Adolescent and Family Development Project, Erie County, New York, 2007-2017

The University of Buffalo Adolescent and Family Development Project (AFDP) includes a community sample of adolescents assessed in a 9-wave longitudinal study between 2007 and 2017. The 387 adolescents were 11-12 year old children at recruitment and were assessed annually. The data provide an opportunity to examine risk and protective factors from multiple levels of influences (individual differences, family, peers, community) that might contribute to adolescent substance use in order to inform the development of comprehensive preventive interventions for at-risk youth. The project was largely focused on understanding the development of an internalizing pathway to initiation and escalation of substance use, and eventual development of use-related problems. This was done by examining: 1) the intersection of externalizing and internalizing problems, 2) peer context and use-related motives as a potential mediating mechanism, and 3) whether motivational aspects of personality moderated the proposed mediational paths. Also of interest was whether risk for an internalizing pathway to substance use varied by chronological age or stage of use. This collection is organized into 13 data parts. Waves 1 through 3 and Waves 7 through 9 each contain 2 datasets pertaining to either a child (DS1, DS3, DS5, DS8, DS10, DS12) or caretaker (DS2, DS4, DS6, DS9, DS11, DS13) interview. All child interview data from Waves 4 through 6 are contained in DS7. Various demographic information, such as age, gender, race, and ethnicity, is also included in the data.