Advancing the science of child and adolescent development: Do we need a new household panel survey?
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: [a] School of Education and Social Policy, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA | [b] Teachers College and College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Terri Sabol, School of Education and Social Policy, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, 2040 Sheridan Rd. Evanston, IL 60208, USA. Tel.: +1 847 467 6913; E-mail:terri.sabol@northwestern.edu
Abstract: This paper examines the extent to which a new nationally representative
household panel survey could bring children and adolescents to the forefront
of its design. We begin by discussing how major demographic shifts, such as
reduced social mobility and transformations in family structure, may affect
children and adolescent development through individual, family, and
sociocultural processes. We then review the existing household surveys in
the United States and highlight the strengths and weaknesses for studying
how major societal trends and changes affect child and adolescent
development. We then debate several different design approaches for a new
study and recommend either a longitudinal panel design, which includes all
children in the panel survey, or a sequential cohort design, that includes a
subsample of children and embedded birth cohort study. We highlight that a
large, nationally representative dataset cannot replace standalone, more
in-depth developmental studies of children and adolescents with
high-fidelity measurement of processes. Instead, we argue that a new panel
survey could take a more targeted approach and measure the major constructs
of children's development as well as select family and sociocultural
processes by drawing on recent advances in survey measurement techniques. We
conclude by affirming that new household survey has the potential to
contribute greatly to our understanding of the developmental origins of life
long wellbeing as well as the effects of major demographic shifts in the
21st century on child and adolescent development.
Keywords: Child and adolescent development, measurement, household surveys, birth cohort and longitudinal studies
