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This study examines experiences of health and economic challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic across generations of American families and how families responded to these challenges. To do so requires knowledge of each family member's characteristics and the contexts they experienced over the pandemic. Accordingly, researchers are creating a unique dataset that enhances the rich population-representative panel data in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) by linking comprehensive contextual data to multiple life domains of each generation.

Research to date has investigated the health, economic, and wellbeing impacts of essential work on couples using employment, occupation, and industry data from PSID. For additional information and code, see Measuring Essential/Frontline Work Using PSID (ICPSR 199304).

The ICPSR provides variable-level metadata for the data associated with this study. The actual data may only be available from the Principal Investigator directly. The variable descriptions available through ICPSR also include information regarding the source of each variable listed, as does the Data Source field of these metadata.

The PSID is the world's longest-running nationally representative household panel survey. With over 50 years of data on the same families and their descendants, the PSID is a cornerstone of the data infrastructure for empirically based social science research in the U.S. PSID gathers data on the family as a whole and on individuals residing within the family, emphasizing the dynamic and interactive aspects of family economics, demography, and health. PSID data were collected annually from 1968-1997 and biennially after 1997.

In the Main Interview, one person per family is interviewed on a regular basis. Information about each family member is collected, but much greater detail is obtained about the reference person and, if married/cohabitating, the spouse or long-term cohabitor. Survey content changes to reflect evolving scientific and policy priorities, although many content areas have been consistently measured since 1968. Information includes employment, income, wealth, expenditures, time use, health, dementia screener, insurance, education, marriage, childbearing, philanthropy, and numerous other topics. Additional types of PSID data are available only under a restricted contract. These include but are not limited to: geospatial data below the level of state; mortality data; Medicare claims; and educational characteristics from the National Center for Education Statistics.

With low attrition and high success in following young adults as they form their own families, the sample size has grown from roughly 5,000 families in 1968 to more than 9,000 families and 24,000 individuals by 2021. Over the course of the study, the PSID has distributed data on more than 84,000 individuals. The long panel, genealogical design, and broad content of the data offer unique opportunities to conduct generational and life-course research.

The PSID now contains thousands of inter- and intragenerational relationships over 50 years of data, including (as of the 2021 wave):

• "Paired" generational relationships, with each family in the pair providing independent interviews
  • Parent-Adult Child pairs: ~4,300
  • Sibling pairs: ~5,200
  • Cousin pairs: ~5,400
• "Tripled" generational relationships, with all three generations providing independent interviews
  • Grandparent-Parent-Adult Child triplets: ~1,000

For information about earlier data collections, see Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID): Main Interview, 1968-2015.

In 2021, the main interview was updated to include questions about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including: loss of earnings, US government stimulus payments, charitable giving, participants' exposure to COVID-19, and vaccination status.

The Youth Development Study (YDS) was initiated as a school-based study of adolescent children and their parents to examine the consequences of formative experiences in adolescence for mental health, value formation, educational achievement, and multiple facets of behavioral adjustment. Particular attention was directed to the impacts of early work experience. Data were also obtained about parent-child and peer relationships and experiences in school. As the study continued, the focus shifted to adult development and attainment and, most recently, mid-life adjustment and health. This comprehensive longitudinal study now encompasses three generations: the initial cohort studied from adolescence to mid-life (G2), their parents (G1), and their adolescent children (G3). Data from three generations in the same families enable study of intergenerational relationships and differences in the experience of adolescence and transition to adulthood across parent and child cohorts. The YDS covers a wide range of topics of interest to sociologists, social psychologists, developmental psychologists, and life course scholars, including the development and impacts of agentic resources, socioeconomic attainment, processes of inter- and intra-generational mobility, objective and subjective work conditions, family relationships, intergenerational relationships, mental and physical health, and well-being.

In-school administration of paper surveys during the first four years of the study was supplemented by mailed surveys. Subsequent data collection took place entirely by mail, with 19 surveys conducted between 1988 and 2011. A final survey was conducted on-line in 2019. Survey data was obtained from the parents (G1) of this cohort during the first and fourth waves of the study (1988 and 1991). Surveys of the children (G3) began in 2009, continued in 2010 and 2011 (by mail) and in 2019-2020 (online).

