Participants were randomly selected from the Swedish national
inhabitant register based on proportional draws from different
geographic regions. A total of 20,827 individuals with a registered telephone
number were drawn from the register. Of these, 4455 individuals
could be reached and agreed to participate in the study. However, 1955
were not included because an interview appointment could not be
made, the participant did not arrive for the interview, or the participant
changed his/her mind about participation. The sample thus included
2500 young adults (52.6% female) between the ages of 20 and 24
(M = 22.1, SD = 1.38). At the time of interview, 69.4% of participants
were employed, 58.3% of participants were enrolled in college, and
47% were financed by study assistance. Participants responded to an
extensive battery of questionnaires regarding childhood exposure to
violence and current psychosocial functioning. To investigate whether
the non-participants differed from the participants, 30 randomly chosen
non-participating men and women were asked a few questions from
the interview/questionnaire through a telephone interview and were
then compared with the total sample of 2500 participants [1]. The
analyses showed no significant differences between non-participants
and participants in level of education, subjective well-being, prevalence
of psychiatric diagnoses, alcohol risk use, criminality, or physical
victimization.