Age

YOUth is a large-scale longitudinal cohort study following children from the city of Utrecht and its surrounding areas in their development from pregnancy until early adulthood. The YOUth cohort focuses on neurocognitive development involved in two core characteristics of behavioral development: social competence and behavioral control. YOUth includes children from the general population to cover the whole range of variation in behavioral development, ranging from uncomplicated development, through problem behavior, to psychiatric disorders. To understand why some children develop problematic behavior, and others show resilience, YOUth measures a broad range of biological, child-related and environmental determinants.

YOUth conducts repeated measurements at regular intervals (i.e. 'waves'). Specifically, the study has two inclusion moments: YOUth Baby & Child and YOUth Child & Adolescent. YOUth applies a flexible longitudinal design to the cohorts, meaning that children are measured at broader age ranges (3-year age ranges) at each wave. The main benefit of the flexible age design is that it provides more detailed information on the neurodevelopmental curves over time.

An extensive data set is generated, including 3D-ultrasound sweeps of the fetal brain, eye tracking, EEG, (f)MRI, computer tasks, cognitive measurements and parent-child observations. We also collect a broad range of questionnaires on behavior, personality, health, lifestyle, parenting, child development, use of (social) media and more. Finally, (umbilical) blood samples, buccal swabs, saliva and hair samples are collected at each visit, and stored in the UMC Utrecht Biobank.

YOUth队列（YOUth）是一项大型纵向队列研究，追踪荷兰乌得勒支市及其周边区域儿童从妊娠阶段直至成年早期的发育轨迹。该队列聚焦于与行为发育两大核心特征相关的神经认知发育：社交能力与行为控制。YOUth队列纳入普通人群中的儿童，以覆盖行为发育的全部变异谱系，从正常发育、问题行为直至精神障碍。为探明部分儿童出现问题行为的成因，以及另一部分儿童展现出韧性的机制，YOUth队列测量了涵盖生物学、儿童自身相关及环境层面的广泛影响因素。

YOUth队列按照固定周期开展重复测量（即“随访波次”）。具体而言，该研究设有两个入组节点：YOUth婴儿与儿童亚队列（YOUth Baby & Child）以及YOUth儿童与青少年亚队列（YOUth Child & Adolescent）。该队列采用灵活的纵向研究设计，即每个随访波次针对更宽泛的年龄区间（3年年龄跨度）对儿童进行测量。这种灵活的年龄区间设计的核心优势在于，能够提供随时间推移的神经发育曲线的详尽信息。

该队列产生了规模庞大的数据集，涵盖胎儿脑部三维超声扫查、眼动追踪、脑电图（EEG）、功能磁共振成像（(f)MRI）、计算机任务测试、认知测评及亲子观察等内容。此外，研究团队还收集了涵盖行为、人格、健康、生活方式、育儿方式、儿童发育、（社交）媒体使用等多领域的大量问卷数据。最后，每次随访都会采集（脐带）血样、口腔拭子、唾液及毛发样本，并存储于乌得勒支大学医学中心生物样本库（UMC Utrecht Biobank）。