The High School Transition Study (2002-2003+)

The purpose of the High School Transition Study (HSTS) was to develop novel methods to assess the role of multiple contexts that might moderate adolescents’ use of substances as a result of negative affect or mood. Participants are rising 9th graders, a parent, and a close friend from a rural county in North Carolina. Data collection involved four phases. In phase 1 (the Spring of 2002), nearly 400 8th grade students in six schools completed a 45-minute survey administered in their classrooms. In phase 2, a subset of these adolescents (n=86) were asked to participate in a more in-depth interview over the summer. Adolescents also participated in what we are calling the Daily Living Task which is an experience sampling protocol involving watches and recording devices that they will take with them over the following three weeks. In addition, one parent and one of the adolescent’s close friends were asked to participate in the study in which they completed a survey and participated in observational tasks with the adolescent. In phase 3, which took place in the Spring of 2003, ninth graders in county high schools completed surveys again in their classrooms. And, finally, in phase 4, in the Summer of 2003, we repeated our interviewing protocol with the subset of adolescents who participated with us during the first summer (2002). The design of the study is short-term longitudinal and allows us to examine change over a short period of time at both a more global level with a larger sample as well as at a more minute level with a smaller sample. UNC IRB#05-0045, 05-0079