ABOUT NYS

The National Youth Study (NYS) is a study of youth and their families that began with a telephone survey of 3,370 teenagers (between the ages of 13-17) and their parents in 2002. This is Wave 1 of the study. Participants were chosen for this research study when interviewers randomly dialed home phone numbers and asked whether there was a teenager in the household between the ages of 13 and 17. In the summer of 2005, when the participants were between the ages of 16 and 20, we launched the second telephone survey and attempted to re-contact all 3,370 participants who had completed the initial survey. We refer to the second survey as Wave 2. We were able to contact and complete the Wave 2 survey with 78% of the participants who had been surveyed two to three years earlier.

In the fall of 2007, when the participants were between the ages of 18 and 22, we launched the third telephone survey and attempted to re-contact all 3,370 participants who had completed the initial survey. We refer to the third survey as Wave 3. We were able to contact and complete the Wave 3 survey with 80% of the participants who had been surveyed four to five years earlier. These three conversations with the participants in the last six years have given us a wealth of information about youth today. This kind of research is valuable since we can compare findings from the same group of youth at three points in time. We are learning a great deal about change and stability in the experiences, values, and beliefs of youth. We will commence a fourth round of telephone surveys and in-person interviews in 2012.

The NYS was designed by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Notre Dame to shed light on the values and life experiences of youth as they age into adults. What do American youth actually believe? What do they spend their time doing? What is going on in their lives? What kinds of relationships do they have with parents, family members, and friends? The goal of the NYS is to use data collected from telephone surveys of the nationally representative sample of 3,370 youth to provide answers to these questions. Altogether, the data collected for the NYS provides a comprehensive description of the lives, interests, and perspectives of adolescents in America today.