MADICS Study of Adolescent Development in Multiple Contexts, 1991-2012

The main purposes of this longitudinal study were to describe and understand the influences of social context on the psychological determinants of behavioral choices and developmental trajectories during adolescence. Data were collected from multiple informants, on an economically and ethnically diverse sample of adolescents and their families. The sample of 1,482 families with adolescent children is unique in that it includes a large proportion (61%) of African-American families and a broad range of socio-economic status among both African-American and European-American families. The sample is drawn from a county with several different ecological settings including rural, low income, and high risk urban neighborhoods. Data collection began in Fall 1991 as the adolescents entered middle school and continued into 2012. Data were collected from the adolescents, parents (both primary and secondary care givers), older siblings, school personnel, school records, and the 1990 census data banks via in-home and telephone interviews and self-administered questionnaires. The Murray Research Archive holds numeric file data for the first 8 waves of the study.