Monitoring the Future: Base Year & Follow-Up Core Panel Data, Ages 18-30, United States, 1976-2021 [Restricted-Use]

The Monitoring the Future (MTF) project is a long-term epidemiologic and etiologic study of substance use among youth and adults in the United States. It is conducted at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and is funded by a series of investigator-initiated research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The MTF panel study consists of six different survey forms (five forms from 1976-1988), and each survey contains a "core" set of questions about demographics and substance use. This study contains the "core" data for these questions compiled across all survey forms and years in which they are included for the longitudinal panel participants. Each record in the core panel dataset includes the respondent's data for their base year (BY) 12th grade survey (modal age 18) and their young adult follow-up FU surveys (modal ages 19-30).
<b>The core panel dataset should be selected by all researchers.</b> Use the linking variable available on all datasets, MTFID, to link the core dataset with all other MTF panel datasets.
Here is a list of subjects included in the core dataset:
Administrative variables
Year of administration
Survey form
Survey date
BY survey weight, sampling stratum and cluster
FU panel analysis weights
Demographics
BY only
#Parents in household
Parent education levels
Respondent's age in months
Sex
Race/Ethnicity
Region of the country (school location)
Population density/Urbanicity (school location)
High school Zip Code, State and County FIPS codes (can be linked to user-provided data; results can be reported at no unit smaller than US geographical region)
Absenteeism (illness, cutting, skipping class)
High school program, Grades, post-high school plans
FU only
Pregnancy status
Household type
Urbanicity
Absenteeism (missing work due to illness, other)
Vocational/Technical education, Armed forces, College attendance
College grades, attendance, Greek life
BY and FU
Marital status
Household composition
Political preference
Religious attendance, importance, preference
Evenings out, Dating
Employment
Salary/earned Income and Other Income
Driving, tickets, and accidents related to alcohol and other substance use
Substance use
Cigarette use
Alcohol use (including binge drinking (e.g. 5+ drinks in a row/2 weeks), drunkenness)
Marijuana/cannabis, hashish use
LSD use
Hallucinogen use, other than LSD
Cocaine use (including cocaine, crack, other forms)
Amphetamine use
Sedatives/Barbiturate use
Tranquilizer use
Heroin use (with and without needles)
Narcotics use (other than Heroin)
Inhalant use
Steroid use
Ice use
Methamphetamine use
MDMA use
Vaping: nicotine, marijuana, flavoring
Please see the study documentation available on the MTF Panel series page for question-specific details.
More information about the MTF project can be accessed through the Monitoring the Future website. Annual reports are published by the research team, describing the data collection and trends over time.