First Annual Meeting of the National Survey of Parents and Youth (NSPY) Users Group

United States

NIDA Chairs: William Bukoski, Ph.D. and Kathy Etz, Ph.D.

Meeting Purpose and Intent:

The First Annual Meeting of the NSPY* Users Group was convened to bring together researchers who conduct secondary analyses using the NSPY dataset. The goals were to share research findings, to promote discussion and collaboration, and to provide technical assistance.

Presentations described ongoing data analysis and focused on analytic strategies, predictors of drug initiation and use in adolescence, and effects of the Media Campaign.

Participants shared strategies for analyzing and interpreting the data and other useful information. As a result of the meeting, many participants made plans to continue discussion with each other and identified opportunities for collaboration.

Technical assistance was provided during an afternoon session the second day of the meeting. Data users were given the opportunity to ask detailed questions about the weighting of the data and about using various software packages to analyze the data. Statisticians from Westat and Amsaq were on hand to address issues that have arisen as users have worked with these data.

Meeting Outcome:

Meeting participants indicated their desire for continued access to these data, identifying this dataset as a rich and unique resource. They further indicated that while this dataset is specific to the ONDCP Media Campaign, these data could be used to inform media campaigns more generally. The linked nature of the parent-child data in a nationally representative sample was also identified as a rich resource. Users indicated their hope that NIDA would continue to provide the infrastructure necessary to make these data available.

*National Survey of Parents and Youth (NSPY)

The National Survey of Parents and Youth (NSPY) is a nationally representative survey of youth and parents to evaluate the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) National Anti-Drug Use Media Campaign. The survey was administered to youth, parents, and parent dyads over four rounds of data collection from November 1999 to June 2004. Youth between the ages of 12 _ and 18 were selected to participate and cross-sectional and longitudinal data were collected with sample sizes averaging 12,500 per round. The data include measures of media campaign ad recall, drug related beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and drug use and for parents media campaign ad recall and parental drug prevention practices such as monitoring their child, drug-related conversations, and special family activities. NIDA's NSPY Center provides researchers access to the data set.

Note - The NSPY Center was discontinued in July 2010, information is now available through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/pages/index.html