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11 Jul 2014
Report

Locating Study Respondents After 50 Years

Celeste Stone, Leslie Scott, and Danielle Battle, AIR
Patricia Maher, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan

Many longitudinal and follow-up studies face a common challenge in locating participants over time. U.S. residents move as often as eleven times in a lifetime—mostly between ages 18 to 45—and about half of those aged 55 and older live in a state other than the one in which they were born, according to the U.S. Census.

1950s computersThe 2011–12 Project Talent Follow-up Pilot Study conducted by AIR survey research experts examined the extent to which a geographically dispersed subsample of participants can be located again after decades with no contact, using relatively low-cost methods. Relying mostly on commercially available databases and administrative records, the follow-up study located nearly 85 percent of the original sample members—many of whom had not participated in the study since 1960.

Study data collected in the base year was used to examine which subpopulations were the hardest to locate. For example, females were located at significantly lower rates than males, and sample members with lower scores on a test of cognitive ability were among those hardest to locate. If certain subgroups are located at disproportionately low rates, this can lead to biased survey results.

The Project Talent study suggests that when differential tracking rates are expected to vary greatly across subgroups, studies attempting to locate individuals after a long hiatus should not rely solely on statistical adjustments to reduce and remove biases. Longitudinal studies can make good use of existing data, and prioritize cases with lower tracking propensities so they can be subject to more intensive tracking methods. Variables correlated with tracking propensity can be incorporated in the sample design to inform tracking-loss adjustments.

Read more about the study in an article published by the Journal of Official Statistics.

Learn more about Project Talent.

PDF icon Project Talent: Locating Longitudinal Respondents After 50 Years
Project Talent Website

Related Projects

Project talent logo2.jpg

project talent logo
Project

Project Talent

377,000 students. 1,300 schools. In 1960, AIR launched Project Talent, the largest and most comprehensive study of high school students ever conducted in the United States. Now, as the original study participants move into retirement, Project Talent has become an important resource for understanding the aging process.

Related Work

5 Mar 2013
Report

Project talent logo2.jpg

project talent logo

The Project Talent Twin and Sibling Study

This article, recently published in Twin Research and Human Genetics, focuses on Project Talent’s unique design that includes twins, siblings of twins, and siblings in other families all nested within schools. Project Talent is a national longitudinal study of about 400,000 students who were in grades 9-12 in 1960.
Topic: 
Education, Longitudinal Education Studies
23 Oct 2014
Spotlight

Project Talent Data Available to Researchers

In 1960, AIR launched Project Talent, the largest and most comprehensive study of high school students ever conducted in the United States. Project Talent data are now available to researchers through the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging. AIR survey methodologists worked with University of Michigan colleagues to prepare the data and documentation for preservation, enhancement, and dissemination. The team transformed the data from a large number of files on 9-track tapes to a data file for each high school grade, documenting the data and creating tools to facilitate its use.
Topic: 
Aging

Further Reading

  • Project Talent
  • The Project Talent Twin and Sibling Study
  • Project Talent Data Available to Researchers
  • The Really Long Shadow—Studying the Lifelong Impacts of Early Life Experience
  • Experts from the American Institutes for Research to Present at Joint Statistical Meetings of the American Statistical Association
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Contact

Danielle Battle

Senior Researcher

Topic

Aging

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