The Swiss Student Life Study: Codebook

The Swiss Student Life study was conducted between 2016 and 2020 (Vörös et al. 2021; Stadtfeld et al. 2019). Its aim was to understand the emergence of a student community and its short-term and long-term effects on the academic outcomes and well-being of its members. While similar questions and settings are commonly examined using a single data collection technique (e.g. survey, observation), we employ multiple methods to map the social dynamics of the community at different time periods and on different time scales. The study follows three cohorts of students (Cohort I: N = 226, Cohort II: N = 244, Cohort III: N = 652), who started 3-year bachelor programs at a Swiss technical university in 2016 and 2017. Members of each cohort shared most of their classes and often did course work in groups. Students came from various regions and countries; at the beginning of their studies, most of them did not know each other. However, after a few months they developed densely-knit multidimensional social networks, which were likely to influence their university experience and outcomes. This codebook document describes the various kinds of data that have been collected in the context of the Swiss StudentLife Study.