National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), Wave IV, 2007-2008

Investigators: Kathleen Mullan Harris, The Carolina Population Center

The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) was mandated by Congress to collect data for the purpose of measuring the impact of social environment on adolescent health. It examines the general health and well-being of adolescents in the United States, including, with respect to these adolescents, (1) the behaviors that promote health and the behaviors that are detrimental to health; and (2) the infuence on health of factors particular to the communities in which adolescents reside. Dependent variables include diet and nutrition, eating disorders, depression, violent behavior, intentional injury, unintentional injury, suicide, exercise, health service use, and health insurance coverage. Sociometrics is responsible for distribution of the public-use version of Add Health Wave IV described in this document. The Wave IV follow-up survey was designed to study developmental and health trajectories across the life course of adolescence into young adulthood. At the same time that the Add Health cohort was assuming adult roles and responsibilities, they were also developing crucial health habits and lifestyle choices that set pathways for their future adult health and well-being. By integrating biological information into models of health and human development, the Wave IV design stimulates interdisciplinary research teams that bridge the social and biomedical sciences.

National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Wave III, 2001-2002 (Add Health)

Investigators: J. Richard Udry, The Carolina Population Center

The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) was mandated by Congress to collect data for the purpose of measuring the impact of social environment on adolescent health. It examines the general health and well-being of adolescents in the United States, including, with respect to these adolescents, (1) the behaviors that promote health and the behaviors that are detrimental to health; and (2) the influence on health of factors particular to the communities in which adolescents reside. Dependent variables include diet and nutrition, eating disorders, depression, violent behavior, intentional injury, unintentional injury, suicide, exercise, health service use, and health insurance coverage. Add Health was designed to assess the health status of adolescents and explore the causes of their healthrelated behaviors, focusing on the effects of the multiple contexts or environments (both social and physical) in which they live. This study has collected data of interest to investigators from many disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences and from many theoretical traditions. The study explores the influences of both the individual attributes of adolescents and the attributes of their various environments on health and health-related behavior in areas such as diet, physical activity, health-service use, morbidity, injury, violence, sexual behavior, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, suicidal intentions/thoughts, substance use/abuse, and runaway behavior. Data were collected also on such attributes as height, weight, pubertal development, mental health status (focusing on depression, the most common mental health problem among adolescents), and chronic and disabling conditions. Add Health is longitudinal, with adolescents interviewed for a second time at a one-year interval and a third time at a six-year interval. Rather than relying on respondents' memories and reconstructions of past events, this design makes it possible to measure directly the influence of their experiences at one time on their behavior, and its consequences, at another. The Add Health research design was predicated on the idea that the differential health of adolescents has three sources: Different social environments. Social environments can be conceptualized at many levels of aggregation, from the family to the community. Different health-related behaviors. Differing behaviors may be related to attributes such as intelligence, predispositions, personality, skills, and physical characteristics. Different vulnerabilities and strengths. The same environment and/or the same behavior can affect individuals differently depending on their robustness and degree of susceptibility, which can originate in differing experiences or genetic endowments.

National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), 1979-1982: Selected Variables (Waves 1-4), and Supplementary Variables

Investigators: Ohio State University

The NLSY is an ongoing study of 12,686 young women and men aged 14-21 in 1979. The study sample includes an oversampling of blacks and Hispanics; as a result, this Data Set will be particularly valuable for analyses of these subgroups. The NLSY participants have been surveyed annually since 1979. The DAAPPP file contains data from the first four survey waves, 1979-1982. Data from subsequent waves have been added to DAAPPP as they became available. This file contains an extract of approximately 2,000 of the NLSY variables, including the following: (1) complete childbearing histories (including age, sex, and current residence) of all children, for both males and females in the sample; (2) data on pregnancy losses, including timing and reason for loss; (3) data on both current and anticipated childcare arrangements, including costs of childcare; and (4) data on contraceptive usage both before and after pregnancies. Note for users of DAAPPP Data Sets #01-B1DAAPPP data sets 01 through B1 are comprised of a User's Guide, SPSS syntax files (*.SPS or *.SPX) and raw data files only. Most of these datasets contain SPSS syntax files that use Job Control Language (JCL) from 1980s versions of SPSS-X. Because the syntax is old, the syntax files require editing to conform to the current syntax standards used by SPSS/Windows or SPSS/Unix. If you require technical assistance in using or editing these syntax files, please contact Sociometrics' Data Support Group at 800.846.3475 or socio@socio.com.

