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Finding Data: Data on Community & Urban Studies

ACCESS TO THESE DATA FILES ARE RESTRICTED TO CURRENTLY ENROLLED/EMPLOYED MEMBERS OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY.

• Selected Resources for:
  Community & Urban Studies - Non USA ::
  
  
• (Washington) DC Metropolitan Area Drug Study (DC*MADS) (1991-1992)
  Undertaken to assess the full extent of the drug problem in one metropolitan area. Comprised of 16 separate studies that focused on different sub-groups, many of which are typically not included or are underrepresented in household surveys. Iincludes 3 of these component studies:
  Study of Household and Non-household Populations examines the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use among members of household and non-household populations aged 12 and older. Also examines the characteristics of three drug-abusing sub-groups: crack-cocaine, heroin, and needle users. Data include demographics, needle use, needle sharing, and use of tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, crack, inhalants, marijuana, hallucinogens, heroin, sedatives, stimulants, and psychotherapeutics (non-medical use).
  Homeless and Transient Population Study includes data on previous living arrangements, tobacco, drug, and alcohol use, consequences of use, treatment history, illegal behavior and arrest, physical and mental health, pregnancy, insurance, employment and finances, and demographics. Drug Use Among Women Delivering Livebirths in D.C. Hospitals includes data on tobacco, alcohol, and drug use, patterns of use, respondent's general experiences with drug use, including perceptions of the risks and consequences of use, treatment experiences, pregnancy history, and maternal and infant characteristics and outcomes.

• American Community Survey (ACS) (1996+)
  Nationwide survey designed to provide communities with a fresh look at how they are changing. Replaces the replace the decennial long form. Tells us what the population looks like and how it lives. Includes occupancy status, homeownership data, and housing cost data.

• American Housing Survey (1973+)
  Comprises 2 types of data collections: a national survey of housing units, and surveys of housing units in selected metropolitan areas. The interviews cover core questions that are repeated each year, and an additional set of questions on recurring or one-time supplemental topics. The national data were collected annually through 1981 and have been collected every 2 years since that time. The metropolitan-area data are collected on a continuous basis and are reported annually.

• American Perceptions of Artists Survey (2002)
  Benchmark study of the general public's opinions about the lifestyles and work of artists in the United States. Consists of a national survey of adults in the continental United States and 9 local surveys conducted in the following metropolitan areas: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

• Chicago Longitudinal Study, 1986-1989
  Investigated the educational and social development of a same-age cohort of 1,539 low-income, minority children (93 percent African American) who grew up in high-poverty neighborhoods in central-city Chicago and attended government-funded kindergarten programs in the Chicago Public Schools in 1985-1986. Children were at risk of poor outcomes because they face social-environmental disadvantages including neighborhood poverty, family low-income status, and other economic and educational hardships.

• Community Arts Survey (1998)
  Data on the leisure and arts-related activities of local residents in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

• Community Indicators Survey (1999-2002)
  Documents the social health of 26 communities in which the Knight brothers published newspapers. Local area surveys were conducted in each of the 26 communities in both 1999 and 2002. In 2002, a number of the local area surveys were supplemented with regional surveys or surveys of a neighboring city. National surveys were also conducted in order to provide comparative benchmark measures. Measured citizens' civic engagement and attitudes concerning seven topic areas: education, arts and culture, children and social welfare, community development, homelessness, literacy, and citizenship.

• Community Indicators Survey (1999-2002)
  Undertaken by the Knight Foundation to document the social health of the 26 communities in which the Knight brothers published newspapers. Local area surveys were conducted in each of the 26 communities in both 1999 and 2002. In 2002, a number of the local area surveys were supplemented with regional surveys or surveys of a neighboring city. National surveys were also conducted in order to provide comparative benchmark measures. Measured citizens' civic engagement and attitudes concerning 7 topic areas: education, arts and culture, children and social welfare, community development, homelessness, literacy, and citizenship.

• Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago
  Conducts research on Chicago's public schools, the problems they face, and the mechanisms for improvement. Conducts surveys of students, teachers, and principals, and compiles test scores, grade files and administrative histories. Also houses additional data including census data for Chicago, crime statistics, administrative history, data on students, and detailed information on 363 Chicago neighborhoods. Possesses the nation's largest collection of data on a city's public school system and students. Registration is required.

