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For this survey, respondents were asked to consider key historical national and world events since 1930 and to describe the impact of these events upon their lives and why these events seemed especially important. The list of events respondents were queried about included the invention of the television, the decline of communism in eastern Europe, the Korean War, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, space exploration, terrorism and hostage-taking, and the threat of nuclear war. Those queried were also asked about events or changes that were especially poignant to them and whether they kept memorabilia from the past, such as items from World War II, the Holocaust, or the Vietnam War. Specific questions on the events of World War II were included in the survey. Respondents also answered questions regarding events or changes related to their own interests, such as religion, sports, music, television, and films. Background information includes religion, marital status, education, employment, political orientation, and income.

The NCS-2 was a re-interview of 5,001 individuals who participated in the Baseline (NCS-1). The study was conducted a decade after the initial baseline survey. The aim was to collect information about changes in mental disorders, substance use disorders, and the predictors and consequences of these changes over the ten years between the two surveys. The collection contains three major sections: the main survey, demographic data, and diagnostic data. In the main survey, respondents were asked about general physical and mental health. Questions focused on a variety of health issues, including limitations caused by respondents' health issues, substance use, childhood health, life-threatening illnesses, chronic conditions, medications taken in the past 12 months, level of functioning and symptoms experienced in the past 30 days, and any services used by the respondents since the (NCS-1). Additional questions focused on mental disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, specific and social phobias, generalized anxiety, intermittent explosive disorder, suicidality, post-traumatic stress disorder, neurasthenia, pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and separation anxiety. Respondents were also asked about their lives in general, with topics including employment, finances, marriage, children, their social lives, and stressful life events experienced in the past 12 months. Additionally, two personality assessments were included consisting of respondents' opinions on whether various true/false statements accurately described their personalities. Another focus of the main survey dealt with substance use and abuse, nonmedical use of prescription drugs, and polysubstance use. Interview questions in the NCS-2 Main Survey were customized to each respondent based on previous responses in the Baseline (NCS-1). The middle section contains demographic and other background information including age, education, employment, household composition, household income, marital status, and region. The last section of the collection focused on whether respondents met diagnostic criteria for psychological disorders asked about in the main survey.

The purpose for which these data were collected was to explore aggregate, time-series trends in economics, politics, society, and culture in the US between roughly 1890 and 2020. The sources for these various time series are given in the sources for each series. The results of the project appeared in Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett, The Upswing (Simon and Schuster, 2020).