This application seeks support for a workshop for graduate students and recent Ph.D.s seeking to learn how to use the NLS data. They will learn to access the data and its documentation resources, review data content, provide sessions on cleaning the data and reconciling puzzling patterns that arise from multiple longitudinal data sources on complex behavior over the life course. We will also offer more advanced sessions for researchers with well-focused demographic research agendas that allow for in-depth interactions with project staff on how the NLS data can be applied to their topics. Participants will take turns describing their projects and having the group and session leaders discuss alternatives for bringing the NLS data to bear on the problem. We plan for about 45 students to participate over four days in Columbus. The instructional faculty will be a mixture of experienced staff from CHRR, BLS and NORC. The workshop will provide travel and per diem for students attending the workshop. Part of the cost for organizing and presenting the program will be supported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics through their ongoing support of the NLS program. The most recent workshop for the NLS was in the summer of 2007. It attracted about 120 applications from a variety of backgrounds ranging from post-docs with medical degrees, students in public health programs to students with population orientations from sociology and economics. This fact, and a steady flow of inquiries about the next workshop, leads us to believe we can offer this workshop every other year and maintain the quality of the applicant pool.
This workshop is relevant for public health as it will help train the next generation of researchers in studying issues such as behavioral health and obesity, the evolution of health over the life cycle, fertility and population dynamics and the transition of children to adulthood and how they negotiate risk factors such as substance use, adolescent fertility and premature exit from school.