• Detroit Area Studies
  Initiated in 1951. Has been carried out nearly every year till the present. Provides reliable data on the Greater Detroit community. Each survey probes a different aspect of personal and public life, economic and political behavior, political attitudes, professional and family life, and living experiences in the Detroit metropolitan area. Includes The Detroit Arab American Study (DAAS) (2003).

• Great Plains Population and Environment Data (1870-2000)
  Collected information about approximately 500 counties in 12 states of the Great Plains of the United States, and then to analyze those data in order to understand the relationships between population and environment that existed between 1870-2000. The data distributed here are all data about counties. They fall into 4 broad categories: about the counties, about agriculture, about demographic and social conditions, and about the environment. The information about counties (name, area, identification code, and whether we classified the county as part of the Great Plains in a given year) are embedded in each of the other data files, so that there will be 3 series of data (agriculture, demographic and social conditions, and environment), with individual data files for each year for which data are available.

• Houston Area Survey, 1982-2007: Successive Representative Samples of Harris County Residents
  Longitudinal study that began in May 1982 after Houston recovered from recession of the mid-1980s. Measured the public responses to the new economic, educational, and environmental challenges. Part 1, All Responses from 25 Successive Samples, contains all the responses from the successive representative samples of Harris County residents from 1982 through 2007. These are the data that enabled the project to analyze continuity and change among area residents over the course of 26 years. In 13 of the 14 surveys (the years from 1994 through 2007, the one exception being 1996), the surveys were expanded with oversample interviews in Houston's ethnic communities. Using identical random-selection procedures, and terminating after the first few questions if the respondent was not of the ethnic background required, additional interviews were conducted in each of the years to enlarge and equalize the samples of Anglo, African-American, and Hispanic respondents at about 500 each. In 1995 & 2002, the research also included large representative samples (N=500) from Houston's Asian communities. These additional interviews are included in Part 2, Additional Oversample Interviews. The data contained in Part 2 are based on a 14-year total of 6,576 Anglos, 6,086 African-Americans, 6,094 Hispanics, and 1,250 Asians, along with 387 others, and are of particular value in assessing the similarities and differences both within and among Houston's (and America's) 4 largest ethnic groups. Beginning in 2003, the data files have incorporated detailed information from the 2000 Census on the characteristics of the respondent's neighborhood, not only at the level of home ZIP code, but also by Census tract & block group. Found in Part 3, Information from 2000 Census, these data record the population and geographical area of each of the three sectors, distributions by ethnicity & immigrant status, age & gender composition, employment & commuting patterns, and levels of education & income. With this information incorporated in the datasets covering 5 years of expanded surveys, researchers are able to connect the respondents' perceptions and experiences with information on the neighborhoods in which they live, thereby adding a contextual dimension to analyses of the factors that account for individual differences in attitudes and beliefs. Measured perspectives on the local and national economy, on poverty programs, inter-ethnic relationships. Also captured were respondents' beliefs about discrimination and affirmative action, education, crime, health care, taxation, and community service, as well as their assessments of downtown development, mobility and transit, land-use controls, and environmental concerns, and their attitudes toward abortion, homosexuality, and other aspects of the social agenda. Also recorded were religious and political orientations, as well as an array of demographic and immigration characteristics, socioeconomic indicators, and family structures.

• Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group Study
  Aims to inform policy-makers of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on survivors' physical and mental health and barriers to treatment, as well as assist in future natural disaster planning efforts. This will be achieved by monitoring, over time, a group of people who represent those affected by Katrina. The Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group consists of a broad cross-section of people affected by Katrina, including separate samples of people who resided in the New Orleans metropolitan area at the time of the hurricane and those who resided in the counties or parishes of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi that were in the path of the hurricane. Follow-up interviews conducted with the Advisory Group members to monitor the pace of recovery, as well as reports prepared for policy-makers, press releases, and digitally recorded oral histories are being posted on the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group Web site as they become available. Demographic variables include gender, age, race, ethnicity, pre-hurricane residence (place), pre-hurricane type of housing (detached home, mobile home, apartment, etc.), pre-hurricane employment, family income, marital status, education, home ownership (owned with mortgage, owned without mortgage, rented, etc.), where the respondent lived at time of interview, religious preference, and religiosity.