National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Children and Young Adults 2014 (NLSY-79-CYA)

Investigators: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The NLSY79 Child and Young Adult (NLSY79-CYA) cohort is a longitudinal project that follows the biological children of the women in the NLSY79. The NLSY79 itself is a longitudinal project that follows the lives of a sample of American youth born between 1957-64. As of 2014, more than 10,000 children have been interviewed in at least one survey round of the NLSY79-CYA. To date, a total of 11,512 children have been identified as born to interviewed NLSY79 mothers. This dataset includes data collected in 2014. The NLSY79-CYA 2014 includes variables on educational attainment, school enrollment, the school-to-work transition process, work history, employment, income, household composition, demographic information, neighborhood characteristics, family background, parenting, marriage and cohabitation, fertility, sexual activity, health, attitudes, expectations, pro-social behaviors, crime, substance use, and more. In total, the NLSY79-CYA contains 7240 variables.

National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students, 1987-1991

Investigators: Stanford Research Institute, Mary Wagner, Kathy Valdes, and Associates

In 1983, the U.S. Congress mandated a national study of special education students' experiences with transition out of school and into adult life. The study was conducted to provide practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and other special education affiliates with information that describes the transition that disabled youth make from secondary school to early adulthood. It was further to identify factors that contribute to youths' effective transition from secondary school to employment, further training or education, and independent living. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the U.S. Department of Education contracted with SRI International to develop a research design, craft and field test data collection instruments, and select a sample of students for a study that would meet the congressional mandate. In April 1987, under a separate contract, SRI began data collection for The National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students, 1987-1991 (NLTS). The sample for the NLTS involves more than 8,000 youth aged 13 or older and in grade seven or higher. This sample represents the national population of secondary special education students in the 1985-86 school year. Furthermore, the sample was drawn so that findings generalize to students in secondary special education in 1985-1986, both as a whole and separately for students in each of the 11 federal special education disability categories. Data were first gathered in 1987 (referred to as Wave 1) and again in 1990-91 (referred to as Wave 2). Therefore, youths' patterns of experiences through secondary school and into their early adult years could be charted over time. In 1989, additional data were collected in two "substudies" for particular sets of youth within the primary sample. The "school program" substudy was undertaken to examine in greater detail the experiences of youth during their entire secondary school career. To examine the experiences of youth in their first few years after secondary school, the "exiter" substudy consisted of telephone interviews regarding more than 800 youth. These youth were already out of secondary school at the time of the Wave 1 interview.

National Maternal and Infant Follow-up Health Survey, 1991

Investigators: National Center for Health Statistics

The 1991 Longitudinal Follow-up to the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey (NMIHS) was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. The 1991 Follow-up study examines such factors as child health status and development, the effects of low birth weight, use of federal programs, child safety, child injury, child care, pediatric care, maternal health, sociodemographic characteristics, acute and chronic illness, and health insurance. The 1988 study examined factors relating to poor pregnancy outcome, such as adequacy of prenatal care, inadequate or excessive weight gain during pregnancy, maternal health behaviors such as smoking, drinking and drug use, and pregnancy and delivery complications. The 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey (NMIHS) is archived as RADIUS dataset #18-20. This dataset includes data for the 1991 Follow-up Live Birth Survey and the 1991 Follow-up Medical Provider Survey. The 1991 Follow-up Live Birth Survey includes 722 variables and 8,285 cases. The 1991 Follow-up Medical Provider Survey includes 217 variables and 99,117 medical provider contacts. Because the Provider file contains hierarchical data, the Live Birth and Provider files were not merged to create a single dataset. Live Birth and Provider files have been archived as separate datasets, RADIUS datasets #01 and #02, respectively.

