DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36474.v1
title: Denver Youth Survey Waves 6-11 (1993-2003) [Denver, Colorado]
title: Version 1

description: The Denver Youth Survey (DYS) is part of the larger "Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency" initiated by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 1986. It is a longitudinal study of problem and successful behavior over the life course that focuses on delinquency, drug use, victimization, and mental health. DYS variables also address family demographics, neighborhood characteristics, parenting, and involvement in social roles.
The DYS is based on a probability sample of households in "high-risk" neighborhoods of Denver, Colorado. These neighborhoods were selected on the basis of their social ecology in terms of population and housing characteristics. Only socially disorganized neighborhoods with high (top one-third) official crime rates were included. The survey respondents include 1,528 children and youth who were 7, 9, 11, 13, or 15 years old in 1987, and one of their parents, who lived in one of the more than 20,000 randomly selected households.
The survey respondents include 807 boys and 721 girls and include White (10%), Latino (45%), and African American (33%) youth, as well as 12% from other racial/ethnic backgrounds. The child and youth respondents, along with one caretaker, were interviewed annually from 1988 until 1992 (waves 1-5), annually from 1995 until 1999 (waves 6-10), and in 2003 (wave 11). The study covers an age range of 7 through 26.
description: The Denver Youth Survey (DYS) examines the causes, correlates, and consequences of delinquency, drug use, and other problem behaviors. DYS is a longitudinal study of problem and successful behavior over the life course that focuses on delinquency, drug use, victimization, and mental health. The study focuses on children, youth, young adults, and one of their parents in "high risk" neighborhoods of Denver, Colorado, with neighborhoods selected on the basis of their elevated crime rates and social ecology (in terms of population and housing characteristics).
description: The design of the DYS included the selection of respondents from socially disorganized neighborhoods of Denver, Colorado. Socially disorganized neighborhoods were identified by a formal social area analysis. In addition, respondents were selected from socially disorganized areas that had higher than average crime rates.
For waves 6-11, interviews were conducted on laptop computers using computer-assisted interviewing software. For administering the self-report delinquency and drug use (SRD) measure, respondents were first asked about frequency of involvement across all SRD items. More detailed follow-up questions were then asked only for items that had a positive response.
All interviews were conducted in private settings, usually in the respondent's home. The vast majority of interviews were conducted in a face-to-face format, although respondents who moved some distance from the research site (nationally or internationally) were interviewed in later waves by telephone under strict privacy rules. All interviews (child, youth, young adult, and parent) were conducted after obtaining informed consent/assent from the respondent and from a parent of all respondents under the age of 18.
description: The DYS is organized by respondent and divided into two separate datasets, both of which contain an identifying variable (CASEID) for all 1,528 respondents included in the original sample. The youth/young adult data include all respondents across waves 6-11 (n=1,528; 26,635 variables). Individual waves can be separated from the combined data files with variable and case counts as follows:

Youth/Young Adult Wave 6: n=1,192; 4,833 variables
Youth/Young Adult Wave 7: n=1,204; 4,935 variables
Youth/Young Adult Wave 8: n=1,166; 4,982 variables
Youth/Young Adult Wave 9: n=1,028; 4,993 variables
Youth/Young Adult Wave 10: n=908; 4,237 variables
Youth/Young Adult Wave 11: n=487; 2,939 variables

Only two of the five birth cohorts (age 7 and 9 in 1987) were still within the age range of the study (ages 7-26) in 2003, when Wave 11 interviews were conducted.
A second data file includes all parent respondents across waves 6-10 (n=1,528; 6,142 variables), with variable and case counts for individual waves indicated below:

Parent Wave 6: n=501; 1,234 variables
Parent Wave 7: n=513; 1,215 variables
Parent Wave 8: n=507; 1,239 variables
Parent Wave 9: n=218; 1,239 variables
Parent Wave 10: n=160; 1,239 variables

The selection of variables was guided by the problem
behaviors and by the rich mix of variables provided by a theoretical model
guiding the project with a focus on biological history, neighborhood social
disorganization and effect, conventional and deviant socialization and
bonding, personality and mental health, peer influences, secondary
(external) controls and rational choice. Topics covered in the data
include:

