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The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) is a long term study that looks at the development of
positive and problem behaviors among adolescents and young adults. J. David Hawkins is the Principle
Investigator of the study. SSDP began in 1981 to test strategies for reducing childhood risk factors for school failure, drug abuse and delinquency. First graders in five
Seattle schools were assigned to intervention or control classrooms. Each year through the elementary
grades parents and teachers in intervention classrooms learned how to actively engage children in learning,
strengthen bonding to family and school, and encourage children's positive behaviors. In 1985, when the original
first graders entered the fifth grade, the panel was expanded to 808 students from 18 Seattle elementary
schools. These participants and their parents have been interviewed regularly since 1985.
We are currently getting ready to interview our sample again at age thirty. The information gathered in
the interviews is used to examine many aspects of youth development such as substance use, delinquency,
violence, school dropout, risky sexual behavior, and health outcomes. In addition we look at the causes
and consequences of these behaviors. We also focus on positive youth and adult development.
The Seattle Social Development Project is based at the University of Washington in the School of
Social Work. It is one of approximately ten ongoing projects at the
Social Development Research Group.
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