Project

International Youth Development Study (IYDS)

Project Description

Overview:

This collaborative international project between the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington, the Center for Adolescent Health at the University of Melbourne, and Deakin University investigates the impact of individual differences, policy, and context on alcohol and other drug use and related problem behaviors from adolescence into adulthood. The IYDS began in 2000, and includes statewide representative samples of individuals from Washington State in the United States and the State of Victoria, Australia, who were in Grades 5, 7, or 9 in 2002.
 

2017 – 2023: Testing Cross-national Similarities and Differences in Adolescent and Early Adult Individual and Environmental Predictors of Adult Alcohol Use and Related Problems

(PI: Jennifer A. Bailey; Funding: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)

This study followed-up the middle cohort (in Grade 7 in 2002) of youth in each state at age 28 and in Washington at age 30. It also made use of middle cohort data from both states collected at age 25 under Australian funding. The project aimed to study persistence and desistence in alcohol use in the late 20s and early 30s, with the goal of understanding how patterns of alcohol use differ across the two states, how adolescent risk and protective factors are related to patterns of adult alcohol use in the two states, and how young adult experiences and contexts may link early risk and protective factors to later patterns of alcohol use. This study helped to highlight the long-term implications of adolescent alcohol policy for adult alcohol use and well-being.

The specific aims of the study are:

• To examine persistence and desistence of alcohol use and related harms in adults from age 25 through age 31 in Washington State and to compare to Victoria, Australia
• To identify risk and protective factors in adolescence and adulthood that predict adult persistence and desistence in alcohol use and related harms in Washington State, and then compare similarities and differences in predictors with Victoria
• To identify whether adolescent predictors of adult persistence and desistence in alcohol use and related harms are mediated by age 25 individual, environmental, situational, and context-specific influences and to compare the mediational pathways in the two states

2008 – 2011:  Environment-person Influences on the Development of Early Alcohol Use and Misuse

(PI: Richard F. Catalano; Funding: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)

This study used existing IYDS data spanning ages 10-16 to examine similarities and differences in predictors of alcohol use, misuse, and other problems. A unique aspect of this study was the examination of school policy effects on student drug use. Analyses provided new information on the local and cross-national influences associated with early adolescent alcohol use and symptoms of alcohol use disorders, enabling the cultural generalization of risk influences and alcohol consequences.

2000 – 2005: Etiology of Substance Use in Australia/USA

(PI: Richard F. Catalano; Funding: National Institute on Drug Abuse)

This study compared the epidemiology and etiology of substance use, delinquency, violence, risky sex, depression, and self-harm in Washington State and the state of Victoria in Australia. The project also compared the impact of youth drug use policies that emphasize abstinence or harm minimization in the two states. Using a cross-nationally piloted and standardized instrument, data were collected from statewide probability samples of fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade students in each state (~1,000 students per grade per state). Each grade cohort was followed over two and three years (98% completion), resulting in a sample with an age span from 10 to 16 years. In addition to student questionnaires, sources of data included student academic and court records, parent phone interviews, and a school administrator survey of school policies and practices.

The specific aims of the study were:

• To investigate the cross-national validity of substance use indicators, problem behavior measures, and predictors of substance use across multiple domains (community, school, family, peer group, and the individual).
• To compare the levels of risk and protective factors and the prevalence of substance use and related problem behaviors (violence, delinquency, school misbehavior) in the two states.
• To examine the similarities and differences in pathways to initiation, progression, and maintenance of drug-using behavior between the two states.
• To test the comparative fit of the social development model in the two states.
• To examine differences in normative messages about harm reduction versus abstinence in prevention programs and school policies, and the effect of any of these policies on pathways to drug-using behavior.