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The Americans' Changing Lives (ACL) survey series is an ongoing, nationally representative, longitudinal study focusing especially on differences between Black and White Americans in middle and late life. These data constitute the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth waves in a panel survey covering a wide range of sociological, psychological, mental, and physical health items. Wave I of the study began in 1986 with a nation face-to-face survey of 3,617 adults ages 25 and up, with Black Americans and people aged 60 and over over-sampled at twice the rate of the others. Wave II constitutes face-to-face re-interviews in 1989 of those still alive. Survivors have been re-interviewed by telephone, and when necessary face-to-face, in 1994 (Wave III), 2001/02 (Wave IV), 2011 (Wave V), and 2019/21 (Wave VI).

Please note that for Wave VI, the majority of data collection occurred in 2019, with only a small subset (n=39) of participants surveyed in 2021.

ACL was designed and sought to investigate the following: (1) The ways in which a wide range of activities and social relationships that people engage in are broadly "productive," (2) how individuals adapt to acute life events and chronic stresses that threaten the maintenance of health, effective functioning, and productive activity, and (3) sociocultural variations in the nature, meaning, determinants, and consequences of productive activity and relationships. Among the topics covered are interpersonal relationships (spouse/partner, children, parents, friends), sources and levels of satisfaction, social interactions and leisure activities, traumatic life events (physical assault, serious illness, divorce, death of a loved one, financial or legal problems), perceptions of retirement, health behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption, overweight, rest), and utilization of health care services (doctor visits, hospitalization, nursing home institutionalization, bed days). Also included are measures of physical health, psychological well-being, and indices referring to cognitive functioning.

Demographic information provided for individuals includes household composition, number of children and grandchildren, employment status, occupation and work history, income, family financial situation, religious beliefs and practices, ethnicity, race, education, sex, and region of residence.

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the US, but treatment for marijuana dependence is not fully effective. The most effective treatments to date have employed motivational enhancement (MET) plus cognitive-behavioral coping skills treatment (CB) and contingency management (CM) for abstinence. This study was intended to deliver a treatment to enhance coping and self-efficacy to improve marijuana outcomes in the long term. Researchers are explored the idea that more tailored teaching of coping skills may result in improved outcomes for marijuana-dependence than those seen thus far. The Individualized Assessment and Treatment Program (IATP) for marijuana dependent patients employed experience sampling (ES) to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each patient in drug-use situations so that treatment could be tailored accordingly.

Participants were 198 men and women meeting criteria for marijuana dependence and randomly assigned to 9 sessions of treatment in one of 4 treatment conditions: Standardized MET plus CB (SMET-CB); SMET+ CM (SMET-CB-CM); IATP; or IATP + CM (IATP-CM). Patients in all treatments engaged in ES via cell-phone for two weeks prior to treatment, for a weekly period during treatment, for another week after treatment has ended, and for two weekly periods at months 8 and 14. In the IATP conditions, the information gathered from the pretreatment and during-treatment ES periods provided data for a functional analysis of patients' drug use and urges to use. Therapists used the information to address specific cognitions, affects, and behaviors that were adaptive and maladaptive, and tailored a specific coping skills program with the patient. During-treatment experience sampling allowed monitoring of the treatment goals and procedures, making the treatment adaptive. In the SMET-CB conditions the experience sampling data were not used in therapy, but still provides in-vivo measures of drug use and coping skills.

It was hypothesized that IATP conditions would yield significantly better coping skills acquisition than SMET-CB conditions, both at posttreatment and at extended follow-ups, and that change in coping skills would predict better outcomes for the IATP conditions. It was further predicted that the addition of CM to both IATP and SMET-CB would enhance short-term and long-term outcomes. The results would have implications for improved tailoring of treatment to patients' strength and deficits, and for the validity of the training of coping skills for cannabis relapse prevention. The data collected will shed light on the ways in which patients in treatment use coping skills in real-time contexts. Finally, the use of repeated ES periods will allow researchers to determine how treatment impacts thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and how these in turn affect outcome in the long and short term.

Parents And Children Coping Together (PACT) was designed to longitudinally assess mothers in Los Angeles county living with HIV (MLHs) and their young, well children age 5 to 11 years old. The PACT sample was followed every 6 months for 30 months. The study utilizes longitudinal data from children/adolescent and mother dyads to investigate the effects of maternal HIV and family variables on adolescent sexual behavior. Specific aims were to:

1. Evaluate longitudinally youth adjustment (i.e., mental health, behavioral adjustment, social outcomes) including measures for young children. Measures included developmentally appropriate youth and maternal mental health measures (e.g., Children's Depression Inventory for youths age under 18; Beck Depression Inventory for youths age equal to or greater than 18), assessment of maternal physical health, assessment of child behaviors, and family functioning.
2. Evaluate youth characteristics from across developmental periods that may moderate or mediate the impact of MLHs' chronic illness on patterns of youth adjustment over time, including: (a) background factors of age, gender, ethnicity; and (b) moderating and mediating factors, such as self-concept, family cohesion, the parent-child relationship, HIV/AIDS knowledge, perceived stigma, autonomy, and parent-adolescent separation.
3. Evaluate maternal characteristics that may moderate or mediate the impact of MLHs' chronic illness on the youth (e.g., illness severity, mental health status, social support, parenting skills).

The Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS), is an extension of the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS). RIGS investigates intergenerational continuity and discontinuity of drug use in a three-generation prospective design. The focal participant is the oldest biological child (G3) of the original participant in the RYDS study. The project contains developmental data collected since 1988 on the G2 parents and G1 grandparents; combining those data with the prospective data collected from 1999 to 2019 allows examination of how the parent's own developmental course influences their transition to adulthood and their behavior as parents which, in turn, can be used to explain the onset and development of the G3 child's drug use.

Variables included pertain to the parent's stressors, drug use and problem behaviors, prosocial bonds, peer networks, gang affiliation, family context, major family events, and parenting behaviors. G3 assessments include their general psychosocial development, with detailed information on the onset and course of their drug use, problem behaviors, school behavior, and prosocial behavior.