The proposed training program will provide interdisciplinary demographic training in unique specialty research areas for pre-doctoral and postdoctoral students at Penn State's Population Research Institute and Graduate Program in Demography. Disciplines integrated in the proposed training program are Sociology, Anthropology (cultural and biological) and Human Development and Family Studies. The training faculty has 19 senior demography faculty members plus 16 additional demography teaching faculty for the 33 currently enrolled demography students in the participating departments. Distinctive specialty areas of established inter-disciplinary research and training include family formation processes, children's well-being, biodemography and health, and community context, spatial analysis, and GIS applications in demography. This proposal seeks annual support for five pre-doctoral trainees and one postdoctoral trainee. Pre-doctoral trainees will be recruited from new applicants responding to the presence of a NICHD training program in demography, and the 248 average annual applicants to and 159 Ph.D. students enrolled in the participating disciplines. Selection will be based solely on intellectual promise and commitment to population studies. Postdoctoral trainees are recruited directly by a national search and the recommendation of colleagues at other pre-doctoral training programs. Pre-doctoral training involves mastery of demographic techniques and substantive literature on causes and consequences of population size, composition, distribution and change. Program training goals are achieved through a combination of formal coursework, a research apprenticeship program, a profession development colloquium, and program seminars. The low faculty-student ratio facilitates a strong mentoring program. While embedded in their disciplinary paradigms and scholarship, three elective dual degrees (i.e. PhD in Anthropology and Demography, etc.) are available to pre-doctoral trainees through the Graduate Program in Demography. Demography Faculty from the participating disciplines have a portfolio of 33 currently-funded research and core support grants which provides a rich intellectual environment for demographic research training and mentorship opportunities. The Institute, which occupies 8,300 square feet of space on Central Campus, provides offices for faculty researchers and trainees, conferences and consulting rooms, a data archive, computer lab, a GIA lab, and specialized population library. Staff support includes statistical consultants, computer programmers, information specialists, secretaries, and grant administrators.
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