The Study of Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1978-1981
Investigators: Richard Udry

The Study of Adolescent Sexual Behavior was a three wave panel study conducted between August 1978 and June 1981 by the Carolina Population Center (CPC). The study explored adolescent attitudes and behavior with respect to sexuality. In addition to student questionnaires, parents of the adolescents were interviewed across all three waves of the study. The DAAPPP file consists of information on student respondents, which is supplemented by information provided by parents, as well as interviewer observations about the respondent. Topics covered in the interview include: physical and sexual development; sexual history; attitudes and beliefs concerning social and sexual behavior; demographic information on the respondent and the respondent's family and household (sex, religion, occupation, etc.); and items concerning the mental health of the respondent pertaining to locus of control, future orientation, and self-satisfaction. The study also used a technique of matching respondent questionnaires to those of friends in the school to analyze the social structure of peer influence on sexual behavior. The matching technique, after being refined for the second wave, obtained same sex matches for more than 90 percent of the respondents, and nearly 90 percent were matched with at least three other respondents. This Data Set has 533 cases and 2,278 variables.