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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.

The Eurobarometer series is a unique cross-national and cross-temporal survey program conducted on behalf of the European Commission. These surveys regularly monitor public opinion in the European Union (EU) member countries and consist of standard modules and special topic modules. The standard modules address attitudes towards European unification, institutions and policies, measurements for general socio-political orientations, as well as respondent and household demographics. The special topic modules address such topics as agriculture, education, natural environment and resources, public health, public safety and crime, and science and technology.

This Eurobarometer is part of wave 75.1 and covers the special topic of women in the EU. Questions in this survey pertain to gender equality and work, including gender pay gap and paternal leave. Other questions addressed women's representation in politics and violence against women.

Demographic and other background information collected includes age, gender, nationality, marital status and parental relations, left-right political self-placement, occupation, age when stopped full-time education, household composition, ownership of a fixed or a mobile telephone and other durable goods, difficulties in paying bills, level in society, and Internet use. In addition, country-specific data includes type and size of locality, region of residence, and language of interview (select countries).

The Law Enforcement and Family Support program consists of multi-dimensional stress management services for law enforcement personnel within the state of Tennessee. The Tennessee Sheriffs' Association was awarded a grant to develop, demonstrate, and test innovative stress-reduction and support programs for State or local law enforcement personnel and their families. Over an 18-month period, a framework of stress-related services on a statewide basis for law enforcement personnel and their families was developed. The services cover a range of activities from on-scene defusings to group therapy for families, children, and couples. Its focus is the early recognition and provision of services, which preserves confidentiality while utilizing extensive peer support. The program implemented a model for a stress reduction program at regional law enforcement training academies and produced a text/workbook for educating new recruits and their families on stress related topics. In addition, this program incorporated a monitoring and evaluation component, which consisted of three studies, a Baseline Study, a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (C.I.S.D.) Study, and an Evaluation of C.I.S.D. Peer and Family Teams Study, all of which utilized a design that attempted to test the efficacy of services provided to law enforcement personnel and their families and are described in more detail below.

Baseline Study (Dataset 1) - A baseline survey, the Tennessee Law Enforcement Officer Questionnaire, was developed and distributed to officers in a randomly selected number of departments from each of three regions: West, Middle, and East. The agencies from each region were matched based on demographics such as number of sworn officers. In addition to demographic information, participants were asked to identify their awareness of 19 services that may be offered by their agency as well as the utilization and willingness to use these services. The final section of the questionnaire asked participants to identify post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms that they may have experienced after a critical incident on the job. All law enforcement agencies in Tennessee were organized into groups based on type of agency (City, County, State). Agencies from each group were randomly selected. A summary of the data from Time 1 provides Tennessee with a baseline of the current awareness, utilization, and willingness to use services. In addition, this data provides an understanding of the number of critical incidents that law enforcement officers in Tennessee have experienced as well as the potential to which these incidences have impacted officers' perception of their performance.

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (C.I.S.D.) Study (Datasets 2 and 3) - The goal of this portion of the project was to determine the effectiveness of critical incidents stress debriefing (CISD) as a means to assist officers in dealing with the negative effects of exposure to a critical incident. To identify the effectiveness of the CISD intervention as well as the support programs in each region, information was collected from officers who participated in a debriefing at three time periods (i.e. prior to CISD, 2-weeks after CISD, 3-months after CISD). The Western region received only Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), the Eastern region received CISD, and Peer Support, and the Middle region received CISD, Peer Support, and Family Support. Participants were asked to identify what services they and their family may have used (e.g. EAP, Counseling, Family Support Team, Peer Support Team, Training Seminar). Additionally, participants were asked to identify any health problems they experienced since the incident, and lost work time as a result of the incident. A CISD Team member identified the type of critical incident that the officer experienced.

Evaluation of the C.I.S.D. Peer and Family Teams Study (Dataset 4) - The goal of this section of the evaluation process was to identify the impact that the three Teams had on participants. Specifically participants' perception of the usefulness of the Teams and what was gained from their interaction with the Teams was to be measured. Initially, the Team evaluation forms were to be filled out by every individual who participated in a debriefing at the 2-week and 3-month periods. Asking participants to complete Team evaluations at these time periods would allow participants in the Middle region to have exposure to the Family Support and Peer Support Teams, and participants in the Eastern region to have exposure to a Peer Support Team. The procedure was modified so that Team evaluations were conducted at the completion of the project. The evaluation first asked the participant to identify if they had been contacted by a member of a Team (CISD, Peer, Family).

