Social, Behavioral, and Biological Linkages Across the Life Course
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The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) is a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of over 20,000 adolescents who were in grades 7-12 during the 1994-95 school year, and have been followed for five waves to date, most recently in 2016-18. Over the years, Add Health has collected rich demographic, social, familial, socioeconomic, behavioral, psychosocial, cognitive, and health survey data from participants and their parents; a vast array of contextual data from participants’ schools, neighborhoods, and geographies of residence; and in-home physical and biological data from participants, including genetic markers, blood-based assays, anthropometric measures, and medications. Ancillary studies have added even more data over the years. Data from the project are available in various forms and have been analyzed in thousands of publications in peer-reviewed journals.
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November 2, 2012
Add Health Study: Do We Really Pick Our Friends Based on Genetic Similarities?
Using school, network and genetic data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, researchers at the University of Colorado and Yale University studied the effects of social environment and genetic factors on friendship selection, adding to the growing body of research on the role of genetic homophily in friendship formation. Their results suggest that social context plays a fundamental role in friendship formation, as a social environment can facilitate or restrict the opportunity to select friends with similar genotypes.
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October 26, 2012
Add Health study: Strict Moms Influence Kids’ Friends
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, researchers at Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego have found that adolescent drinking and drug use are influenced by the parenting style of their friends’ mothers. Adolescents in social networks that include a friend whose mother practices authoritative parenting face a lower risk of substance abuse than adolescents in social networks that don’t include a friend with an authoritative mother.
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July 6, 2012
Add Health study: Being overweight years before pregnancy linked to bigger babies
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, UNC researchers have found that women who are overweight or obese years before becoming pregnant deliver babies with a higher birth weight, putting the next generation at a higher risk of obesity-related health outcomes.
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