Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2014 (ICPSR 36263)
Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2015 (ICPSR 36408)
Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2016 (ICPSR 36798)
Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2017 (ICPSR 37182)
Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2018 (ICPSR 37416)
Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2019 (ICPSR 37841)
These surveys of 12th-grade students are 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 drug use. There are about 1,400 variables across the questionnaires. Drugs covered by this survey include tobacco, smokeless tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, hashish, prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, LSD, hallucinogens, amphetamines (stimulants), Ritalin (methylphenidate), sedatives/barbiturates, tranquilizers, cocaine, crack cocaine, GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate), ecstasy, methamphetamine, and heroin. 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 2019:
- Change in methodology: half of the MTF schools completed in-class surveys on tablets loaded with the survey; the other half completed traditional paper-and-pencil surveys. Also see the Methodology section on this page for an overview and the codebook for details.
- Expansion and revision of the study documentation in the codebook
- New documentation available for download detailing the question adds/drops/changes to the surveys
- Availability of supplemental data sets for previously unreleased questions
Two supplemental data files (DS8 and DS9) have been included this year by the Principal Investigators. These files each include three administrative variables for year (V1), form (V3), and ID (RESPONDENT_ID) along with a few additional variables of survey questions not previously released for Form 5 (DS8) and Form 6 (DS9) between the years 2016 to 2018. These same variables are already present in the main 2019 data files for Form 5 (DS6) and Form 6 (DS7). The front section of the codebook provides details about each of the variables. There are also instructions on how to merge the supplemental data on to the main data files for the previous three years:
- 2018 data (ICPSR 37416)
- 2017 data (ICPSR 37182)
- 2016 data (ICPSR 36798)
Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2020 (ICPSR 38156)
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 drug use. There are about 1,400 variables across the questionnaires. Drugs covered by this survey include tobacco, smokeless tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, hashish, prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, LSD, hallucinogens, amphetamines (stimulants), Ritalin (methylphenidate), barbiturates (tranquilizers), cocaine, crack cocaine, GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate), ecstasy, methamphetamine, and heroin. 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 2020:
- All students recorded their survey answers on tablets that the project brought to the schools, preloaded with the MTF surveys.
- Data collection was halted prematurely on March 15, 2020 when the University of Michigan stopped all projects that involved face-to-face data collection because of COVID-19 concerns. This resulted in a 2020 sample size about 25% the size of a regular data collection.
- Guidance for combining grades for analysis: see Appendix C of the codebook.
- Information about potential mode effects for questions on student attitudes and beliefs when comparing previous years' paper-based survey responses to the current tablet method of collection. Please see the codebook Introduction - Survey Mode section for details.
Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2021 (ICPSR 38503)
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 drug use. There are about 1,400 variables across the questionnaires. Drugs covered by this survey include tobacco, smokeless tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, hashish, prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, LSD, hallucinogens, amphetamines (stimulants), Ritalin (methylphenidate), Quaaludes (methaqualone), barbiturates (tranquilizers), cocaine, crack cocaine, GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate), ecstasy, methamphetamine, and heroin. 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 2021:
- Data collection resumed in 2021, with a change to all web-based surveys.
- Students completed the surveys on their personal or school-provided device.
- Non-survey variables have been changed or added to facilitate analyses. For details, please see the codebook section "MTF Variable Information - Non-survey variables included in the data files - Survey mode and design variables for 2021"
- Information about "screen break" issues, where series of questions were originally presented differently in the web-based survey as compared to the 2019/2020 tablet surveys. Please see the codebook and Appendix D for details.
- For 12th grade: two additional changes to the survey presentation. Please see the codebook section "MTF Variable Information - Non-survey variables included in the data files", and respective appendices for details.
- Introduction of randomized blocks of questions presented to students. Please see Appendix E.
- Test of presentation of items in the substance use consequences section on form 3. Please see Appendix F.
- Additional information is documented in the MTFQchanges2021byForm.pdf and MTFQchanges2021byType.pdf files available for download.