DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37920
title: Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS), New York, United States, 1999-2019
title: Archival Version

description: The Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS), is an extension of the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS). RIGS investigates intergenerational continuity and discontinuity of drug use in a three-generation prospective design. The focal participant is the oldest biological child (G3) of the original participant in the RYDS study. The project contains developmental data collected since 1988 on the G2 parents and G1 grandparents; combining those data with the prospective data collected from 1999 to 2019 allows examination of how the parent's own developmental course influences their transition to adulthood and their behavior as parents which, in turn, can be used to explain the onset and development of the G3 child's drug use. Variables included pertain to the parent's stressors, drug use and problem behaviors, prosocial bonds, peer networks, gang affiliation, family context, major family events, and parenting behaviors. G3 assessments include their general psychosocial development, with detailed information on the onset and course of their drug use, problem behaviors, school behavior, and prosocial behavior.
description: Data were collected to allow researchers to: Describe intergenerational continuity and discontinuity across three generations for drug use and related problem behaviors at both the same and different developmental stages Identify mediating and moderating processes that help account for both intergenerational continuity and discontinuity in drug use and other antisocial behaviors Examine the intergenerational influence of G2 fathers as well as G2 mothers.
description: Interviews were conducted annually and primarily in-person in respondents' homes. Some interviews were done over the phone with families who moved outside of the Rochester area. Data were collected on paper at the beginning of the study. Computer assisted interviewing was phased into the study beginning in 2004. By 2011, data were collected on laptop for all respondents except newly enrolled families for G3 age 2. Headphones and audio-assisted computerized interviewing were used for the more sensitive questions to help ensure confidentiality.
description: Variables included pertain to the parent's stressors, drug use and problem behaviors, prosocial bonds, peer networks, gang affiliation, family context, major family events, and parenting behaviors. G3 assessments include their general psychosocial development, with detailed information on the onset and course of their drug use, problem behaviors, school behavior, and prosocial behavior.
description: Not applicable
description: Response Rates: Of the 539 families enrolled over the course of 20 years of data collection, 86% were still participating in the last years of the study.
description: The Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS) began in 1999 when the original the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) participants were around 24 years old. At the beginning of RIGS, 856 of the original 1000 RYDS participants were still active in the study and these 856 respondents formed the pool from which families were included in the intergenerational extension. For purposes of the study, the G3 child was defined as the firstborn biological child of each G2 participant. The 856 active G2 participants were contacted to determine if they had an eligible G3 child and, if so, to recruit the family for the new study. G2 families with children 2 years of age and older enrolled in the study at the beginning of data collection. In each subsequent year, the remaining G2 participants were contacted to identify new first-born biological children and to enroll new families in the study when G3 turned age 2. By the end of the RIGS data collection, 539 families participated in the study.
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: RIGS Family File DS2: RIGS G2 Parent Interview Data for G3 Ages 2-17 DS3: RIGS OCG Parent Interview for G3 Ages 2-17 DS4: RIGS G3 Age 8 Interview Data DS5: RIGS G3 Ages 9-11 Interview Data DS6: RIGS G3 Ages 12-25 Interview Data
description: Oldest biological children of participants in the Rochester Development Study (RYDS).
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI); computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI); face-to-face interview; paper and pencil interview (PAPI) An important feature of the RIGS data is that G3 children varied in age at each data collection year, and this variation in age must be considered in any data analysis. Analysts may wish to combine G3 respondents of the same ages but different birth years into synthetic cohorts to create subsets of cases of adequate sample size for a given age. However, it is important to account for these synthetic cohorts in any analysis because G3 respondents of the same age will differ on several potentially important characteristics: (1) birth years can vary from 1986 to 2011; (2) parents' ages at G3's birth will vary, ranging from early teens to early 40's; and (3) some data would have been collected in the early years of the study and some much later.