DOI: 10.3886/icpsr34368
title: Schools and Families Educating (SAFE) Children Study [Chicago, IL]: 1997-2008
title: Archival Version

description: The Schools and Families Education (SAFE) Children Study was a randomized control trial designed to test the efficacy of a family-based comprehensive preventive intervention, with children living in inner-city Chicago and entering the 1st grade, for effects on key risk markers for later drug and other substance use. A total of 11 waves of data were collected over the course of three phases and approximately 13 years. In the spring of 1997, there were 424 kindergarten students and primary caregivers recruited to participate in this study. Wave 1 began while the children were in 1st grade. These data contain survey responses for students, their primary caregivers, and their teachers across 27 datasets. Phase I of the study was to assess the intervention provided in the 1st grade. Half of the families were randomly selected to receive the intervention. The other half were assigned to the control group. Phase II of the study was set-up to give half of the intervention group a booster, a second intervention training. Lastly, there was a Phase III which sought to assess the long-term affects of the initial and booster interventions. The first dataset (DS1) provides an overview of the study which includes variables for the study design and survey administration. This first file contains 38 variables. Survey responses were obtained from students nine times beginning in 1st grade and ending in 12th grade. Children were not surveyed in waves 3 and 7. The student survey response data are in DS2 through DS10. The datasets for waves 1, 2, 4, and 5 contain only 50 variables. Waves 6, 8, and 9 contain 424 variables. Waves 10 and 11 contain 1,394 variables. Each of the three phases contain almost identical variables within their respective waves. The children's primary caregivers were also surveyed nine times over the survey period. Primary caregivers were not surveyed in waves 3 and 7. These data are contained in DS11 through DS19. The primary caregiver files vary in the number and content of variables. On average each wave contains about 1,060 variables with a low of 470 on up to a high of 1,435. Teachers were surveyed during each of the first eight waves of the study. The teacher data are in DS20 through DS27. Waves 1 and 2 contain just over 120 variables. Waves 3, 4, and 5 contain 145 variables. And waves 6, 7, and 8 contain 173 variables. Each of the three phases contain almost identical variables within their respective waves.
description: SAFE Children was a randomized control trial designed to test the efficacy of a family-based comprehensive preventive intervention with 1st grade children, living in inner-city Chicago. It tested for effects on key risk markers for later drug and other substance use. The intervention aimed to improve parenting skills in order to facilitate children's academic success and social adjustment.
description: Over a 9-month period during 1st grade, the study intervention combined components focused on (1) enhancing parent and child orientation to and involvement with school; (2) academic tutoring; (3) social competence and peer relations of the child; and (4) parent and family functioning to enhance the child's academic performance, the parental investment in the child's well-being and development, and the social competence and self-control of the child. Just over half of the participants (225) were randomly selected to receive the intervention. The other 199 families were assigned to the control group. The study consisted of three phases in which there were 11 waves of data collection spanning the course of approximately 13 years. In the spring of 1997, there were 424 kindergarten students and primary caregivers willing to participate in this study. The children's teachers were also included in the study. Phase I involved the children and primary caregivers receiving the intervention treatment or assigned to the control group beginning in the 1st grade (Wave 1). Phase I also included waves 2, 4, and 5 for both children and primary caregivers. These two groups were not administered surveys in wave 3. Teachers were interviewed in waves 1 to 5. A second phase of the study, SAFE Children II, was designed to differentiate the effects specifically due to a second intervention (a "booster") from among those randomly selected to receive the intervention in 1st grade. About half of the participants (114) were randomly selected to receive the booster intervention during the 4th grade. Phase II covered waves 6 through 9. Children and primary caregivers were not administered a survey during wave 7. Teachers were interviewed in wave 6 through 8. In the third phase of the study, SAFE Children III, two waves of data were collected to assess the long-term effects of the initial and booster interventions. Only children and primary caregivers were surveyed in the third phase. Surveys for teachers stopped after wave 8.
