July 18, 2024

The FFCWS team is pleased to announce that updated FFCWS public data files are now available through the OPR data archive.

In this data release, we included updates to the Public Use Data Files to correct missing labels and other data inconsistencies. Corrections were also made to the corresponding documentation and metadata. We recommend all data users download the corrected versions from the OPR Data Archive and review the memo for information regarding the effected variables.

We have also added a new Restricted Use Contract Data file named the “Genotype Array Crosswalk”. This crosswalk file contains the ID numbers in the Genotype Array file which is available through the dbGaP repository and the FFCWS public idnum (used on all FFCWS public and contract data files). This file can be used as a crosswalk file so that the Genotype Array data can be merged with the rest of the FFCWS data. For more information, please visit the Genotype Array page.

March 25, 2024

The FFCWS team is pleased to announce the release of the Year 22 data files. These new data files are available via the OPR Archive in .dta (Stata) format or in a .csv file format, allowing for ease of downloading, merging with files from previous FFCWS waves, and compatibility with STATA, SAS, SPSS, and R analytic platforms.

New Public Use Data

• Year 22 Young Adult follow-up survey: The Young Adults (YA; referred to as “focal children” in prior waves) completed survey questions about their emergence into adulthood, including the topics of housing, education, employment, income, assistance, finances, relationships, family formation, systems involvement, identity, health and behavior, substance use, and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
   
• Year 22 Primary Caregiver follow-up survey: The Primary Caregivers (PCG; as determined at Year 15) were asked questions about their own housing, education, employment, income, assistance, finances, relationships, identity, health and behavior, substance use, and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the young adult’s housing, education, system’s involvement, health, relationships, and employment.

We are grateful for your ongoing support of our efforts over the last 22+ years. Due to the collaborative nature of the FFCWS, we invite you to submit any feedback or issues found in the seventh wave of data using the FFCWS Year 22 Data Feedback Form. To learn more about these data, visit our Public Data Documentation page.

October 27, 2023

The FFCWS team is pleased to announce two new data file updates included in the Public and Restricted Use Contract Data.

New Public Use Data

• The mDiary Study of Adolescent Relationships (mDiary) File: The mDiary Study of Adolescent Relationships (mDiary) is a new public data file collected during a year-long “diary” study with a sample of teens participating in the Year-15 core study. mDiary was designed to examine the romantic and sexual relationships of teens to portray adolescents’ relationship processes in the context of other socio-emotional changes that define mid- to late adolescence. When merged with FFCWS data, mDiary also permits investigations of connections between childhood experiences and teen relationship dynamics. To learn more, review the mDiary documentation.

New Restricted Use Contract Data

• NCES School Characteristics File: Three new variables have been added to our NCES data appendage. These variables indicate whether the school was located in an urban, suburban, town, or rural area for the school(s) that the FFCWS focal child attended in Grade 1, at Year 9, and at Year 15. Further details and file documentation can be found on the NCES data appendage page.

September 13, 2023

Two new data files have been added to the public data and one file has been updated in the restricted use data.

New Public Use Data

• Study of Adolescent Neural Development (SAND) COVID-19 Survey File: New public data includes survey variables from a collaborative COVID-19 sub-study, conducted by our partners at the University of Michigan. In this sub-study, a subset of FFCWS primary caregiver and young adult participants completed an online survey evaluating whether COVID-19 impacted their mental health and social support systems. More specifically, this data assessed COVID-19 related stressors, moderators of these stressors, and the impact of these stressors on participant’s threat and reward construct. To learn more, review the COVID-19 sub-study documentation.
   
• Sleep Actigraphy and Diary Survey File: New public data is available for the Year 15 Sleep Sub-study, enriching the existing Y15 sleep actigraphy data with additional details. These newly available data contain daily level actigraphy merged with daily level diary survey measures across approximately one week of data collection at Year 15. To learn more about the newest data files, review the Daily Sleep Actigraphy and Diary Survey documentation.

Updated Restricted Use Contract Data

• Census Tract Measures: In this data release, the Census Tract Measures file adds two new variables. Data were already available using 2000 census-tract boundaries for Baseline and Years 1, 3, 5, and 9 and using the 2010 tract boundaries for Year 15. Since the boundaries of some Census tracts changed between the 2000 and 2010 Census, the pseudo identifiers at Year 15 do not match those from the earlier waves. Two new variables have been added to the restricted use Census Tract Measures file to help researchers account for these different census tract boundaries utilized in 2000 versus in 2010. To learn more, review the Census Tract Measures documentation.
   

March 13, 2023

Several data files have been added and updated, including both restricted data and public data.

Restricted Use Contract Data Updates

• Census Tract Measures Data: New variables have been added to the restricted use Census Tract Measures file. This new data examines the percent of persons within the respondent’s tract of residence who occupied a managerial or professional occupation according to the 2000 Decennial Census and the 2015 American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Visit the Census Tract Measures page to learn more.
   
• Polygenic Scores (PGS) Data & Year 9 Telomere Length Data: These existing variables will no longer be included in the restricted data and will now be included in the public data. Telomere length variables have been removed from the Candidate Genes data file and will be included with the new Public Use Biomarker data file. Visit the PGS documentation and Biomarker documentation to learn more.