Measures of drug use and delinquency as well as other problem behavior
and psychopathology
Family demographics, neighborhood social characteristics and family
integration and support within these neighborhoods 
Family variables including parenting, the child's involvement and
attachment to the family, marital
discord, parent's domestic violence, and self-reported parental drug use
and criminality, as well as
arrests of family members
Child/youth involvement in school, community activities, religious
activities, and work
Personal and psychological characteristics of the child/youth
Personal and psychological characteristics of parents
Medical history including birth trauma, family medical and behavioral
problems, developmental and
learning problems as well as current physical characteristics and
nutrition
Involvement with and the delinquent/drug use orientation of peers,
including a special section on gangs
Educational, occupational, and current social strain
Secondary controls and rewards for drug use and delinquency, including
risk of arrest and juvenile justice system
processing
Use of Drug Treatment and Mental Health Services by focal child/youth
respondents and other family
members and 
Measures for examining rational choice theory 

Additional information is available in the User Guide.
description: Weights were derived from the inverse of the probability of household selection within each stratum, normed to provide an approximation to the original total sample size. The normed weights were used so that the general sample size of the study would be maintained and the power of statistical tests would more appropriately reflect the actual sample size of the study.
description: Response Rates: A total of 1,808 eligible youth resided in the successfully screened sampled households, of whom 1,528 completed an interview in the first year of the study, for a completion rate of 85%. A total of 1,132 parents/principal caretakers of these youth also completed 1,496 interviews about their participating children, for a completion rate among parents of participating youth of 98%.
description: A total of 45,694 households were identified in the
enumeration process. In the first sampling, 18,804 households were
selected. The second or over-sampling of the "traditional disorganized"
area included an additional sample of 1,473 from the 12,204 enumerated
households in this stratum.
Sampled households were screened for the presence of eligible children
and youth (those aged 7, 9, 11, 13, or 15 in 1987) by completing a
household listing ("family chart") of all persons residing in a selected
household and obtaining their birth dates. This screening information was
obtained from an adult residing in the household. Households containing an
eligible child/youth respondent were included in the sample, and interviews
with all eligible children and youths, and one of their parents (principal
caretaker) were attempted.
The screening process resulted in listings for 20,331 households or
"listing lines" and in households in which two or more families were
living, a separate family chart was obtained for each family. For the
purpose of the study, each additional dwelling unit and each additional
family in multiple family households resulted in an additional "listing
line," so that all individual families that included an eligible child
would each be interviewed as a separate family. Because of this, there are
more households listed as being screened than the size of the original
household sample. Also, during the screening effort, it was discovered that
some structures identified as dwelling units during the enumeration
process, were not in fact dwelling units. When such structures were
selected as part of the household sample, they were considered to be "blank
draws," to preserve the original sampling fraction and not affect the
probability of selection of other households. The overall successful
screening completion rate was approximately 92 percent.
Of 1,360 households that contained eligible youth, interviews were
completed in 1,145 households. The remaining 215 households were "family
refusals," where in most cases parents refused to participate for
themselves and for their children. In a very few cases, the parents
provided permission, but all of the children in the household/family
refused to participate. Similar outcomes hold for families, which includes
counts for families living in multiple family households. In 21 households,
a child or youth interview was completed but an interview with the
parent/caregiver for that household was not completed.
A total of 1,808 eligible youth resided in the successfully screened
sampled households, of whom 1,528 completed an interview in the first year
of the study, for a completion rate of 85 percent. A total of 1,132
parents/principal caretakers of these youth also completed 1,496 interviews
about their participating children, for a completion rate among parents of
participating youth of 98 percent.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Denver Youth Survey Waves 6-11 (1993-2003) [Denver, Colorado]
description: Youth and young adults (and one of their parents) who were 7, 9, 11, 13, or 15 years old in 1987 and living in socially disorganized neighborhoods with high official crime rates in Denver, Colorado. Smallest Geographic Unit: City
description: face-to-face interview; telephone interviewFunding for the Denver Youth Survey has been provided since 1986 by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) with supplemental funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the German-American Academic Council (GAAC) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation through their program on Successful Adolescence. Funding for data collection in waves 6 through 10 (1995-1999) of the DYS was primarily provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) with supplemental funding from OJJDP. OJJDP provided funding for data collection in wave 11 (2003).The datasets contain some variables that were masked by the DYS research team due to confidentiality concerns, so not all variables described in the data documentation are available for data analysis.The DYS Wave 1-5 data and documentation are available at NACJD/ICPSR under ICPSR Study Number 36473 (see http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36473.v1).