Health and Well-being Over the Life Course and Across Multiple Generations

Project Summary This application proposes to collect, process, and disseminate data in the 2021 and 2023 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The PSID is a longitudinal survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. families that was begun in 1968. A cornerstone of the nation's social science research infrastructure, PSID has collected 41 waves of data over more than 50 years on original families and their descendants. Its long-term measures of economic and social wellbeing allow study of the dynamics of social and behavioral processes and how they interact with health over the life course. Its design of following children of sample members when they become economically independent supports study of the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic circumstances and health. Nearly 6,000 publications over its 50-plus year history attest to the PSID's broad scientific reach. This project will collect, process, and distribute data on health, wealth, and time use for nearly 11,000 families in PSID's 2021 and 2023 waves and collect saliva samples to support multi-generational genomic analysis. Specifically, the project will: 1. Collect health, wealth and time use data in the core PSID 2021 and 2023 waves; 2. Collect and store saliva samples from adults in PSID 2021 in order to obtain DNA from three generations of the same families (in conjunction with PSID's Child Development Supplement saliva collection); and 3. Process and distribute core files; create life course and family context files including a new harmonized PSID Social, Health, and Economic Longitudinal File (SHELF) and extended files on family relationships and complexity; and provide user support and training. After collection, survey data will be processed and distributed via PSID's Online Data Center, which allows users to create customized extracts and codebooks. Sensitive data will be made available to qualified users under contract with the University of Michigan. Saliva samples will be stored for genotyping in the ISR Biospecimen Lab. With the proposed aims, PSID is poised to accelerate the study of life course and multi- generational influences on health in middle and late life in a genealogical context.