Introduction to Special National Longitudinal Surveys Issue

ThisspecialissueoftheJournalofMarriageand Family celebrates 50 years of the National Longitudinal Surveys. In 1964, Professor Herbert Parnes wrote a proposal for a five-year longitudinal study to interview men approaching retirement age to describe their employment patterns as they neared the completion of their careers and to ascertain their plans for retirement. Thus began the first U.S. National Longitudinal Survey (NLS): the NLS Cohort of Older Men. The first interview took place on April 11, 1966, and in the 50 years since, seven different longitudinal 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 first interviewed in 1966. They were therefore born during a span of years when the first traffic 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 interviewed 13 times during the next 24 years rather than 5, with a final 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 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 participant. These women were born during a 15-year span when the Equal Rights Amendment was first 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 first interview at ages 30 to 44 and their last interview in 2003 at ages 63 to 77.Two cohorts of younger people were also initiated 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 first interviewed. This was a sample intended to chronicle the employment patterns of men transitioning from school and making initial career and job decisions that would impact their employment in the decades to follow. Twelve interviews were conducted 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 decisions, and starting families. Twenty-two interviews were undertaken with this cohort, which ended in 2003. To place them in historical context, 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 cameras were invented, the State of Israel was founded, the first organ transplant was undertaken, and color television was introduced. We hope that we may be able to reinterview members of both of these younger cohorts in the future.Then there are the three cohorts that are still ongoing. The first is the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), which comprised a sample of 12,686 men and women born between 1957 and 1964 who were selected to replicate the NLS of Young Women and Young Men cohorts and designed to help researchers and policy makers evaluate the expanded employment and training programs for youths legislated by the 1977 amendments to the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. These late baby boomers were born during the years when Alaska and Hawaii became the final two U.S. states admitted to the union, hula hoops became a national fad, and John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.Originally there were oversamples of Blacks, Hispanics, poor Whites, and military youth in the NLSY79, although most military oversample cases and the economically disadvantaged non-Black, non-Hispanic oversample had to be dropped later on due to a lack of funds. …