NORC has partnered with the University of Minnesota to continue the High School and Beyond (HS&B) Study, contacting individuals who were sophomores and seniors in 1980 for the Sixth Follow-up. The University of Minnesota’s Sociology Professor, John Robert Warren, has been awarded a grant (NIH/NIA grant number R01AG058719-01A1) to study education’s protective role against Alzheimer’s Disease (Grant SG-20-717567) and other dementias. Co-Investigators include Chandra Muller from the University of Texas at Austin, Eric Grodsky from the University of Wisconsin, and Jennifer Manly from Columbia University.
In 2014 and 2015, with grant funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the Institute for Education Statistics to The University of Texas’ Sociology Professor, Chandra Muller, NORC partnered with the University of Texas to conduct a follow-up study with the 1980 sophomore cohort (N=14,825) of the HS&B sample. In 2015, with grant funding from the National Science Foundation, to University of Texas (Chandra Muller, Principal Investigator), NORC conducted a follow-up study with the 1980 senior cohort (N=11,995). Co-Investigators include John Robert Warren from the University Minnesota and Eric Grodsky from the University of Wisconsin. Data from the first midlife follow-ups are available for researchers from the National Center for Education Statistics through their Restricted-Use Data License.
The newest HS&B follow-up survey collects current information on sample members' labor force experience, health status, family roles, and expectations for continued work and retirement showing how this representative sample has changed from adolescence through midlife. This follow-up also collects measures of cognition to understand the connections among education, health, and aging. Study respondents have the opportunity to participate in a whole blood draw or saliva collection, as we look to understand how people’s genes and other signs of health influence them throughout their lives. These new data will make the existing HS&B data more relevant and useful for the research community by joining the already robust data series from the 1980 base year survey and five follow-ups that took place between 1982 and 2015. This valuable resource will be used to study a number of issues related to the consequences for midlife health and labor force participation of adolescent and early adult circumstances and characteristics.