MINDS (Malmö, Sweden)

Collaborative studies – MINDS (Malmö, Sweden)

Principal Investigator Professor Marie Torstensson-Levander

The Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development Study (MINDS) is one of PADS+ sister projects. It is financed by the Swedish Research Council and Forte. The Swedish Research Council also financed some collaborative work between the PADS+ and MINDS studies. The MINDS study is modelled on PADS+ and largely uses the same research instruments which provide for unique possibilities for cross-national comparison. MINDS were initiated in 2007 and follow a sample of adolescents born in 1995 and living in the city of Malmö the 1 September 2007. The adolescents were randomly selected from the cohort of young people born in 1995 and the total sample consists of 525 participants, representing approximately 20 % of the total cohort.  So far interview data has been collected from a subsample of parents (in 2007) and from the adolescents at four separate occasions, at ages 15 (pilot/subsample), 16, 17 and 19. The data collected within the project comprises information from an interviewer-led questionnaire and Space-time budget, and covers, in addition to crime data, the participants personal characteristics and experiences as well as their exposure to different environments and settings.  In addition to the data collected from the adolescents and parents in the study, a small area community survey was conducted to measure characteristics of the different environments where the adolescents spend time.