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National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97)
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 logo
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Sample details

NLSY97 follows the lives of a sample of American youth born between 1980-1984 first interviewed in 1997. This ongoing cohort has been surveyed 20 times by 2022, and continues to be interviewed biennially. Two subsamples comprise the cohort: one which was designed to be representative of people living in the United States during the initial survey round and another designed to oversample individuals who are Black and Hispanic or Latino.

Study design
Cohort, Cohort - birth

Number of participants at first data collection

8,984 (participants)

Age at first data collection

12 - 18 years (participants)

Participant year of birth

1980 - 1984 (participants)

Participant sex
All

Representative sample at baseline?
Young people living in the United States and born January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1984

Sample features

Adolescents
Adults
Armed forces
Military
Racial and ethnic minorities
Dataset details

Country

United States of America

Year of first data collection

1997

Primary Institutions

Bureau of Labor Statistics (Government, United States of America)

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (Government, United States of America)

Ohio State University (Academic, United States of America)

University of Chicago (Academic, United States of America)

Links

nlsinfo.org/content/cohorts/nlsy97

bls.gov/nls/nlsy97.htm

norc.org/research/projects/national-longitudinal-survey-of-youth-1997.html

Profile paper DOI

doi.org/10.2307/3069636

Funders

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (Government, United States of America)

Department of Defense (DoD) (Government, United States of America)

Department of Education (Government, United States of America)

Department of Labor (Government, United States of America)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (Government, United States of America)

Ongoing?
Yes

Data types collected

mentalHealthData
qualitativeData
dataLinkage
Quantitative data collection
  • Interview – face-to-face
  • Interview – phone
Qualitative data collection
  • Ethnography or participant observation
Neuroimaging data collection
  • None
Linked or secondary data
  • Geographic, spatial & environmental data
Features

Engagement

  • None
  • Keywords

    Assets
    Attitudes
    Education
    Family environment and factors
    Fertility
    Households
    Income and expenses
    Marriage
    Physical health
    Relationships
    Substance use
    Work and employment

    Consortia and dataset groups

    National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS)
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