Workshop: The Need for a New National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

美国劳工部（DOL）在20世纪60年代中期开始了全国纵向调查（NLS），以填补国家劳动力市场信息收集的空白。劳工专家认识到，虽然当前人口调查非常有价值，但它只提供了劳动力市场的一个快照，而劳动力市场中最紧迫的问题集中在劳动力的长期行动上。NLS项目开始于20世纪60年代末，最初有四个队列，随后在1979年和1997年分别有一批年轻人。自最新的NLS青年队列首次出现以来，已经过去了22年。最近，对新队列的需求得到了共鸣，该项目发现，如果社会科学界齐心协力，美国劳工统计局（BLS）可能会启动一个新的队列，进行纵向研究。这次研讨会将在华盛顿特区举行，汇集了来自多个学科的学者，历史上非常积极地塑造NLS内容和使用的联邦机构的领导人，以及致力于国家紧迫政策问题的独立研究人员。会议的调查结果将用于设计一项针对2000年以后出生的新一代年轻人的新调查，以便追踪这一代人在进入成年早期和中期的过程中，在学业、工作、家庭组成和相互关系方面的经历。这项数据收集工作将支持未来30年支持美国人力资本的政策制定，最大限度地提高美国在21世纪中叶的全球竞争力这一关键资源。在1997年全国青年纵向调查（NLSY97）开始20多年后，美国再次面临缺乏青年群体来研究当今年轻人的新格局的问题。本工作坊将：1)向社会科学界介绍国家统计局的使命和迄今取得的众多成就；2)描述国家追踪即将到来的劳动力世代从学校到工作转变的能力的恶化；3)解释一个新的队列将如何帮助国家制定满足重要社会需求和帮助实现社会相关成果的计划；4)确定联邦、州和地方机构之间的共同利益，以创建一个知识库，指导这些机构制定政策和采取行动，在市场和非市场活动中塑造教育和社会参与；5)鼓励努力跟踪青少年进入科学、技术、工程和数学领域的过程，以及这些方式对妇女、残疾人和少数群体有何不同；6)推动一个跟踪STEM学员职业生涯的项目，从而提供比当前SESTAT项目能够实现的更详细的轨迹；7)认识到艺术在教育中对以后生活幸福和成功的重要性；8)促进认知和非认知技能的测量及其对成功生活轨迹影响的调查。会议的结果将有助于制定新的数据收集工作，最终将有助于经济学、社会学、心理学、教育、商业、人口统计学、卫生、地理学、犯罪学、调查方法和公共政策等领域的学术文献。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) began the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) in the mid-1960s to fill a gap in the nation's collection of labor market information. Labor experts recognized that, while the Current Population Survey was very valuable, it only provided a snapshot of the labor market, while the most pressing issues in labor markets centered on long-run actions in the workforce. The NLS project started with four original cohorts in the late 1960s, followed by a cohort of young people in 1979 and another in 1997. It is now 22 years since the latest NLS Youth Cohort was first fielded. Recently the need for a new cohort has found resonance, and the project detects the possibility that, if the social science community pulls together, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) may be able to start a new cohort that would be studied longitudinally. To be held in Washington, DC, this workshop would bring together academics from many disciplines, leaders from Federal agencies that have historically been very active in shaping the content and use of the NLS, and independent researchers working on the nation's pressing policy questions. Findings from the conference would be used to design a new survey effort with a new cohort of young people born after 2000, so as to track the experiences of this key generation regarding schooling, work, family formation and their interrelationships as they transition into early and middle adulthood. This data collection effort will support policy formulation in support of United States human capital over the next 30 years, maximizing this key resource for America's global competitiveness through the middle of the 21st century. More than two decades after the start of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), the United States again faces the lack of a youth cohort to study the new landscape for today's young people. This Workshop would: 1) inform the social science community about the mission and myriad achievements of the NLS to date; 2) describe the deterioration in the nation's ability to track the school-to-work transitions of upcoming workforce generations; 3) explain how a new cohort will help the nation frame programs that meet important societal needs and help achieve societally relevant outcomes; 4) identify commonalities of interest among Federal, state and local agencies to create a knowledge base that can guide these agencies in making policies and pursuing initiatives to shape education and social engagement in both market and non-market activities; 5) encourage an effort that tracks the process by which adolescents move into science, technology, engineering and mathematical fields and how those modalities differ for women, the disabled and minorities; 6) promote a program that tracks the careers of STEM trainees, thereby providing a more detailed trajectory than the current SESTAT program is able to achieve; 7) identify the importance of the arts in education for later life happiness and success; and 8) promote the measurement of cognitive and non-cognitive skills and the investigation of their impact on successful life trajectories. Findings from the conference will help frame a new data collection effort, which will ultimately contribute to scholarly literatures in fields including economics, sociology, psychology, education, business, demography, health, geography, criminology, survey methodology and public policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.