Simmons Longitudinal Study: Adaptation and Development Across the Lifespan [New England, United States], Kindergarten Data, Wave 2, 1978

The Simmons Longitudinal Study (SLS) is a community-based study that has prospectively traced the life course of a single-aged cohort from childhood (age 5) to adulthood (age 26). Data were collected from multiple informants at seven major time points: age 5 (1977), age 6 (1978), age 9 (1980-1981), age 15 (1987), age 18 (1990), age 21 (1993-1994), and age 26 (1998). Since its inception in 1977, the SLS has utilized a multidisciplinary, multimethod approach, with the dual goals of: (1) tracing the development and course of academic difficulties, behavior problems, and psychopathology; and (2) identifying factors that promote health functioning from early childhood (age 5) to adulthood (age 26). The SLS has consistently emphasized the identification of modifiable social and environmental risk and protective factors that can be targeted directly in prevention and intervention programs. To date, SLS has published 50 journal articles and 9 book chapters. The original SLS study group was comprised of every child who entered kindergarten in the fall of 1977 in one public school district in a northeastern town in the United States. For this wave of the study, Wave 2, in 1978 at the end of the kindergarten year, mothers and teachers rated the students on measures of behavioral and emotional functioning.