The Part 1 (Baseline) data public and restricted files contain 5,425 cases and 157 variables. The Part 2 (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing) data public and restricted files contain 329 cases and 189 variables. The Part 3 (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Matched Cases) data public and restricted files contain 236 cases and 354 variables. The Part 4 (Evaluation of CISD Peer and Family Teams) data public and restricted files contain 81 cases and 24 variables.

The study was conducted during the spring and summer of 1971. The aim of the 1971 Detroit Area Study was to gather information on social change in the Detroit area by replicating items from nine earlier Detroit Area Studies that were conducted in 1953-1959, 1968, and 1969. The criteria used for selecting the question items were that they: (1) not be dated by wording or subject matter, (2) be relevant to some problem of current public concern or a continuing issue of sociological theory, and (3) be of the type that would be manageable in a long interview on diverse subjects. The questions chosen to be included in the 1971 Detroit Area Study examined issues such as values in marriage, ideal number of children, satisfaction of wives with marriage, decision-making and division of labor within a marriage, attitudes toward women and work, child-rearing, social participation, religious participation and beliefs, moral and job values, political orientation and participation, evaluation of various institutions, and racial attitudes. In addition to the items replicated from the previous studies, respondents' attitudes toward the United States sending troops to Vietnam were explored. Background variables established respondents' age, sex, race, educational level, marital status, occupation, class identification, and relationship to head of household. Demographic information was also collected on the respondent's spouse and parents.

The 1985 Detroit Area Study surveyed life events of respondents. Questions addressed alcohol and drug use, emotional state, incidents of depression and fear, stress caused by children and work, and respondent's general health. Information on the respondent's family background was also collected, with specific emphases on children, parenting, and marriage. Gender comparison questions were posed to explore in detail issues such as the benefits/responsibilities of marriage, marriage roles and careers, and division of housework tasks. The survey also included items on the respondent's financial situation, social life, social support network, and demographic characteristics such as age, race, sex, education, religion, and income.

Formerly titled Marital Instability Over the Life Course (MIOLC -- ICPSR 3812), the Work and Family Life Study (WFLS) is a follow-up to the MIOLC. The MIOLC examined the causes of marital instability throughout the life course, and contains 6 waves of data collected between 1980 and 2000, which were gathered from married respondents who were between the ages of 19 and 55.

The Work and Family Life Study provides data for use in assessing: changes in marital quality between 1980 and 2000; the effects of family-of-origin characteristics and marital history on the physical and psychological health of respondents; and evaluating sample attrition, factors which lead to attrition, and attrition bias.

The WFLS collected new cross-sectional information (Part 2 -- Public Use Cross Section, N = 2,189) on married people 55 years of age and younger, using the same sampling procedures and interview questions that were used in the 1980 wave of the MIOLC. The Work and Family Life Study's Public Use Cross Section is the latest addition to the data collections. This new Public Use Cross Section studies the effects of wives' participation in the labor force on marriage and marital instability.

Also provided in this collection are the Public Use All Waves (Part 1, N = 2,034) and the Public Use Panel Wave 6 (Part 3, N = 1,031). The Public Use All Waves contains information from Waves I through VI, which were collected in 1980, 1983, 1987, 1992-1994, 1997, and 2000. Among the variables included in all six waves are age, sex, educational attainment, marital status and history, attitude toward divorce, number of children, religious affiliation, and income level. The Public Use Panel Wave 6 contains data on persons who only responded to wave 6 of the study.

Unique to this data collection, the Public Use Comparison file (Part 4, N = 11,741) contains information on respondents who would have been between the ages of 19 and 55 in 1980, married, and living with their spouse. These data evaluate potential bias from sample attrition in the panel study. The Comparison Sample is a special purpose sample and does not generalize to a normally defined population of ever married persons.