• Intergenerational Study of Parents and Children (1962-1985) [Detroit]
  Provides information on family formation & dissolution among young adults. Families who had given birth to their first, second, or fourth child in 1961 comprised the group of Detroit-area Caucasian couples who were interviewed and surveyed over the period 1962-1985. The resulting longitudinal study encompasses six waves of data collected from mothers across the entire span of their offspring's childhood. Included are demographic, social, and economic information about the parental family; information about the attitudes, values, and behavior of both the mother and the father; and information about the mother's desires and expectations for her child's education, career attainments, and marriage. The collection also offers two waves of interview data collected from the children at ages 18 through 23. These data describe the young adults' attitudes and values; their expectations for school, work, marriage, and childbearing; and their perceptions of their parents' willingness to be of assistance to them. A 1985 Life History Calendar file details the young adults' periods of cohabitation, marriage, separation, divorce, childbearing, living arrangements, education, paid employment, and military service.

• Little Village Survey
  Little Village, a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, is the largest Mexican community in the Midwestern United States. The Little Village Survey consists of business and household surveys. The business surveys reveal how ethnicity influences the creation and development of businesses through multiple social and economic domains.

  Sample Size: Business - 244 enterprises; Household - 325 respondents.

• Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS)
  Longitudinal study of families in Los Angeles County, California, and of the neighborhoods in which they live. Designed to answer key research and policy questions in 3 areas:
  • Neighborhood, family, and peer effects on children's development
  • Effects of welfare reform at the neighborhood level
  • Residential mobility and neighborhood change
  Also available through ICPSR.

  Sample Size: Includes 65 neighborhoods with approximately 40-50 households in each neighborhood. Wave 1 includes approximately 3200 children and teens ages 0 to 17.

• New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, 1991+
  Conducted approximately every 3 years to comply with New York state and New York City's rent regulation laws. The Census Bureau has conducted the survey for the city since 1965. The rental vacancy rate is the primary focus of the survey, because that value is crucial to the current rent control and rent stabilization laws. Other important survey data include rent regulation status, number of stories, number of units in building, number of rooms in unit, type of heating fuel, monthly rent, estimated value and building condition. Also includes information concerning housing and neighborhood quality. Although the main purpose of the survey is to collect housing data, information on the demographic status of the population and households of the city is also collected. Information collected includes age, sex, race, ethnicity, household composition, labor force status, income, employment, and education level. 1991, 1993, and 1996 are available at the DSS site. For 1999, 2002, and 2005, see the Census Bureau.

  Sample Size: Approximately 18,000 housing units representing the 5 boroughs of the city.

• Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. 1994+
  Large-scale, interdisciplinary study of how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development. It was designed to advance the understanding of the developmental pathways of both positive and negative human social behaviors. In particular, the project examined the causes and pathways of juvenile delinquency, adult crime, substance abuse, and violence. Also provides a detailed look at the environments in which these social behaviors take place by collecting substantial amounts of data about urban Chicago, including its people, institutions, and resources.

• Resident Relocation Survey
  Survey of public housing leaseholders in Phase II of the Chicago Housing Authority's Housing Transformation initiative.

• Seattle Longitudinal Study (Midlife Study)
  Studies various aspects of psychological development during the adult years. Originally, in 1956, five hundred GHC members were randomly selected. They ranged in age from their early 20s to late 60s. The study has continued in seven-year intervals since 1956: 1963, 1970, 1977, 1984, 1991, 1998, and 2005. At each interval, all persons who had previously participated in the study were asked to participate again. In addition at each seven-year interval, a new group of people randomly selected from the Group Health membership have been asked to participate. Approximately 6000 people have now participated at some time in this study. Of the original participants, 26 people remain who have now been in the study for 50 years.

• Survey of Chicago African Americans (1997)
  Telephone survey of African Americans aged 18 years or older, residing in certain areas of the city of Chicago.

  Sample Size: 756 completed interviews

• Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study (1999+)
  Intensive study in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio to assess the well-being of low-income children and families in the post-welfare reform era. Investigates the strategies families have used to respond to reform, in terms of employment, schooling or other forms of training, residential mobility, and fertility. Central to this project is a focus on how these strategies affect children's lives, with an emphasis on their health and development as well as their need for, and use of, social services.