Public Radio/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health conducted by Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS). Topics covered in this survey include:

• Concerned about own health
• Meaning of health
• Control over own health
• Effort into maintaining health
• Frequency of healthy activities
• Description of personal health
• Types of healthy habits
• On diet to lose weight
• Ways to improve health
• Things that cause health problems
• Childhood problems causing future health issues
• Participation in community organizations
• Volunteering improving health
• Being told to improve health
• Family/friend behavior influencing health
• Health habits of family/friends
• Problems experienced in adulthood
• Problems experience in childhood
• Receiving health care
• Difficulty accessing health care
• Parents' health
• Recent serious illnesses
• Diagnosed with health conditions
• Frequency of exercising
• Personal weight
• Smoking habits
• Health insurance

The data and documentation files for this survey are available through the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research [Roper #31092363]. Frequencies and summary statistics for the 244 variables from this survey are available through the ICPSR social science variable database and can be accessed from the Variables tab.

This catalog record includes detailed variable-level descriptions, enabling data discovery and comparison. The data are not archived at ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners (via the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research) directly for details on obtaining the data.

This collection includes variable-level metadata of Poll # 2005-DIS: Disparities, a survey from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation conducted by ICR-International Communications Research. Topics covered in this survey include:

• Receipt of poor quality medical care
• Problems receiving quality health care due to race/ethnicity
• Action to ensure racial/ethnic minorities have the same chance to get good quality health care as whites
• Expectation of doctor to understand personal and cultural background's effects on quality of care

This catalog record includes detailed variable-level descriptions, enabling data discovery and comparison. The data are not archived at ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners (via the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research) directly for details on obtaining the data.

This collection includes variable-level metadata of Quality of Health Care, a survey from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation conducted by Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS). Topics covered in this survey include:

• Grading aspects of health care
• Value of health care versus cost
• Quality of care among local hospitals
• Familiar hospital versus higher-quality hospital
• Familiar surgeon versus higher-rated surgeon
• African Americans and health care quality
• Latinos and health care quality

The data and documentation files for this survey are available through the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research [Roper #31092346]. Frequencies and summary statistics for the 64 variables from this survey are available through the ICPSR social science variable database and can be accessed from the Variables tab.

This catalog record includes detailed variable-level descriptions, enabling data discovery and comparison. The data are not archived at ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners (via the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research) directly for details on obtaining the data.

This collection includes variable-level metadata of the 2017 Discrimination in the United States Survey, a survey from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/National Public Radio conducted by Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS). Topics covered in this survey include:

• Belief in discrimination against racial/ethnic minorities
• Discrimination against men/women
• Discrimination against lesbian/gay/bisexual people
• Discrimination against transgender people
• Biggest problem with discrimination against lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer (LGBTQ) people
• Live on tribal lands
• Local/tribal government
• Discrimination based on race
• Discrimination based on gender
• Discrimination based on being part of the LGBTQ community
• Reasons for avoiding seeking health care
• Experiences with discrimination
• Discrimination resulting in fewer employment opportunities
• Discrimination resulting in unequal pay
• Discrimination resulting in fewer chances for quality education
• Encouraged to/discouraged from applying to college
• Predominant groups living in respondent's area
• Not feeling/being welcomed in neighborhood due to race
• Not feeling/being welcomed in neighborhood due to being part of LGBTQ community
• Considered moving to another area because of discrimination
• Comparing respondent's area to others
• Police using unnecessary force based on race/ethnicity
• Avoiding activities to avoid discrimination from police
• Experiences caused by racial discrimination
• Experiences caused by gender discrimination
• Experiences caused by discrimination against LGBTQ community
• Local police force does/does not reflect racial/ethnic background of community
• Contacted by political representatives about voting/supporting cause
• Registered to vote
• Vote in 2016 presidential election
• Physical health status
• Mental health status
• Disability
• Chronic illness
• Veterans Administration
• Indian Health Services
• Seeking health care
• Insurance coverage

The data and documentation files for this survey are available through the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research [Roper #31114655]. Frequencies and summary statistics for the 235 variables from this survey are available through the ICPSR social science variable database and can be accessed from the Variables tab.

This catalog record includes detailed variable-level descriptions, enabling data discovery and comparison. The data are not archived at ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners (via the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research) directly for details on obtaining the data.