The 500 Family Study was designed to obtain in-depth information on middle class, dual-career families living in the United States. To understand the complex dynamics of today's families and the strategies they use to balance the demands of work and family, over 500 families from 8 cities across the United States were studied. To address different issues facing parents with older and younger children, families with adolescents and families with kindergartners were included in the sample. Working mothers and fathers are now splitting their time between their responsibilities to their family, and to their respective occupations. This study of 500 families explores how work affects the lives and well-being of parents and their children.

The study's data allows researchers to explore a broad range of questions:

• How do dual-career families manage and organize their resources and time between family and work?
• How do work conditions, including characteristics of the job and workplace environment, affect the quality of relationships among household members?
• How do dual career parents manage the moral and social development and learning experiences of their children?
• How do the work-related responsibilities of working parents affect their child's moral, social, and educational development?
• What effect is consumerism and technology having on how working families direct the moral and social development of their children?
• What do parents believe is their role regarding the child-care of their children and how they should fulfill that role both in terms of time and in the allocation of economic and social resources? What are some of the resources in the community that parents use to supervise their children?
• How do families regard the "free time" of adolescents and how they allocate adolescent "free time" in maintenance of the household?
• What is the quality of relationships among family members?

To obtain a detailed picture of work and family life, mothers, fathers, and their children were asked to complete a series of instruments including surveys, in-depth interviews, and time diaries. These instruments were designed to provide information about work, marriage, child care and parental supervision, management of household tasks, time allocations, coping strategies, and psychological well-being.

The four datasets associated with this data collection are summarized below:

1. The Cortisol Data contains information for a subsample of families that elected to participate in a study of psychological stress. Parents and teenagers who agreed to participate completed an additional two days of ESM data collection. The health survey that was administered reported on a variety of health and lifestyle issues that might affect cortisol (stress hormone) levels such as medication use, consumption of caffeine and alcohol, use of nicotine, timing of menstrual cycle, pregnancy, presence of chronic illness, and respondent's height and weight. Additionally, parents reported on the health of the children (teenagers and kindergartners) participating in the study.
2. The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) Data contains a variety of information related to how individuals spend their time, who they spent it with, and what activities they were engaged in over the course of a typical week. Respondents wore programmed wrist watches that emitted signals (beeps) throughout the day. When possible, family members were placed on identical signaling schedules to provide information on a range of family activities. At the time of each beep, participants were asked to complete a self-report form which asked them to answer a number of open-ended questions about their location, activities, who they were with, and psychological states. Several Likert and semantic-differential scales were used to assess participants' psychological states.
3. The Parent Data contains basic demographic information from respondents as well as detailed information about parents' occupation job duties, income, work schedule, benefits (e.g., medical care, flexible work schedules, and family leave), and the consequences of their jobs (e.g. long hours, job stress, having to work weekends). Additionally, the data contain information about the extent to which parents experienced work-family conflict and what changes might help with better balance of the demands of work and family (e.g., more flexible work hours, more help from spouses with household and child care responsibilities, improved child care, and after-school care arrangements). Parental attitudes toward traditional arrangements, how household tasks were actually divided among family members, and how often the family paid for services (e.g., cleaning, yard work, meal preparation) were also captured. The data also contain information about how children are socialized in families with two working parents. Topics about the frequency with which parents engaged in various activities with their children (e.g., talking, eating meals together, attending religious services), how frequently parents monitored their teenager's activities, and how often they talked with their teenager about school activities, plans for college, career plans, friendships, and peer pressure.
4. The Adolescent Data contains data for sixth through twelfth graders, which focuses on family relationships and experiences, school experiences, paid work, psychological well-being and behavioral problems, and plans for the future (e.g., college, career, and marriage -- including expectations regarding spouses' sharing of responsibility for child care, cooking, chores, and paid work). To allow for comparison of parents' and adolescents' responses to similar questions, several items appear in both the adolescent and parent data. These items include the frequency with which parents and adolescents discuss school events, college and career plans, participation in religious and other activities, gender role attitudes and the division of household tasks within the family, and items measuring depression, stress, and anxiety.

Qualitative Data -- Interviews The main purpose of the interviews was to explore topics addressed in the parent and adolescent surveys in greater detail. Parent interviews were designed to examine how working parents cope with the demands of work and family life. Adolescent interviews touched on similar themes but altered questions to gauge the adolescent's perceptions of their parents work and family lives. Kindergartner interviews were brief and focused on children's after-school and child care arrangements and time spent with parents.