Monitoring the Future (MTF) Public-Use Cross-Sectional Datasets

collection: series

Studies

84

Variables

164,963

Publications

1,490

About this Collection

The Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of the Lifestyles and Values of Youth annual surveys were designed to explore changes in important values, behaviors, and lifestyle orientations of contemporary American youth. The surveys began in 1975 with 12th-grade students only. Eighth- and 10th-grade student surveys were added in 1991 under the title Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (8th- and 10th-Grade Surveys) and, in 1996, the designation "12th-Grade Survey" was added to the titles of the subsequent 12th-grade surveys. When examining the issues covered by the series, two general types of tasks may be distinguished. The first task is to provide a systematic and accurate description of the youth population of interest in a given year and to quantify the direction and rate of change occurring over time. The second task, more analytic than descriptive, involves the explanation of the relationships and trends observed. Each year, large, distinct, nationally representative samples of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students in the United States are asked to respond to drug use and demographic questions, as well as to additional questions on a variety of subjects, including attitudes toward religion, parental influences, changing roles of women, educational aspirations, self-esteem, exposure to sex and drug education, and violence and crime - both in and out of school. In each grade, students are randomly assigned to complete questionnaires with a subset of topical questions in addition to a set of core questions on demographics and drug use. For a guide to the questions asked each year in each questionnaire, along with their subject areas and variable names, users may refer to the question indexes under the For Researchers section below.

For more information, visit the Monitoring the Future Web site.

Years Produced: Annually. Note: the 1975 data is not available. Data available from NAHDAP are the annual cross-sectional datasets  

For more information about the MTF Restricted-Use Data, see Monitoring the Future (MTF) Restricted-Use Cross-Sectional Datasets

For Researchers

Studies

84 results

Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2024

This survey of 12th-grade students is part of a series that explores changes in important values, behaviors, and lifestyle orientations of contemporary American youth. Students are randomly assigned to complete one of six questionnaires, each with a different subset of topical questions, but all containing a set of "core" questions on demographics and substance use. There are about 1,400 variables across the six questionnaires. Substance use covered by these surveys includes tobacco, smokeless tobacco, alcohol, marijuana/cannabis, prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, inhalants, steroids, LSD and other hallucinogens, amphetamines (stimulants), sedatives/barbiturates, tranquilizers, cocaine, crack cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, heroin, narcotics other than heroin, and vaping of nicotine, marijuana/cannabis, and flavors. Other topics include attitudes toward religion, changing roles for women, educational aspirations, self-esteem, exposure to drug education, and violence and crime (both in and out of school).

Highlights for 2024:

  • The MTF sampling procedure was updated in 2024. Please see the 2024 MTF annual report for details. Variable-specific details are found in the user's guide that accompanies this study.
  • Continuation of randomized blocks of questions presented to students. Please see Appendix D of the user's guide.
  • In 2023, the question about use of Delta-8 THC was included only on forms 3 and 6. In 2024, this question is now included on all survey forms. With the inclusion on all forms, please note these variable name changes:
    • CORE: V2934 was changed to V7976
    • Form 3: V3660 was changed to V7976
    • Form 6: V6676 was changed to V7976
  • Changes were made to the question stems for many of the substance use "triplets", i.e. lifetime, 12 month, and 30 day timeframes, including: marijuana/cannabis, hallucinogens other than LSD, amphetamines (stimulants), sedatives/barbiturates, tranquilizers, and narcotics other than heroin.
  • Additional information about question text and response option changes, along with details about added and dropped questions, are documented in the MTFQchanges2024byForm.pdf and MTFQchanges2024byType.pdf files available for download.
  • MTF is no longer providing dichotomized substance use variables on the DS1 datasets. As each researcher has their own method of working with data, it is up to the researcher to create these variables for their specific needs.

Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (8th- and 10th-Grade Surveys), 2024

These surveys of 8th- and 10th-grade students are part of a series that explores changes in important values, behaviors, and lifestyle orientations of contemporary American youth. Students in each grade are randomly assigned to complete one of four questionnaires, each with a different subset of topical questions but containing a set of "core" questions on demographics and substance use. There are more than 450 variables across the questionnaires. Substance use covered by this survey includes: amphetamines (stimulants), sedatives/barbiturates (tranquilizers), other prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, vaping, tobacco, smokeless tobacco, alcohol, inhalants, steroids, marijuana, hashish, LSD, hallucinogens, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, methamphetamine, and injectable drugs such as heroin.

Highlights for 2024:

  • The MTF sampling procedure was updated in 2024. Please see the 2024 MTF annual report for details. Variable-specific details are found in the user's guide that accompanies this study.
  • Changes were made to the question stems for many of the substance use "triplets", i.e. lifetime, 12-month, and 30-day timeframes, including: marijuana/cannabis, hallucinogens other than LSD, amphetamines (stimulants), sedatives/barbiturates, tranquilizers, and narcotics other than heroin. Additional information about question text and response option changes, along with details about added and dropped questions, are documented in the MTFQchanges2024byForm.pdf and MTFQchanges2024byType.pdf files available for download.
  • MTF is no longer providing dichotomized substance use variables on the DS1 datasets. As each researcher has their own method of working with data, it is up to the researcher to create these variables for their specific needs.

Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (8th- and 10th-Grade Surveys), 2023

These surveys of 8th- and 10th-grade students are part of a series that explores changes in important values, behaviors, and lifestyle orientations of contemporary American youth. Students in each grade are randomly assigned to complete one of four questionnaires, each with a different subset of topical questions but containing a set of "core" questions on demographics and substance use. There are more than 450 variables across the questionnaires. Substance use covered by this survey includes: amphetamines (stimulants), sedatives/barbiturates (tranquilizers), other prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, vaping, tobacco, smokeless tobacco, alcohol, inhalants, steroids, marijuana, hashish, LSD, hallucinogens, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, methamphetamine, and injectable drugs such as heroin.

Highlights for 2023:

  • Change to the question stem for some lifetime, 12 month, and 30 day marijuana use questions: Please see the Highlights for 2023 section in the codebook for more details.
  • Additional information is documented in the doc39171-0001_MTFQChanges2023byForm.pdf and doc39171-0001_MTFQChanges2023byType.pdf files available for download.
  • The ICPSR-generated codebooks contain only the frequencies, question text, and response options for the survey items. Please see 39171-0001-User_guide-UsersGuide.pdf for the annual study documentation provided by MTF.
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