This collection includes variable-level metadata of African Americans' Lives Today, a survey from National Public Radio, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation conducted by Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS). Topics covered in this survey include:

• Satisfaction with life and environment
• Life improvements
• Satisfaction with living area
• Living area improvements
• Most important local issue
• Other black people in area
• Amount of black friends
• Economic class
• Rating various public institutions
• Rating quality of various resources
• Amount of discrimination
• Reason for discrimination
• Personal financial situation
• Economic class growing up
• Achieving American dream
• Better off than parents
• Importance of religion
• Making decisions about children
• Child schooling
• Rating child's school
• Black children in school
• Desired level of child's education
• Seeking long-term relationship
• Desire to marry
• Satisfaction with dating opportunities
• Race of romantic dates
• Looking for work
• Career success
• Unemployment concerns
• Health insurance and healthcare
• Access to care
• Medical expenses
• Quality of doctors
• Health and wellness
• Social and family life

The data and documentation files for this survey are available through the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research [Roper #31092356]. Frequencies and summary statistics for the 204 variables from this survey are available through the ICPSR social science variable database and can be accessed from the Variables tab.

This study investigated the factors that influenced the career decisions of young physicians and the characteristics of their practices. The collection has five datasets: Public-Use Version of the Young Physicians Survey (Dataset 1), Socioeconomic Monitoring System Study (Dataset 2), ZIP Code Data (Dataset 3), Verbatim Responses to the Open-Ended Questions (Dataset 4), and Restricted-Use Version of the Young Physicians Survey (Dataset 5).

The Public-Use Version of the Young Physicians Survey comprises responses from the Young Physicians Survey (YPS), plus merged data from the American Medical Association (AMA) Masterfile and the Association of American Medical Colleges' Student and Applicant Information Management System (SAIMS) database. The YPS interviewed physicians below 40 years of age who recently completed graduate medical training and were in their early years of practice. These physicians were queried about their graduate medical training, perceptions of the medical profession, current practice arrangements, career decisions, family background, patient care activities, and current income and expenses. To obtain information on current practice arrangements, respondents were questioned about the practices they worked in, including who owned the practices, the number of physicians in each practice, specialties or subspecialties practiced, usual fees for selected services, percentages of revenues from HMOs, PPOs, and IPAs, and percentages of patients who were Medicare patients, had no health insurance coverage, or were poor, Black, Hispanic, severely physically disabled, or chronically mentally ill. Questions on career decisions asked respondents about factors that influenced their career choices, such as reasons for working in multiple practices, reasons for leaving past practices, and reasons for deciding in favor of or against self-employment. Information on family background elicited by the survey includes the respondent's race, marital status, and educational debt, parents' income class and education, number of children living in the respondent's home, and whether the respondent's spouse or parents were physicians. Questions on patient care activities included questions on the number of hours spent providing uncompensated health care to the poor, and the number of hours spent with patients in a variety of settings, such as the office, emergency rooms, hospital outpatient clinics, and operating rooms. Information from the AMA Masterfile and the SAIMS database includes board certification status, AMA membership, school and year of graduation, Medical College Admission Test scores, primary undergraduate institution, most recent grade point averages, place of birth, number of acceptances to United States medical schools, parents' occupations, preferred medical specialty, and preferred practice setting.

Dataset 2 comprises responses from the AMA's Socioeconomic Monitoring System (SMS), a semiannual survey of nonfederal physicians that collected data on topics similar to those in the YPS, such as practice ownership, hours spent seeing patients in various settings, income, expenses, and opinions on practice procedures. The SMS data can be used for comparative analyses of young, prime, and senior physicians.

The ZIP Code Data contain estimates for the composition of the population residing in the ZIP code areas of the YPS respondents' main practices. This includes estimates of the size of each ZIP code area population, as well as its components with respect to gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, and income. Also included are estimates of the number of physicians and their composition with respect to age, sex, practice type, and specialty.

Dataset 4 contains verbatim responses to open-ended questions asked in the YPS.

The Restricted-Use Version of the Young Physicians Survey is the same as the Public-Use Version of the Young Physicians Survey, except for some variables that were restricted from general dissemination for reasons of confidentiality. The restricted-use version includes the restricted variables, but the public-use version does not.