The Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood: Phase VI

The Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso) is a prospective-longitudinal study of a cohort of 1'675 children who entered one of 56 public primary schools in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2004. The aim of the study is to understand the processes that influence multiple domains of development from childhood to adulthood (e.g., social development, violence/crime, psychopathology). Data from participants were thus far collected at ages 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 20. Currently spanning 14 years, at a relatively fine-grained time-resolution, z-proso is one few contemporary long-term longitudinal studies from childhood into the young adult years in Switzerland, and internationally. Constructs measured at each z-proso assessment include prosocial behavior, aggression and violence, internalizing problems, substance use, ADHD, non-aggressive conduct problems, and delinquency. Recently, z-proso also coded records on participants' contacts with the youth justice authorities as either victims or perpetrators to age 18. Additionally, z-proso has collected detailed information on putative mechanisms in development, including at the individual level (e.g., self-control, sensation seeking, cognition and decision-making), the family level (e.g. parental involvement and monitoring, corporal punishment, sibling violence), the peer level (e.g., relationship quality and best friends' delinquency), the school level (e.g., school commitment, relationship with teacher) and the neighborhood level (e.g., ethnic heterogeneity). In the initial phase the project also included a cluster-randomized universal intervention component. In 2017, z-proso became a national research infrastructure project. In addition to completing two major data collections (one from participants, one from juvenile records), the z-proso study since expanded its national and international reach, for example, via the z-proso International Research Network (zIReN). In addition, z-proso secured generous additional funding both within and outside University of Zurich to support its activities and to broaden the study's profile. For example, several z-proso add-on studies collected at, or after age 20, resulted, for example, in experience sampling data that capture psychological states of z-proso participants at the daily level and multiple levels of biological data (e.g. on gene expression, stress and sex hormones, brain activity, and substance use metabolites). These can now be examined in conjunction with the rich z-proso database. Starting in April 2020, z-proso also started a multi-wave, closely-spaced, data collection of participants' well-being during and after the COVID-19 lockdown.The current proposal outlines plans for z-proso to continue as a national research infrastructure for the 2021-2024 period. Specifically, the study will conduct a data collection with participants at age 24, and also a comprehensive collection of official data recorded by prosecution authorities during participants' young adult years. We propose several research priorities for this new funding cycle, including 1) Pathways into and out of Crime, 2) Developmental Psychopathology and Comorbidity, 3) Legal Socialization, Legitimacy, and Extremist Beliefs, 4) Internalizing Problems, Self-Harm, and Suicidality, 5) Trajectories of Substance Use, Including Desistance, 6) Developmental Victimization, 7) Sequelae of the COVID-19 Pandemic, 8) Immigrant Well-Being and Delinquency, and 9) Life Events, Turning Points, Peers, and Romantic Relationships. The proposed continuation will further enrich our understanding of developmental dynamics from childhood to adulthood. It will also enhance z-proso's international prominence as a resource for understanding developmental pathways of young people. Importantly, z-proso has assessed children in the community since grade 1, and one of its great strengths is its rich data on young adults from all backgrounds. In the new funding cycle, z-proso will again be institutionally affiliated with the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development at the University of Zurich. The Jacobs Center is a world-leading interdisciplinary research institution devoted to studying the crucial transitions from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. Thus, it provides an ideal environment for z-proso as a showcase of high-quality social research in Switzerland.