The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study: Adults As Parents And Children At Age 50

We are carrying out a survey of more than 9000 American men and women who were seniors in Wisconsin high schools in 1957 and provided information then about their school performance educational and occupational plans and family background. They have subsequently been followed up in 1957 1964 and 1975; they will be about 53 years old when they are interviewed in late 1992 or early 1993. Each interview about one hour in length will be followed by a shorter mail questionnaire. We shall also interview a randomly selected sibling of each respondent using a slightly shorter version of the telephone interview. We also hope to obtain a waiver that will permit us to link our survey records to information from the Social Security system but this part of the design is currently under negotiation with the Social Security Administration. Finally we expect to obtain enough information to link our records to the National Death Index. Data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) will be a valuable public resource for studies of aging and the life course inter-generational transfers and relationships family functioning social stratification physical and mental well-being and mortality. The study has 5 specific goals: (1) To extend models of occupation and earnings and to elaborate the roles of aspirations in adolescence and at mid-life of previous achievements and of familial responsibilities in current economic and social standing subjective well-being mental and physical health disability and wealth; (2) To identify and measure local effects on opportunity that is specific characteristics of a person firm or economic sector that directly influence the chances of obtaining a job or a limited range of jobs; (3) To extend and elaborate models of sibling resemblance that will elucidate influences of the family of origin on the life course; (4) To investigate self-assessments of well-being in the context of aspirations accomplishments and social relationships with significant others; (5) To measure social and economic exchange relationships with parents children and siblings and assess the consequences of those relationships for well being. (authors)