Description
This is the Data Management Plan for Belfast Youth Development Study (BYDS): a Quantitative Prospective Cohort Study (made available Feb 2025).
The Belfast Youth Development Study (BYDS) began in 2001 and was funded by HSC R&D Office as part of the Department of Health’s commitment to the Institute of Child Care Research within Queen’s University of Belfast (QUB) at that time. The study is now housed within Queen’s Communities and Place (QCAP), a research initiative based on partnership between communities, policymakers and academics. BYDS followed a group of young people from age 11/12 years, charting their adolescent experiences of education, mental health, peer and family relationships, substance use, and offending across seven waves of data. (Higgins et al., 2018) The last wave (W7) took place in 2011 when the cohort was aged 21 years old.
The BYDS dataset has been used to investigate risk and protective factors associated with different types of behavioural patterns and outcomes in adolescence and emerging adulthood. BYDS has been a significant resource from the outset, with research findings continuing to contribute to different aspects of public policy and helping to address important issues of public health interest including: the relationship between alcohol problems and depressive symptoms from late adolescence to emerging adulthood; the role of social networks in pathways to substance use; adolescent drug use and crime tracking; and emerging issues such as the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS). Cohort members are now approximately 34 years old, an age traditionally associated with a more stable phase of mid-adulthood.
The most recent wave of data collection for the study will involve multiple phases: Phase 1) Trace BYDS participants who we have some form of contact details on and have permission to re-contact (n = 4195). The study team will work again with the tracing company that we used in our pilot, tracing as many of the 4195 BYDS participants as possible. Phase 2) Invite traced BYDS participants to take part in Wave 8 of BYDS, then link the Wave 8 data with Waves 1-7 creating a longitudinal record of participant’s mental health, trauma, offending, and substance use histories from ages 11-35 years. Phase 3) Merge the BYDS Waves 1-8 dataset with prescription psychotropic data, creating an enhanced version of the BYDS dataset inclusive of detailed information on mental health (e.g. antidepressant and anti-anxiety use medications) and substance use (e.g. drugs used in substance dependence) issues that have been treated via medication. Phase 4) In-depth interview with a sub-sample of BYDS participants. The longitudinal BYDS dataset (waves 1-8) will be used to address a wide range of research questions in the areas of mental health (including trauma) and substance use.
References
Higgins, K., McLaughlin, A., Perra, O., McCartan, C., McCann, M., Percy, A., & Jordan, J. A. (2018). The Belfast Youth Development Study (BYDS): A prospective cohort study of the initiation, persistence and desistance of substance use from adolescence to adulthood in Northern Ireland. PLOS ONE, 13(5), e0195192-e0195192. https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0195192
The Belfast Youth Development Study (BYDS) began in 2001 and was funded by HSC R&D Office as part of the Department of Health’s commitment to the Institute of Child Care Research within Queen’s University of Belfast (QUB) at that time. The study is now housed within Queen’s Communities and Place (QCAP), a research initiative based on partnership between communities, policymakers and academics. BYDS followed a group of young people from age 11/12 years, charting their adolescent experiences of education, mental health, peer and family relationships, substance use, and offending across seven waves of data. (Higgins et al., 2018) The last wave (W7) took place in 2011 when the cohort was aged 21 years old.
The BYDS dataset has been used to investigate risk and protective factors associated with different types of behavioural patterns and outcomes in adolescence and emerging adulthood. BYDS has been a significant resource from the outset, with research findings continuing to contribute to different aspects of public policy and helping to address important issues of public health interest including: the relationship between alcohol problems and depressive symptoms from late adolescence to emerging adulthood; the role of social networks in pathways to substance use; adolescent drug use and crime tracking; and emerging issues such as the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS). Cohort members are now approximately 34 years old, an age traditionally associated with a more stable phase of mid-adulthood.
The most recent wave of data collection for the study will involve multiple phases: Phase 1) Trace BYDS participants who we have some form of contact details on and have permission to re-contact (n = 4195). The study team will work again with the tracing company that we used in our pilot, tracing as many of the 4195 BYDS participants as possible. Phase 2) Invite traced BYDS participants to take part in Wave 8 of BYDS, then link the Wave 8 data with Waves 1-7 creating a longitudinal record of participant’s mental health, trauma, offending, and substance use histories from ages 11-35 years. Phase 3) Merge the BYDS Waves 1-8 dataset with prescription psychotropic data, creating an enhanced version of the BYDS dataset inclusive of detailed information on mental health (e.g. antidepressant and anti-anxiety use medications) and substance use (e.g. drugs used in substance dependence) issues that have been treated via medication. Phase 4) In-depth interview with a sub-sample of BYDS participants. The longitudinal BYDS dataset (waves 1-8) will be used to address a wide range of research questions in the areas of mental health (including trauma) and substance use.
References
Higgins, K., McLaughlin, A., Perra, O., McCartan, C., McCann, M., Percy, A., & Jordan, J. A. (2018). The Belfast Youth Development Study (BYDS): A prospective cohort study of the initiation, persistence and desistance of substance use from adolescence to adulthood in Northern Ireland. PLOS ONE, 13(5), e0195192-e0195192. https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0195192
| Date made available | 10 Jan 2025 |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Date of data production | Jan 2025 |