Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2024 (ICPSR 39444)
Version Date: Oct 30, 2025 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Richard A. Miech, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center;
Lloyd D. Johnston, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center;
Megan E. Patrick, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center;
Patrick M. O'Malley, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39444.v1
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Additional details may be in the Version History or Data Collection Notes fields of the study metadata.
2025-10-30 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Summary View help for Summary
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.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
Census Region
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Users are reminded that these data are to be used solely for statistical analysis and reporting of aggregated information and not for the investigation of specific individuals.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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This study was conducted by the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
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To protect the anonymity of respondents, all variables that could be used to identify individuals have been collapsed or recoded in the public use files. These modifications should not affect analytic uses of the public use files.
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Variables omitted from the Western region questionnaires are noted in the codebook.
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A cross-time question index is included with the available documentation for the MTF 12th-grade data. The document is sorted by subject area and covers the time period 1976 to 2024.
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Frequency and percentage distributions displayed in the 2024 codebook are unweighted, rather than weighted as they had been in previous years. This change was made to simplify both the production of the codebook and their interpretation by the analyst.
- As referenced in the UsersGuide two PDF documents have been included for download to help provide additional context and understanding to data users. These documents provided by the Principal Investigators detail changes in 2024 to the questionnaires. One document is organized by form. The other document is organized by change (dropped items, added items, changes to response categories, and changes to the text of the question). Each document covers changes for both the 8th/10th grade and 12th grade data. Therefore, the exact same documents are available for download with the 8th/10th grade data (ICPSR 39445).
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MTF does not release detailed geography codes in its public use files because of the disclosure risk it would cause. The MTF sample is drawn to generate representative samples of the four Census Bureau regions of the country (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West), but it does not generate representative samples of smaller geographic areas such as states, counties, or cities. For additional information about data that are withheld from the public use files, please see the study codebook.
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The MTF Principal Investigators created a series of dichotomous recodes for 10 substances for the three standard time periods (lifetime, past 12 months, and past 30 days). The substances include tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, LSD, other psychedelics, amphetamines, sedatives/barbiturates, tranquilizers, inhalants, and other narcotics. These variables have been placed at the end of the Core data file (DS1). Each variable has the same name and label as the original, but with the addition of the letter "D" at the end of the variable name and the words "(dichotomous recode)" included at the end of the variable label. This was only done for the core file.
- For further information about Monitoring the Future please visit their web site. The site provides links to more publications, press releases, and data findings.
Study Design View help for Study Design
A total of 6,895 students completed a survey in 2024. The number of students completing each form were:
- Form 1: 1,142
- Form 2: 1,158
- Form 3: 1,148
- Form 4: 1,159
- Form 5: 1,138
- Form 6: 1,150
In 2024, MTF continued the web-based survey administration. Depending on the school, surveys were completed in-person, remotely, or a combination of modes, and MTF survey proctors were permitted in the classrooms.
Sample View help for Sample
The MTF sample is drawn to generate nationally-representative samples of each grade. All three grades, 8, 10, and 12, are sampled independently, with no school representing more than one grade, resulting in three separate and independent, nationally representative samples each year.
A two-stage stratified random sampling procedure was used involving (1) selection of schools within geographic areas, and (2) selection of students within sampled schools. Generally speaking, in schools with more than 350 students in the target grade, a sample of students or classes was drawn. In schools with less than 350 students in the target grade, all were asked to participate unless logistical challenges required a sample be taken. Each school was asked to participate for three years so that each year one-third of the sample would be replaced. Schools declining participation were replaced with similar schools in terms of geographic location, size, and type of school (e.g., public, private/Catholic, private/non-Catholic). The participation rate among schools has been between 66 and 85 percent since the inception of the study. The total sample of 12th graders was divided into 6 subsamples, each to be administered a different form of the questionnaire. "Core" substance use and demographic questions were included in all questionnaire forms.
Note: The MTF sampling design used through 2023 was updated in 2024. For details, please see the MTF annual report.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
High school seniors in the contiguous United States
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
There are about 1,400 variables across the questionnaires. On average, each form consisted of 400 questions. Some questions were repeated on multiple forms and some were asked on all six forms. All of the survey questions are categorical in nature. The majority of questions fall into one of seven types of response options.
- Yes / No
- Marked / Not Marked
- Agree / Disagree scale (5 point)
- Disapproval scale (3 point)
- Risk scale (4 point)
- Frequency of days (6 point)
- Frequency of use (7 point)
The Core Data file (DS1) is a compilation across all six survey forms of the substance use and demographics questions of the surveys - the questions common to all forms - plus additional substance use variables of interest that may not be on all forms (e.g. vaping-related variables). Please see the codebook for a detailed list of the substance use variables included in DS1.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
The overall student response rate for 2024 was 76 percent.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2025-10-30
Version History View help for Version History
2025-10-30 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Weight View help for Weight
Each of the seven parts contains a weight variable, ARCHIVE_WT. The weights were originally varied by school but were modified to protect respondent confidentiality. Users should use the weight variable for all analyses, the results of which will differ slightly from published data tables that used original data.
OF SPECIAL NOTE: As the MTF respondents are sampled using a multi-stage sampling design, it is often desirable to incorporate the complex sample design information into analyses. However, in order to protect respondent confidentiality, the variables that represent the complex sample design of the MTF, i.e., sampling stratum and cluster, are omitted from the public use files. For researchers who wish to incorporate the unaltered weight variable and complex sample design variables into their analyses, these variables are now accessible through restricted access from NAHDAP. Please see Monitoring the Future (MTF) Restricted-Use Cross-Sectional Datasets for details.
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