Public Data Updates

• Biomarker Data: New biomarker variables are now included in the public data. During in-home assessments at Year-9, saliva samples were collected from focal children and their biological mother. During Year-15, saliva samples were collected from focal children. This file includes DNA methylation clocks (DNAmAge) data for focal children and their mothers, generated from Illumina EPIC and 450K methylation arrays as well as measures of the mother’s telomere length at Age 9 and of the focal child’s telomere length at Age 9 and Age 15. Visit the Biomarker documentation to learn more.

All these updates have been added to the FFCWS Metadata site.
 

January 24, 2022

Two new data files have been released.

• The Future of Families Year 15 Sleep Actigraphy Dataset has been added to the OPR Archive. It contains participant-level data that correspond to daily mean sleep actigraphy measures across approximately one week of data collection at Year 15. A randomly selected sub-sample (N=1,090) participating in Year 15 Home Visits was asked to wear an accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist for seven consecutive days to track their sleep. For more information visit the documentation for these data.
• A revised version of the Census Tract Measures file is now available through the Restricted Use Contract Data process. This revised file includes an additional variable which recodes the Year 15 pseudo-tract to use 2000 census tract boundaries in harmony with prior waves of data. This new variable is named tp6tract_cen00. The Year 15 pseudo-tract using the original 2010 boundaries is still available in this file. For more information, visit the Census Tract Measures page

September 22, 2021

Polygenic scores (PGS) for focal children have now been released and are available through our contract data process. These variables include PGS for body mass index (BMI), height, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio, myocardial infarction, age at menarche, lipid traits, and blood pressure, as well as principal components, and flags for analytic groups.  To learn more about this data file, please visit Polygenic Scores (PGS) on our Restricted Use Contract Data page.

July 8, 2020

A new set of public data files have been posted to the OPR Archive to resolve a small issue with the constructed mental health variables in Year 15. Previously, a small number of cases were incorrectly assigned caseness due to a programming error.

May 8, 2020

New metadata fields have been added to our Metadata Explorer, allowing users to take a quick look into the frequency of each possible response in the data as well as summary statistics where applicable. These fields can also be accessed through the downloadable CSV, or through direct calls to the API. 

January 27, 2020

A new set of 2020 public data files have been posted to the Princeton OPR Data Archive to resolve a small issue. These new files include nine additional variables (t4b1a-t4b1i). These variables were incorrectly dropped from the previously released files due to a coding error in the Fall 2018 standardization work.

January 24, 2019

A new set of 2019 public data files have been posted to the Princeton OPR Data Archive to resolve a small issue. No substantive data have changed. During the build process of the Fall 2018 re-release files, the Stata command xtset was used to declare panel data, using a variable that is not included in the public files. This resulted in an error when data users tried to use multiple imputation. The new 2019 files have xtset cleared.

November 12, 2018

Fall 2018 re-release: Revised data files for all FFCWS Data Public are now available through the Princeton University Office of Population Research Data Archive. This Fall 2018 re-release of the Public Data improves the data, documentation, and resources of the FFCWS in the following ways: (1) Revises data file structure for improved ease of use, (2) Standardizes variable naming system across core and in-home data, (3) Standardizes negative codes for missing data, (4) Includes newly released data and weights, (5) Provides updates for previously released data. For further detail on changes to the files, please see the Re-Release Memo. Please also see our revised documentation and new Metadata Explorer.

February 6, 2018

Telomere length variables for mothers and children from the Year 9 wave have now been released and are available through our contract data process as part of the genetic data file. These variables serve as an indicator of biological aging at the cellular level, and are measured in kilo base pairs. To learn more about these data, please visit our “Contract Data” page on genetic data.

January 19, 2018

A data file from the Year 15 wave of data collection is now available through the Princeton University Office of Population Research Data Archive. STATA, SAS, and SPSS versions of this file can be downloaded and merged with files from previous waves. This new file contains survey data from the primary caregiver (PCG) and teen interviews as well as the in-home assessments and observations. Additionally, files from the Fragile Families Challenge (FFC) are now available through the Princeton University Office of Population Research Data Archive for replication and educational projects. See our documentation page for more information about these files. 

Year 15 versions of the Geographic, Contextual, and School data files are now available through the contract data process. See our Contract Data page for more details.

June 29, 2015

A file with genetic data on focal children and their biological mothers, collected during the in-home assessments at the Year 9 follow-up wave, is now available through our restricted data use contract process.

March 4, 2015

A contextual characteristics file with Census tract-level data that correspond to the current residence of respondents at each wave (including Years 5 & 9) is now available through our restricted data use contract process.

August 12, 2013

A file with Year 9 follow-up wave national and city-level weights are now available (Stata, SAS, SPSS) through the Princeton University Office of Population Research Data Archive. 

November 3, 2011

A data file from the Year 9 wave of data collection is now available through the Princeton University Office of Population Research Data Archive. STATA, SAS, and SPSS versions of this file can be downloaded and merged with files from previous waves. This new file contains survey data from the core biological mother and father, primary caregiver, child, and teacher interviews, as well as data from the in-home assessments and observations. See our documentation page for more information about these files. 

June 26, 2006

m3c41a – This variable is not an accurate indicator of mother reports of father in prison at the Year 1 interview. It is possible the reports in this variable are from the father contact sheet, but we are not able to confirm this information. Therefore, users should rely on other reports of father incarceration.