The Youth Development Study measures a wide range of formative experiences and both psychological and behavioral variables, using survey methodology.

The G1 surveys obtained information about socioeconomic background as well as attitudes toward teenage employment, the parents' own employment as teenagers, their current work experiences, and educational expectations for their children.

The G2 surveys during the high school years included detailed questions about students' work and volunteer experiences, as well as experiences in their family, school, and peer groups, with an emphasis on the ways that working affected other life domains, mental health, and well-being. Shorter surveys containing many of the same topics were administered to students in 1992, 1993, and 1994, and included questions about current family and living arrangements. In 1995, a full survey was administered covering the wide range of topics included in previous surveys as well as information about career plans and life events that had occurred in the past five years. G2 Waves 9 through 19 (1997-2011) included many of the same questions contained in earlier surveys and additional sections that focused on the respondents' educational experiences, family relationships, sources of living expenses, and health and well-being. The most recent G2 survey (2019), administered on-line, included questions about support of aging parents. The YDS is unique in its coverage of both objective and subjective work experiences from adolescence to mid-life.

The topics covered by the G3 surveys are very similar to the G2 variables described above. Variables in each G2 and G3 wave are included in cross-wave codebooks, available at the Data Archive Codebook website.

For an overview of the Youth Development Study, see Mortimer, Jeylan T. (2012) "The Evolution, Contributions, and Prospects of the Youth Development Study: An Investigation in Life Course Social Psychology." Social Psychology Quarterly 75(1, March):5-27.

The study National Survey of American Life: Multi-Generational and Caribbean Cross-Section Studies also known as the Family Connections Across Generations and Nations is a follow-up to the National Survey of American Life (NSAL): Coping With Stress in the 21st Century, the baseline study which interviewed 6,200 adults and 1,200 adolescents in households of African Americans, non-Hispanic Whites, and Blacks of Caribbean descent.

This study examines influences of family life on people's satisfaction with their lives and their health and general well-being. Specifically, it investigates family and inter-generational processes, with a special emphasis on contextual and structural influences on relationships as they affect individual and family health and well-being across, and within, ethnically and nationally diverse population samples.

Categories of variables include sections on neighborhood, health, social support, depression, social support, mental health episodes (such as depression and mania), substance use, tobacco use, discrimination, and interviewer observations. Demographic variables include the race and ethnicity of the respondent and their spouse, racial background of parents, education, employment, volunteerism, and family income.

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) Parent Study Public Use collection includes data gathered as part of the Add Health longitudinal survey of adolescents. The original Add Health survey is a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-1995 school year. In Wave 1 of the Add Health Study (1994-1995), a parent of each Add Health Sample Member (AHSM) was interviewed. The Add Health Parent Study gathered social, behavioral, and health survey data in 2015-2017 from the parents of Add Health Sample members who were originally interviewed at Wave 1 (1994-1995). Wave 1 Parents were asked about their adolescent children, their relationships with them, and their own health.

The Add Health Parent Study interview is a comprehensive survey of Add Health parents' family relations, education, religious beliefs, physical and mental health, social support, and community involvement experiences. In addition, survey data contains cognitive assessments, a medications log linked to a medications database lookup table, and household financial information collection. The survey also includes permission for administrative data linkages and includes data from a Family Health History Leave-Behind questionnaire. Interviews were conducted with parents' spouse/partner when available.

Research domains targeted in the survey and research questions that may be addressed using the Add Health Parent Study data include:

