Language Situation

YOUth is a large-scale longitudinal cohort study following children from the city of Utrecht and its surrounding areas in their development from pregnancy until early adulthood. The YOUth cohort focuses on neurocognitive development involved in two core characteristics of behavioral development: social competence and behavioral control. YOUth includes children from the general population to cover the whole range of variation in behavioral development, ranging from uncomplicated development, through problem behavior, to psychiatric disorders. To understand why some children develop problematic behavior, and others show resilience, YOUth measures a broad range of biological, child-related and environmental determinants.

YOUth conducts repeated measurements at regular intervals (i.e. 'waves'). Specifically, the study has two inclusion moments: YOUth Baby & Child and YOUth Child & Adolescent. YOUth applies a flexible longitudinal design to the cohorts, meaning that children are measured at broader age ranges (3-year age ranges) at each wave. The main benefit of the flexible age design is that it provides more detailed information on the neurodevelopmental curves over time.

An extensive data set is generated, including 3D-ultrasound sweeps of the fetal brain, eye tracking, EEG, (f)MRI, computer tasks, cognitive measurements and parent-child observations. We also collect a broad range of questionnaires on behavior, personality, health, lifestyle, parenting, child development, use of (social) media and more. Finally, (umbilical) blood samples, buccal swabs, saliva and hair samples are collected at each visit, and stored in the UMC Utrecht Biobank.

YOUth队列是一项大型纵向队列研究，追踪乌得勒支市及其周边地区儿童从孕期直至成年早期的发育历程。本队列聚焦行为发育两项核心特征所对应的神经认知发育维度：社交能力与行为控制。本队列招募普通人群中的儿童，以覆盖行为发育的全维度变异谱，涵盖单纯正常发育、问题行为直至精神障碍的各类情况。为解析部分儿童出现问题行为、而另一部分展现出心理韧性的内在机制，本队列对多维度的生物学、儿童自身相关及环境性影响因素进行了测量。

YOUth队列会按照固定间隔开展重复测量（即“随访波次”）。本研究包含两个入组节点：YOUth Baby & Child以及YOUth Child & Adolescent。本队列采用灵活的纵向研究设计，每一波次的测量均覆盖3年跨度的宽泛年龄区间。该灵活年龄设计的核心优势在于，可提供随时间推进的更为精细的神经发育轨迹信息。

本队列生成了规模庞大的数据集，涵盖胎儿大脑三维超声扫描、眼动追踪、脑电图（EEG）、功能磁共振成像（fMRI）、计算机认知任务、认知测评以及亲子互动观察。此外，本队列还收集了涵盖行为、人格、健康、生活方式、养育方式、儿童发育、（社交）媒体使用等多领域的大量问卷数据。最后，每次随访均会采集脐带血、口腔拭子、唾液及毛发样本，并存储于乌得勒支大学医学中心（UMC Utrecht）生物样本库。