Reading Reflection!

Last week, I read the codebooks for Waves I, II, and III of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). I will be using data from Add Health to complete my research study this summer. I read my mentor’s paper copy, so it was nicely organized into ordered sections. The first section covers study design. The section explains how participants were randomly selected from 80 clusters based on different combinations of region of the country, urbanicity, school size, school type, grade span, curriculum, percent white (racially), and percent black. In Wave I, which occurred between 1994 and 1995, all of these students completed a picture vocabulary test and an in-school questionnaire. The in-school questionnaire briefly covered basic demographics, as well as questions about the students’ families, school life, friends, and mental and physical health. Parents were also asked in a questionnaire about the child’s health, background, and relationship with them. School administrators at the recruitment schools completed a questionnaire about the schools from which participants would be selected, as well. A smaller portion of the students then had an in-home interview. It covered a range of factors in the adolescents’ lives: family, friendships, neighborhood environment, diet, physical activity, injury, criminal behavior, sexual behavior, mental health, and pubertal development.

Wave II data was collected in 1996 and consisted of another in-home interview with many of the original subjects. The interview consisted of similar questions but that were tweaked to account for the subject’s aging, as well as telephone interviews with school administrators to update the information they had previously provided regarding their school (from which participants were selected).

Wave III took place in 2001-2002 and consisted of another in-home interview with many of the Wave II subjects, again adjusted to match their new stage of life. During Wave III, researchers also conducted an in-home interview with the partners of about half of the original sample. Subjects in Wave III also provided saliva and urine specimens for HIV and STD testing, while a subsample of full siblings (meaning the siblings have the same two parents) and twins were asked to give a saliva sample for genetic analysis.

This text was, not surprisingly, rather dry. But actually I enjoyed reading it. Besides appreciating the psychological research methods behind it and noting variables I wanted to use in my analysis, I played along with the questionnaire, answering questions in my head as though I was a subject. The questions often forced me to produce concrete answers, as opposed to vague “sometimes” or such. Usually I hate such multiple choice questions or structure, but I think it can be good for reflecting because you can’t dodge making a decision. In the spirit of this, I’ve answered or reflected on some of the Wave I questions below: