The Transition from Childhood into Adulthood among PSID Children, 2021 and 2023

Project Summary/Abstract This project will continue and expand the collection and distribution of data on young adults in families partici- pating in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). PSID is a longitudinal survey of a nationally representa- tive sample of U.S. families that began in 1968. As of 2020, it has collected data on the same families and their

descendants for 41 waves over 52-years. In the 1990s, PSID began collecting rich and detailed data on chil- dren born into these families as part of the original PSID Child Development Supplement (CDS) and, starting in the mid-2000s, has closely followed these children’s transition across the young adult years through the bien-

nial PSID Transition into Adulthood Supplement (TAS). Young adults in PSID families become members of the Core PSID themselves and receive the full biennial interview when they form their own economically independ- ent households—and are followed by the study for the rest of their lives. In order to continue capturing the tran-

sition into adulthood for all PSID children, this project will conduct two waves of TAS in 2021 and 2023. A ma- jor portion of the TAS sample in 2021 and 2023 will comprise of young adults who previously participated in CDS. Participants in CDS include those from the original study, which began collecting detailed and extensive

data on children in PSID families in 1997 on a cohort of children aged 0–12-years, as well as the new, ongoing CDS, fielded in 2014 and 2019, which is collecting information on all children aged 0–17-years in PSID families born after the launch of the original CDS. TAS in 2021 and 2023 will also include many respondents who have

participated in one or more prior waves of TAS, allowing us to continue tracing their transition into adulthood. The specific aims are to collect approximately 70 minutes of information in 2021 and 2023 from all PSID youth aged 18–28-years and to document and distribute these data through the publicly available and free PSID

Online Data Center. We will build upon the major revision of the TAS instrument in 2017 and the adoption in 2019 of a mixed-mode design using internet interviewing as well as computer-assisted telephone interviewing to collect new retrospective content in 2021 and 2023 on childhood circumstances and exposures and new in-

formation on young adult transitions in key domains such as family formation and change, health, and living arrangements. Interviews will be conducted with approximately 3,500 young adults in 2021 and 2023. These data are vital for our understanding of the contemporary transition from adolescence into adulthood in the U.S.

within its intergenerational family context. By augmenting the panel information in the CDS and Core PSID, this project will provide a rich CDS-TAS-PSID panel of children from birth and preschool through primary and sec- ondary school and then through entry into the world of work or of higher education in conjunction with early

family formation. Although a full and detailed panel from birth to young adulthood is valuable in its own right, the information on these individuals will grow further as they continue in Core PSID for the rest of their lives.