Oregon Youth Substance Use Project (OYSUP), 1998-2010

The Oregon Youth Substance Use Project (OYSUP) began in 1998, with the recruitment of 1,075 first through fifth graders within a single school district in a working class community in western Oregon. OYSUP is an extensive etiological study that provides a multi-method annual assessment of etiological factors from a variety of contextual (including family, peer, neighborhood and school) and individual (personality, biological influences) domains, predictive of children's cognitions regarding substance use, their own substance use and their at-risk sexual behaviors (beginning in middle school). This unique study follows a representative sample of youth with approximately annual assessments from early childhood, through adolescence, and into emerging adulthood (at age 20-22). The primary objective of the original project and its renewals is to identify risk and protective factors predictive of or comorbid with the development of substance use and at-risk sexual behaviors. Quantitative survey data was collected from each respondent from 1998 to 2010. Within the aims of the original OYSUP study and the two subsequent renewals (one of which is ongoing), participants and their parents were followed annually until they were one-year post-high school, with an additional intensive assessment at age 20-22. In each year, the target participant and their parents completed assessments. The intensive assessment at age 20-22 included a diagnostic interview with the target participants and an assessment of cortisol reactivity in response to acute stress. During the school years, teachers completed assessments assessing their student's behavior, and school records for most students were obtained each year. In addition, principals in elementary schools completed school climate assessments and census data is used to obtain measures of neighborhood climate. Finally, respondents' demographic information was also collected.