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The California Families Project (CFP) is an ongoing longitudinal study of Mexican origin families in Northern California. This study uses community, school, family, and individual characteristics to examine developmental pathways that increase risk for and resilience to drug use in Mexican-origin youth. This study also examines the impact that economic disadvantage and cultural traditions have in Mexican-origin youth. The CFP includes a community-based sample of 674 families and children of Mexican origin living in Northern California, and includes annual assessments of parents and children. Participants with Mexican surnames were drawn at random from school rosters of students during the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school year. Data collection included multi-method assessments of a broad range of psychological, familial, scholastic, cultural, and neighborhood factors. Initiation of the research at age 10 was designed to assess the focal children before the onset of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug (ATOD) use, thus enabling the evaluation of how hypothesized risk and resilience mechanisms operate to exacerbate early onset during adolescence or help prevent its occurrence. This study includes a diversity of families that represent a wide range of incomes, education, family history, and family structures, including two-parent and single-parent families.

The accompanying data file consists of 674 family cases with each case representing a focal child and at least one parent (Two-parent: n=549, 82 percent; Single-parent: n=125, 18 percent). Of the 3,139 total variables, 839 pertain to the focal child, 1,376 correspond to the mother, and 908 items pertain to the father.

Please note: While the California Families Project is a longitudinal study, only the baseline data are currently available in this data collection.

The study is comprised of interviews from 227 Hispanic males aged 45 or older living in the area of Houston, Texas to address the gaps in knowledge on the social factors and health consequences of injection heroin use among aging Mexican American males. Specifically, the study investigated how the life course transitions of incarceration and drug treatment and drug abuse and family trajectories affect both the heroin career status and health consequences of these aging Mexican American men.

The study used a cross-sectional, field-intensive outreach methodology augmented with respondent-driven sampling. Recruitment was focused in two Houston neighborhoods that are predominantly Mexican American areas with high rates of crime, poverty, and psychosocial challenges. Trained Outreach Specialists familiar with these communities identified community gatekeepers and gained their trust through continued presence in the community and ongoing dialogue about the study. These gatekeepers then helped identify individuals meeting the inclusion criteria: Mexican American men aged 45 years or older with a history of injection drug use for at least 3 years. The men were then classified into one of three groups: current injectors (current group), former injectors not in treatment (former group), or former injectors currently enrolled in methadone maintenance treatment programs (MMTP group).

The second part is a second survey asking questions about social networks the respondent participates in. Questions ask the respondent to answer on one individual in their network and answer questions about that person and their interaction with them. Questions include basic demographics, history injecting drugs and sexual contact with the person.

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.

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 2022:

• Continuation of randomized blocks of questions presented to students. Please see Appendix D of the codebook.
• Change to the question stem for some lifetime, 12 month, and 30 day heroin and marijuana use questions. Please see the Highlights for 2022 section in the codebook for more details.
• Change to the heroin use questions: Separate questions about heroin use with a needle and heroin use without a needle for lifetime, past 12 months, and past 30 day timeframes are no longer asked. The separate questions have been replaced by the single question, "On how many occasions (if any), have you taken heroin...
  • ...in your lifetime?
  • ...during the last 12 months?
  • ...during the last 30 days?

Additional information is documented in the MTFQchanges2022byForm.pdf and MTFQchanges2022byType.pdf files available for download.

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 questionnaires. Substance use covered by this survey includes: tobacco, smokeless tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, hashish, vaping, prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, LSD, hallucinogens, amphetamines (stimulants), Ritalin (methylphenidate), sedatives/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 2023:

• 12th grade only: Continuation of randomized blocks of questions presented to students. Please see Appendix D of the codebook.
• All grades: Change to the question stem for some lifetime, 12 month, and 30 day marijuana use questions.
• Separate codebooks are generated by ICPSR for the core data file (DS1) and the six form-specific data files (DS2-DS7). The codebooks contain only the frequencies, question text, and response options for the survey items. Please see the documentation under DS0 Study-Level Files for the annual study documentation provided by MTF, 39172-0001-User_guide-UsersGuide.pdf.

Please see the Highlights for 2023 section in the codebook for more details.

Additional information is documented in the MTFQchanges2023byForm.pdf and MTFQchanges2023byType.pdf files available for download.

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.