Introduction to Special National Longitudinal Surveys Issue

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12362
• Author: Elizabeth C. Cooksey
• Date: 01 October 2016
• Published date: 01 October 2016

E C. C The Ohio State University

Introduction to Special National Longitudinal

Surveys Issue

This special issue of the Journal of Marriage and

Family celebrates 50 years of the National Lon-

gitudinal Surveys. In 1964, Professor Herbert

Parnes wrote a proposal for a ve-year longitu-

dinal study to interview men approaching retire-

ment age to describe their employment patterns

as they neared the completion of their careers

and to ascertain their plans for retirement. Thus

began the rst U.S. National Longitudinal Sur-

vey (NLS): the NLS Cohort of Older Men. The

rst interview took place on April 11, 1966, and

in the 50 years since, seven differentlongitudinal

surveys that make up the National Longitudinal

Surveys have collectively interviewed close to

54,000 respondents with approximately 730,000

interviews.

The NLS Older Men’s cohort consisted of

5,020 men born between 1906 and 1921 who

were between ages 45 and 59 and living in the

United States when rst interviewed in 1966.

They were therefore born during a span of years

when the rst trafc light was introduced into

the United States and average life expectancy

for men was around 48 years, and it was a time

of new innovations with expanding railways and

early airplanes. These men ended up being inter-

viewed 13 times during the next 24 years rather

than 5, with a nal interview occurring in 1990

when they were 71 to 83 years old.

In the following year, 1967, a sample of 5,083

Mature Women born between 1922 and 1937

Center for Human Resource Research, The Ohio State

University,Suite 100, 921 Chatham Lane, Columbus, OH

43221 (cooksey.1@osu.edu).

was drawn to study the return of women to

the labor force as their children grew up and

to investigate how women balanced the roles

of homemaker, mother, and labor force partici-

pant. These women were born during a 15-year

span when the Equal Rights Amendment was

rst introduced in the U.S. Senate, sliced bread

was launched, Wall Street crashed, the Mickey

Mouse comic strip debuted, and the Empire State

Building opened in New York City. A total of

22 surveys were undertaken with these women,

with their rst interview at ages 30 to 44 and their

last interview in 2003 at ages 63 to 77.

Two cohorts of younger people were also ini-

tiated around the same time. Started in 1966

was the Young Men’s cohort, which consisted

of 5,225 males born between 1941 and 1952

who were ages 14 to 24 when rst interviewed.

This was a sample intended to chronicle the

employment patterns of men transitioning from

school and making initial career and job deci-

sions that would impact their employment in the

decades to follow. Twelve interviews were con-

ducted between 1966 and 1981 when the study

ended. Originated 2 years later in 1968 was the

Young Women’s cohort, which was made up of

5,159 females also ages 14 to 24 as they were

completing school, making career and job deci-

sions, and starting families. Twenty-two inter-

views were undertaken with this cohort, which

ended in 2003. To place them in historical con-

text, members of these two cohorts were born

during years when M&Ms and slinky toys were

created, Mount Rushmore was completed, Korea

was divided into North and South, the United

Nations and UNICEF were founded, Polaroid

1250 Journal of Marriage and Family 78 (October 2016): 1250–1251

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12362