Seattle Social Development Project
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The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) is a long term study that looks at the development of
The Seattle Social Development Project is an ongoing longitudinal study of youth and young adult development. SSDP began in 1981 to test strategies for reducing childhood risk factors for school failure, drug abuse, and delinquency. First graders in five Seattle schools were assigned to intervention or control classrooms. Each year through the elementary grades parents and teachers in intervention classrooms learned how to actively engage children in learning, strengthen bonding to family and school, and encourage children's positive behaviors. In 1985, when the original first graders entered the fifth grade, the panel was expanded to 808 students from 18 Seattle elementary schools. These participants and their parents have been interviewed regularly since 1985. Data from these interviews are used to examine many aspects of youth development such as the causes of alcohol, ma*****na and drug use and dependence, crime and delinquency and positive youth and adult development.