Deborah Gorman-Smith, Patrick Tolan, David Henry, and Michael Schoeny, Principal Investigators
2009

Begun in 1991, the longitudinal Chicago Youth Development Study (CYDS) is a longitudinal study of risk for delinquent and violent behavior among African American and Latino male adolescents living in the inner-city and other urban-poor communities. It tracks the development of risk for school failure, antisocial behavior, and violence among inner-city male adolescents. The CYDS applies a multilevel, multiwave assessment to evaluate interactions between individual, family, peer, community, and social factors affecting boys’ involvement in antisocial behavior. The CYDS focuses on the population most at risk for the development of delinquent and violent behavior, yet underrepresented in most longitudinal studies.

In the original study approximately 300 male youth and their families participated in yearly interviews, beginning when the boys were in 6th and 8th grade. In addition, archival data were collected from school, police and court records. The current study has two primary foci:

• Partner violence. Two annual waves of data were collected from these young men, their romantic partners and friends of their romantic partners that have allowed the research team to evaluate issues related to relationship development and partner violence among its population.

• Fathering. The study also explores the influences on paternity among inner-city young adults, the influences on fathers’ involvement with their child(ren), and the impact of involvement and parenting practices on children’s development. We are in the process of collecting two additional waves of data from the young adult males who took part in the Chicago Youth Development Study (CYDS). Two waves of data will be collected from the men, the biological and nonbiological children of the men, and the mothers of both the biological and nonbiological children.