• Health Behaviors and Risks Many health conditions and behaviors run in families; for example, cardiovascular disease, obesity and substance abuse. How are health risks and behaviors transmitted across generations or clustered within families? How can we use information on the parents' health and health behavior to better understand the determinants of their (adult) children's health trajectories?
• Cognitive Functioning and Non-Cognitive Personality Traits What role does the intergenerational transmission of personality and locus of control play in generating intergenerational persistence in education, family status, income and health? How do the personality traits of parents and children, and how they interact, influence the extent and quality of intergenerational relationships and the prevalence of assistance across generations?
• Decision-Making, Expectations, and Risk Preferences Do intergenerational correlations in risk preferences represent intergenerational transmission of preferences? If so, are the transmission mechanisms a factor in biological and environmental vulnerabilities? Does the extent of genetic liability vary in response to both family-specific and generation-specific environmental pressures?
• Family Support, Relationship Quality and Ties of Obligation How does family complexity affect intergenerational obligations and the strength of relationship ties? As parents near retirement: What roles do they play in their children's lives and their children in their lives? What assistance are they providing to their adult children and grandchildren? What do they receive in return? And how do these ties vary with divorce, remarriage and familial estrangement?
• Economic Status and Capacities What are the economic capacities of the parents' generation as they reach their retirement years? How have fared through the wealth and employment shocks of the Great Recession? Are parents able to provide for their own financial need? And, do they have the time and financial resources to help support their children and grandchildren and are they prepared to do so?

The Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG), initiated in 1971, began as a survey of intergenerational relations among 300 three-generation California families with grandparents (then in their sixties), middle-aged parents (then in their early forties), and grandchildren (then aged 15 to 26). The study broadened in 1991 and now includes a fourth generation, the great-grandchildren of these same families.

The LSOG, with a fully elaborated generation-sequential design, allows comparisons of sets of aging parents and children at the same stage of life but during different historical periods. These comparisons make possible the investigation of the effects of social change on inter-generational solidarity or conflict across 35 years and four generations, as well as the effects of social change on the ability of families to buffer stressful life transitions (e.g., aging, divorce and remarriage, higher female labor force participation, changes in work and the economy, and possible weakening of family norms of obligation), and the effects of social change on the transmission of values, resources, and behaviors across generations.

The LSOG contains information on family structure, household composition, affectual solidarity and conflict, values, attitudes, behaviors, role importance, marital relationships, health and fitness, mental health and well-being, caregiving, leisure activities, and life events and concerns. Demographic variables include age, sex, income, employment status, marital status, socioeconomic history, education, religion, ethnicity, and military service.

The codebook for dataset 1 (DS1 Waves 1-7) is over 5000 pages long; due to complications related to the size of this document, the search function within the PDF is not yet enabled. Users seeking specific variables should use the search function within the PI Codebook, or search using the variables search tab/option from the study page.

The Family Exchanges Study (FESI) began in 2008 conducted by the Institute for Survey Research at Temple University. The original "target" or core sample was recruited from African American and White respondents aged 40-60 living in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties--Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery. To be eligible for the study, respondents had to have at least one living parent and one living offspring over 18 years of age. Temple University sought to recruit the parents, spouse, and up to three offspring over 18 years of age into the study. All target, parent, and spouse surveys were conducted by telephone. Offspring were given the option of completing the survey by telephone or web.

For the Wave 2 data collection, the Survey Research Center at Pennsylvania State University attempted to contact all FESI respondents again, as well as collect updated information for spouses/romantic partners, parents, and up to 4 age-eligible offspring. The survey instruments were drawn largely from the first wave of data collection. This collection includes eight data files. These data files include five main study datasets: target, spouse, spouse without target, parent, and offspring. This collection also includes three diary datasets: target diary, parent diary, offspring diary. For each participant, there are data related to relationships with other family members, perceptions of family members, and views on key social issues. Demographic information includes gender, marital status, education level, religion, age, race, ethnicity, and employment status.

The Longitudinal Study of Older People in Anhui Province, China, 2001-2003 examined the physical and psychological well-being of older adults (aged 60 and above) living in rural Anhui Province, China. The original purpose of the study was to study the impact of rural-to-urban migration on the physical and psychological well-being of older adults left behind in rural villages by their adult children.

This collection contains two parts; Part 1: 2001 Survey and Part 2: 2003 Follow-up Survey. Similar Questions were asked in the two surveys to assess intergenerational transfers and relations of the respondents, including social support, caregiving, emotional cohesion, remittances, grandchild care, and filial piety. Respondents were also asked about their health status (physical, emotional, and cognitive). Demographic information includes age, sex, marriage status, and education.