National Maternal and Infant Health Survey, 1988

Investigators: National Center for Health Statistics

The 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey (NMIHS) was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). This study examines child health status and development, use of federal programs, child safety, child injury, child care, pediatric care, maternal health, socio-demographic characteristics, acute and chronic illness, and health insurance. Furthermore, the 1988 NMIHS examines factors related to poor pregnancy outcomes, such as adequacy of prenatal care, inadequate or excessive weight gain during pregnancy, maternal health behaviors such as smoking, drinking and drug use, and pregnancy and delivery complications. This study is a national sample of live births, fetal deaths, and infant deaths in 1988. Furthermore, this study includes a supplementary sample of Hispanic live births, fetal deaths, and infant deaths in Texas, and a supplementary sample of live births for urban American Indians. These studies assess longitudinal outcomes for mothers and children between 1988 and 1991. The 1988 NMIHS obtains information in the following substantive areas: Weeks pregnant at first prenatal visit, number of visits, access and barriers to care, source of payment for prenatal care, smoking, drinking, drug use, use of Federal programs and WIC participation Length of hospital stay, source of payment for delivery Number of admissions, outpatient visits, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale Gestational age and birth weight Mother's marital status, height and weight, age, education, race, and occupation-work patterns Household income one year before delivery Infant feeding practices, source of payment for infant care and health insurance, child care, illness and injuries, vaccinations, and hospitalizations.

National Sexual Health Survey (NSHS), 1996

Investigators: Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS); University of California, San Francisco

The National Sexual Health survey (NSHS) obtained a probability sample of all U.S. adults 18 years and older residing in the 48 contiguous states. Among identified eligibles, 77% were interviewed and the overall cooperation rate was 65%. All respondents were interviewed by telephone from June 28,1995 to April 30, 1996 in Spanish or English using procedures to ensure anonymity and privacy and to verify study authenticity. Measures were developed to assess a wide range of HIV-related and human sexuality topics, including, but not limited to: condom attitudes, condom slips and breaks, HIV-related care-giving, HIV-testing and home testing use, STD histories, perceived risk for HIV and other STDs and optimistic bias assessments, extramarital sex, sexual development, sexual abuse and rape, sexual dysfunctions, various psychological scales (sensation-seeking, machismo), family assessments and history, health and demographics, an a detailed assessment was conducted of sexual activities with each of the respondent's sexual partners, and, in addition, demographic, geographic, and HIV/STD risk characteristics of their sexual partners were determined.

National Survey of Adolescent Males, 1988

Investigators: Freya Sonenstein, Joseph Pleck, Leighton Ku and Charles Calhoun

The overall objective of the study was to increase knowledge and understanding of the determinants of adolescent male contraceptive use. The study included a variety of measures replicated from the National Survey of Young Men, conducted by Zelnik and Kantner in 1979 (DAAPPP data set number 45), as well as a number of other measures specified by the Interpersonal-Attitudinal-Utility (IAU) model of contraceptive use adapted to male respondents. The IAU model suggests that male contraceptive use is determined by the "expected utility" of contraception, assessed by respondents' perceptions of various costs and benefits associated with contraception. Thus, particular interest is paid to questions regarding perceptions of the costs and benefits of unexpected pregnancies, contraceptive devices, and expectations of probabilities of different outcomes of sexual choices. In order to deal with the problem of over-reporting of sexual activity by adolescent males, questions about sexual activity were asked in the middle of the interview as well as in the self-administered portion. The questions in the self-administered section also included a sequence of statements describing progressively intimate behaviors and asking about the respondents' participation in these behaviors. Other data in the study include extensive questions on educational history as it relates to attendance and enrollment in parocial schools. A history of the respondent's employment over the last year is also compiled. Information regarding the family structure of the respondent's household over the last year is investigated, as well as information about the household when the respondent was aged fourteen. Finally, additional in-depth information of sexual behaviour is gathered when such behavior existed. This includes information on the characteristics of the partner(s) as well as contraceptive use. In the event of a pregnancy, respondents were also asked several questions about the outcome.

National Survey of Adolescent Males, 1988 and 1990-91

Investigators: Freya L. Sonenstein, Joseph H. Pleck, and Leighton Ku

The study's primary objective was to determine adolescent males' behaviors, education and knowledge concerning human sexuality, contraception, and sexually transmitted diseases. Respondents were surveyed in 1988 (Wave 1) and in again 1990-91 (Wave 2, which is also referred to as the Follow-up Survey of Adolescent Males). Behaviors that were examined include heterosexual and homosexual activity, condom use, and intravenous drug use. The study followed young men from adolescence, the period of initiation of sexual activity and other risk behaviors, into the beginnings of young adulthood, a time when sexual activity is often at its highest.