WHY FOLLOW UP NOW?
Project Talent is unique among studies of its kind. It is the only large scale, nationally representative study that tracks participants from childhood to retirement age. This allows researchers to study how experiences, abilities, interests, and personality types demonstrated early in life impact the health and wellbeing of individuals as they age. The scale of the study also enables the examination important subgroups, such as women, twins, racial and ethnic minorities, and veterans. Researchers hope to discover patterns that indicate why some people continue to thrive mentally, physically, and financially throughout their lives, while others are challenged in these areas. Information gained from this type of study can provide crucial insights into the causes, preventions, and remedies for some of the most critical issues facing current and future generations of Americans. It can inform important public policy, educational curricula, and social services to help current and future generations live healthier, happier, and more productive lives.
Finally, the lives of the Project Talent generation span a period of remarkable transformation in the history of this country, from the Civil Rights Act, desegregation, the rise of women’s liberation and the Vietnam War to the coming of the internet age. The American Institutes for Research has a unique opportunity to create an archive of American stories that capture the American experience in all it incarnations.Project Talent Today
Over the past several years, thousands of original Project Talent participants have taken part in a new wave of studies that seek to provide insights into a variety of pressing issues we face as a nation. Most studies are being funded by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. Current and planned studies seek to examine the following questions:
- What factors and conditions, in both childhood and adulthood, indicate a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease later in life? How can we promote positive behaviors and conditions and offset those that increase the risk of cognitive decline? What are the long-term effects, both positive and negative, of adolescent socio-economic adversity on later-life psychological, social, and physical wellbeing? Why do some flourish in these conditions while others languish? (R01 AG056163-01; Prescott, Lapham)
- Racial minorities suffer from cognitive impairment and cardiovascular disease at a higher rate than their non-minority counterparts. What role does school quality play in protecting or endangering the cognitive and cardiovascular health of minorities later in life? (R01 AG056164-01; Manly, Lapham)
- Does military service offset the negative effects of a disadvantaged childhood and promote successful social, psychological and economic development? How?
- What role do adolescent personality traits, such as conscientiousness, play in future socioeconomic and health outcomes later in life? How can we encourage the development of personality traits that lead to positive outcomes in adulthood? (R01 AG053155-01; Chapman, Lapham)
- The U.S. health system is the most expensive in the world, while being far from the most effective. What early-life circumstances and attributes lead to higher healthcare spending later in life? How can we use this information to develop healthcare policies that focus on preventing health complications rather than treating them after they develop? (Funded by AIR)