The Family Exchanges Study Wave 1 (FESI) was conducted in 2008 by the Institute for Survey Research at Temple University. The original 634 "target" or core sample was recruited from African American and White respondents aged 40-60 living in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties--Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery. To be eligible for the study, respondents had to have at least one living parent and one living offspring over 18 years of age. Temple University sought to recruit the parents, spouse, and up to three offspring over 18 years of age into the study. All target, parent, and spouse surveys were conducted by telephone. Offspring were given the option of completing the survey by telephone or web. A total of 337 parents, 511 offspring (with another 80 by web and 1 listed as other for a total of 592), and 197 spouses were successfully recruited into the first wave of the study.

This collection includes four data files, one for each type of participant: target, spouse, parent, and offspring. For each of these participants, there are data related to relationships with other family members, perceptions of family members, and views on key social issues. Demographic information includes gender, marital status, education level, religion, age, race, ethnicity, and employment status.

The main objective of the 2003 Survey of Intergenerational Financial Linkages in Chile (IFLC) was to examine living standards and intergenerational financial assistance across three generations in Chile.

The survey randomly selected 4,300 married/cohabitating adults between the ages of 25-69 (designed as the focal generation) and collected information on their living standards, their parents, and their children.

The following information was collected on respondents: Socioeconomic resources of husband/male partner's parents and wife/female partner's parents, assistance received from parents, current economic standing of the focal generation, education, occupation, income, home ownership, inheritances and net worth of both partners, and opinions about intergenerational assistance. The survey also collected information on education, occupation, income and wealth for the focal generation's children.

The Eurobarometer series is a unique cross-national and cross-temporal survey program conducted on behalf of the European Commission. These surveys regularly monitor public opinion in the European Union (EU) member countries and consist of standard modules and special topic modules. The standard modules address attitudes towards European unification, institutions and policies, measurements for general socio-political orientations, as well as respondent and household demographics. The special topic modules address such topics as agriculture, education, natural environment and resources, public health, public safety and crime, and science and technology.

This round of Eurobarometer surveys covers the following special topics: (1) the economic crisis, (2) volunteer work, (3) the environment, (4) interests and access to audiovisuals, and (5) helplines for social services. Questions in this survey pertain to the effect of the euro on the economic crisis, proper country and EU response to the economy's problems, appropriate response to food shortages and rising food prices, and European Parliament policy priorities. Respondents were asked for their opinions concerning volunteering and how often they volunteered, the importance of environmental protection, environmental issues that worried them and the best way to address these issues, and personal efforts to protect the environment. Other questions address the type, source and frequency of audiovisual content consumed. Lastly, respondents were queried on knowledge and opinions of telephone hotlines and helplines for services of social value.

Demographic and other background information collected includes age, gender, nationality, marital status and parental relations, left-right political self-placement, occupation, age when stopped full-time education, household composition, ownership of a fixed or a mobile telephone and other durable goods, difficulties in paying bills, level in society, and Internet use. In addition, country-specific data includes type and size of locality, region of residence, and language of interview (select countries).

For this survey, respondents from three counties in the Detroit, Michigan, area were queried about their work, health, marriage and family, finances, political views, religion, and child rearing. With respect to finances, respondent views were elicited on credit card purchases, recording expenditures, and savings and investments. Regarding political views, respondents were questioned about political preferences, presidential values, freedom of speech, nuclear war, and the interest of public officials. Questions also addressed religious beliefs and experiences, including the religiosity of respondents' parents, belief in and relationship with God, the relationship between science and religion, school prayer, divorce, and homosexuality. Additional religious questions -- based on the respondents' religious preference (i.e., Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Other Religion, or No Preference/Agnostic/Atheist Only) -- also were asked, covering topics such as interfaith marriages, religion of friends, and observance of religious holy days. Questions were asked about the views of respondents' religious leaders on issues including drinking, abortion, and test-tube fertilization. Regarding child rearing, views were elicited on issues including religious preference of child(ren) raised, religious training given to child(ren), and frequency of prayer before meals. Background information includes marital status, employment, political orientation, and income.