2 
0.2. Measurement Design of the 'IDSS'- Study 
The first wave of data collection took place in 1976/77 in Reykjavik. The children attended the 
first grade of primary school and were between 7 and 8 years old. The following measurement 
occasions including the Reykjavik sample took place at the ages of 8, 9, 12, 15, 17, 19 and 22 
years. 
A sample from three rural communities was measured two years after the investigation of the 
urban sample (Tab. A) successively. 
Table A 
Measurement occasions in the IDSS-Study 
Rural sample 
Age 
Urban Sample 
Grade 
1 
1978 
1976/77 
7 
Wave 1 
8 
Wave 2 
1977/78 
2 
3 
1980 
9 
Wave 3 
1978/79 
1983 
Wave 4 
12 
6 
1981/82 
9 
1986 
15 
Wave 5 
1984/85 
Wave 6 
17 
1986/87 
19 
Wave 7 
1988/89 
Wave 8 
1991/92 
20 (rur) 22 (urb) 
1991/92 
0.3. Sampling Design 
The population, from which the Reykjavik sample (N-121) was selected, had been stratified 
according to three analytically relevant dimensions: 
1) according to the children's sex; 
2) according to the social status of the parents as an indicator for developmentally advantageous 
or disadvantageous socialization and lifeworlds of children and 
3) according to general ability level (as assessed by teachers) at the onset of schooling. 
An additional sample (N = 65) includes the entire birth cohorts of three rural communities in 
Iceland, assumed to represent different contexts of socialization and modernization in three 
typical lifeworlds within the Icelandic culture: (1) a rural stray settlement, (2) a farming and 
service village and (3) a fishing village. This second sample should make it possible to 
investigate individual development against the background of different ecologies.