Our primary objective is to extend the NLSY79 young adult data collection for youth age 21 and over through the 2008 and 2010 data collection rounds. These youth represent the oldest children born to NLSY79 female respondents. The ongoing grant has provided funds for interviews with youth age 21 and over in 2004/2006. With NICHD support, all NLSY79 children have received a variety of cognitive and socio-emotional assessments biennially since 1986. Linking these child test data with a range of maternal, family and child attributes, behaviors and attitudes from the full NLSY79 life span has permitted researchers across multiple disciplines in the sciences and social sciences to carry out a range of programmatic and policy-relevant research. However, for many researchers, a critical issue concerns subsequent connections between the developmental trajectory in childhood and adolescence and subsequent adult success and well-being. Since 1994, the NICHD has supported collecting educational, employment, health behavioral and attitudinal information from NLSY79 children age 15 and over (young adults). Since 2000, interviews with the oldest young adults (21+) have been funded by a grant from NICHD, enabling an expansion of research using intergenerational data from their mothers when they were teenagers/early adults, plus multiple waves of data from early childhood through the teen years to explore adolescence to early adult transitions. Extending this data collection through 2010 will enable researchers and policy analysts to explore both within- and cross-generational research topics of core interest to the scientific community, focused on adults throughout their twenties. In 2008/2010 the number of young adults ages 21+ will increase, permitting more detailed analyses by gender, socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity, and the sample will become more heterogeneous, increasing the utility of the young adult sample for making broader generalizations. These data are relevant to public health in numerous ways. Data on health have been collected from the mothers of these young adults since 1979 relating to all their pregnancies, body mass and substance use. Health data have been collected from young adults since birth, e.g. detailed post-natal health issues and health care, height and weight, accidents and injuries, the nature of all illnesses, emotional problems, and asthma histories. Young adults answer questions relating to sexual behaviors, pregnancies and live births.
| Colen, Cynthia G; Ramey, David M; Cooksey, Elizabeth C et al. (2018) Racial disparities in health among nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The role of acute and chronic discrimination. Soc Sci Med 199:167-180 |
