The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study: Tracking the Life Course

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposed, continuing program of projects will explore the implications of the changing social, political, economic, and technological contexts of the early 21st century for the well-being of a large cohort of men and women transitioning to old age. In this context, our several inter-related research plans are motivated by common issues related to the recent shift towards individual responsibility for health, health care, and economic well-being among older adults. In order to better understand the determinants of well-being of older Americans in an era of social, political, economic, and technological change, we propose a three-year continuation of our collaborative, multidisciplinary program of projects on aging and the life course. Our project will both exploit and add to core, public resources of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). We want to maximize the unique scientific value of the WLS, along with other relevant and comparable sources of data on population aging, to pursue a rich and important agenda of research on social, economic, and psychological factors in health and aging. This proposal consists of 3 Cores: Administration (A); Data Dissemination: Documentation, Outreach, and Security (B); and Complementary Data Collection and Management (C), which will serve an initial set of six research projects: The Impact of End of Life Planning on the Quality of Death & Survivor Well Being; The Effect of Nonnormative Parenting on the Normative Transitions of Aging; Cognitive Aging in Context: Abilities, Genes, and the Social Environment; Psychological Aging in Context: Personality, Psychological Well Being, and Distress; The Impact of Work and Family Careers on Life Outcomes in Late Adulthood; and Socioeconomic Status and Health in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. As we work together and share findings and methods, we will also share in the support and expertise of the core WLS staff, the rich existing data resources of the project, and new data created for the several projects. We intend and expect that our longitudinal analyses of old and new waves of WLS data will resolve old questions and open new areas of interdisciplinary inquiry about health, aging and the life course. All WLS data will be released to the wider research community, either directly or through a secure data enclave, to the maximum extent consistent with high standards of protection for the privacy and confidentiality of research participants, as soon as they have been collected, cleaned, and documented.