Enhancing Project Talent: Early Life Impacts on Later Life Outcomes

描述（由申请人提供）：1960年，美国研究所（AIR）通过收集44万名高中生、他们的老师和指导顾问的大量数据，包括人口统计信息、认知测量、性格特征和兴趣，发起了“人才项目”。此外，高中毕业后1年、5年和11年的后续调查增加了关于高等教育、劳动力参与、组建家庭和服兵役等经历的信息。凭借其庞大的，具有全国代表性的60多岁的队列样本，纵向设计和早期生活经历的广泛信息，TALENT项目非常适合作为主要的老龄化纵向研究的基础，可以解决研究问题，如哪些特征可以预测健康结果，如阿尔茨海默病和健康差距。AIR目前正在设计这项研究，并计划在2014年进行为期50年的随访。设计这项研究需要更多的研究人员对现有数据进行更多的分析。在目前的格式中，有843,000条记录和10,000个变量，自1970年代以来基本上没有改变，访问这些数据既困难又耗时，因此它们的使用往往受到限制。我们建议将数据和文献现代化，使它们达到大学间政治和社会研究联盟（ICPSR）和国家老龄化计算机数据档案馆（NACDA）的现行标准。这样做将恢复完整的数据集，并允许数据易于访问和输入任何分析格式；使文档能够在数据收集和数据年份的可变级别上进行搜索；并将数据完全整合到NACDA的收集中。为了完成这项任务，AIR和NACDA的员工将合作，将AIR对Project TALENT的深入了解与NACDA最先进的档案专业知识相结合。我们的计划包括将TALENT项目集成到ICPSR的自动化HERMES系统中，该系统将允许有效地实施定期数据更新，并为文档提供标准内容和格式。此外，我们将把Project TALENT数据文件从一系列多个文件重组为一个统一的集合，该集合由一个接口支持，该接口允许用户对数据提取做出明智的决定。今天，TALENT项目数据作为研究来源和现有数据的分析将为规划新的后续行动提供关键信息，仍然具有高度相关性；加强数据和文档将大大增加研究人员的可用性，并将为计划中的未来发布的TALENT项目奠定基础，包括添加相关的行政数据。TALENT项目的广度保证了它将继续为关于老龄化的原创性研究提供新的机会，最值得注意的是有机会调查身体健康、认知功能、社会经济和人口因素在生命不同阶段之间的关系。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In 1960, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) initiated Project TALENT by collecting extensive data, including demographic information, cognitive measures, dispositional traits, and interests, from 440,000 high school students, their teachers, and their guidance counselors. In addition, follow-up surveys 1, 5, and 11 years after high school graduation added information about experiences such as postsecondary education, labor force participation, family formation, and military service. With its large, nationally representative sample of a cohort now in their sixties, longitudinal design, and extensive information on early life experiences, Project TALENT is uniquely suited to be the basis for a major longitudinal study of aging that can address research questions such as what characteristics predict health outcomes such as Alzheimer's disease and health disparities. AIR is currently designing this study, with plans for a 50-year follow-up in 2014. Designing the study requires increased analysis of the existing data by an expanded group of researchers. In its current format, with 843,000 records and 10,000 variables essentially unchanged since the 1970's, the data are difficult and time-consuming to access, and thus their use is often limited. We propose to modernize the data and documentation, bringing them up to the current standards of the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA). Doing so will restore the complete data set and allow for data to be easily accessed and input into any analysis format; enable documentation to be searchable at the variable level across data collections and data years; and fully integrate the data into the NACDA collection. To accomplish this task, staff from AIR and NACDA will collaborate, pairing AIR's in-depth knowledge of Project TALENT with NACDA's state-of-the-art archival expertise. Our plans include integration of Project TALENT into the ICPSR's automated HERMES system, which will allow for regular data updates to be efficiently implemented and for the standard content and format for documentation. Additionally, we will restructure the Project TALENT data files from a series of multiple files into a unified collection supported by an interface that allows users to make informed decisions about data extraction. Project TALENT data continue to be highly relevant today as a research source and analyses of existing data will provide critical information for planning the new follow-up; enhancing the data and documentation will greatly increase their availability to researchers, and will lay the groundwork for planned future releases of Project TALENT, including the addition of linked administrative data. The sheer breadth of Project TALENT insures that it will continue to offer new opportunities for original research on aging, most notably the opportunity to investigate questions about the relationship among physical health, cognitive functioning, socioeconomic, and demographic factors at different stages of life. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: In 1960, the American Institutes of Research (AIR) collected extensive data on about 440,000 high school students in Project TALENT and conducted follow-up surveys 1, 5, and 11 years after graduation; with these participants now in their 60s, Project TALENT is uniquely suited to be the basis for a new longitudinal study of aging, and AIR is currently planning a 50-year follow-up study. AIR and the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) propose to combine their expertise to modernize and archive Project TALENT data files and documentation to meet the demand for increased and easier access by researchers. These newly archived data will facilitate research not previously possible, and will play a key role in conducting necessary analyses to design the study that will transform Project TALENT into an invaluable resource for research on how cognitive, socioeconomic, and demographic factors interact with factors that moderate physical health outcomes, cognitive functioning such as Alzheimer's disease, and health disparities across the life course.