Growing Up Today Study (GUTS)

Site: https://gutsweb.org/

Updated 5/16/22

Country: United States

Study design: Observational cohort with repeated measurements over time

Participant age range: Children / adolescents at enrollment

Number of participants at baseline: 16,882 (later expanded with 10,923 additional participants)

Year of initial enrollment: 1996

Number of data collection waves: 18; data collection ongoing

Measures of well-being:

  • Optimism
  • Positive Affect
  • Purpose / Meaning in Life / Ikigai
  • Life Satisfaction
  • Positive Parenting Practices

Quantity of well-being measures (e.g., number of constructs, number of times well-being was assessed): High

Quality of well-being measures (e.g., were measures reliable and valid in the study population): High

Measures of physical health: 

  • Self-rated / questionnaire-based health
  • Self-report medical history or medication use

Access Information:

This dataset is available to all researchers.

Researchers are required to apply to access this data.

Fees are required to access this dataset.

Notable citation:

Chen Y, Kim E, Koh H, Frazier A & VanderWeele T. (2019). Sense of mission and subsequent health and well-being among young adults: an outcome-wide analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology, 188(4), 664-673.