The need for nationally representative longitudinal data for addressing key questions about family change
Issue title: Assessing the need for a new nationally representative household
panel survey in the United States
Subtitle:
Guest editors: Robert Moffitt, Robert F. Schoeni, Charles Brown, P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Mick P. Couper, Ana V. Diez-Roux, Erik Hurst and Judith A. Seltzer
Affiliations: Department of Sociology, Population Research Center, University of Texas, 305 E 23rd St., Stop G1800, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Tel.: +1 512 232 6333; E-mail: kelly.raley@austin.utexas.edu
Abstract: The United States is undergoing rapid social change. The nation faces
declines in stable family formation, related to growing income inequalities
and stalled improvements in population health. This essay considers key
questions about families in the United States and whether a new nationally
representative panel study is necessary to answer these questions. It argues
that current data systems are not well equipped to evaluate the potential
sources of these changes over historical time. Most of our longitudinal data
systems are designed to follow a single cohort as it ages. This provides an
incomplete picture, one that ignores period context, because cohort studies
confound period changes with aging. Comparisons across cohort studies can be
helpful, but leave a wide gap in our knowledge. A new nationally
representative panel study would fill that gap.
Keywords: Family, households, social trends, data collection