description: The first dataset (DS1) provides an overview of the study. Firstly, it contains information on how many days elapsed between each wave's survey administration from the start of the study for each child, primary caregiver, and teacher. Secondly, this dataset contains variables describing the design of the study - whether or not the family was part of the intervention or control group, and if the family got the "booster" in wave 4. Lastly, this dataset contains the basic demographics of each child - gender and race. The children's responses are contained in datasets 2 through 10. The main sections that children were asked about include emotional recognition, feelings towards school, parenting practices, peer relations, self-reported delinquency, safety, perceived competence, sensations seeking, stress and coping, depression, service use, pro-social behaviors, family relationships, sexual behavior, dating violence, substance use, alcohol use, neighborhood characteristics, fear of crime, and future aspirations. The primary caregiver responses are contained in datasets 11 through 19. They were asked about the following topics: demographics and background, parent-teacher involvement, school climate, pre-natal development, behavioral assessment of child, child's adaptation to school, depression, parent practices, family relations, stress, attitudes toward substance use, neighborhood characteristics, fear of crime, subtance use, alcohol use, relationship to romantic partner, service use, child's peer relations, and delinquency. The third group of respondents, teachers, comprise datasets 21 through 27. Teachers were asked to provide responses about the child's behavior and ability to adapt to classroom environment. Also, they were asked about parental involvement with them and the school. No demographic information is available for teachers. Each respondent group has a questionnaire for each wave. A very good complementary resource to go with the questionnaires is the user guide. The user guide provides a short section describing the consistency of each section / scale as a whole across the waves of data collection. This is done for all three groups of respondents. The user guide then provides detailed information for each item contained in each section / scale. Part of this detailed information includes a crosswalk for each section / scale
description: No weights were utilized in this study.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed consistency checks.; Created variable labels and/or value labels.; Standardized missing values.; Created online analysis version with question text.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Presence of Common Scales: The user guide provides a full list and quick breakdown of the instruments / scales used for all three respondent groups. This overview is bookmarked as "List of Instruments" within the larger section "Study Overview".
description: Response Rates: Response rates are given for each wave by children, primary caregivers, and teachers respectively. SAFE Children I: - Wave 1: (99.1 / 99.8 / 99.3) - Wave 2: (90.3 / 91.0 / 98.1) - Wave 3: ( X / X / 96.9) - Wave 4: (91.0 / 91.5 / 94.3) - Wave 5: (93.9 / 92.9 / 96.0) SAFE Children II: - Wave 6: (80.0 / 80.0 / 72.2) - Wave 7: ( X / X / 68.4) - Wave 8: (79.0 / 78.3 / 66.0) - Wave 9: (77.6 / 78.1 / X ) SAFE Children III: - Wave 10: (72.9 / 75.0 / X ) - Wave 11: (73.6 / 74.1 / X )
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Data Overview 
 DS2: Child - Wave 1 
 DS3: Child - Wave 2 
 DS4: Child - Wave 4 
 DS5: Child - Wave 5 
 DS6: Child - Wave 6 
 DS7: Child - Wave 8 
 DS8: Child - Wave 9 
 DS9: Child - Wave 10 
 DS10: Child - Wave 11 
 DS11: Primary Caregiver - Wave 1 
 DS12: Primary Caregiver - Wave 2 
 DS13: Primary Caregiver - Wave 4 
 DS14: Primary Caregiver - Wave 5 
 DS15: Primary Caregiver - Wave 6 
 DS16: Primary Caregiver - Wave 8 
 DS17: Primary Caregiver - Wave 9 
 DS18: Primary Caregiver - Wave 10 
 DS19: Primary Caregiver - Wave 11 
 DS20: Teacher - Wave 1 
 DS21: Teacher - Wave 2 
 DS22: Teacher - Wave 3 
 DS23: Teacher - Wave 4 
 DS24: Teacher - Wave 5 
 DS25: Teacher - Wave 6 
 DS26: Teacher - Wave 7 
 DS27: Teacher - Wave 8
description: audio computer-assisted self interview (ACASI), computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI), computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI), paper and pencil interview (PAPI), on-site questionnaire 
The variable SAFE_ID, present in all 27 datasets, can be used to link the files together.
Each of the 27 datasets contains a case for all 424 participating families. Missing data codes were assigned to signify which individuals did not participate in a particular wave of data collection.
description: Kindergarten students attending inner-city neighborhood public schools in Chicago, IL in 1997. The children's primary caregivers and teachers were also included as part of the study.
description: Since the principal investigators' interest was in risk inherent to the setting, they solicited participants not because of individual or family characteristics but because they attended schools that served inner-city neighborhoods. A total of seven elementary schools were selected to participate.In the spring of 1997, the parents of all kindergarten children in each of the seven schools were contacted and asked to participate in the study. A total of 507 families were eligible to participate. This was based on their residence being located within the neighborhood boundaries of the school that their children would attend in the fall of the children's 1st grade year (although recruitment occurred in the spring of their kindergarten year). Of these, 424 families (84 percent) consented to participate and completed at least one of the baseline assessments.