Project Talent, a government-funded longitudinal study of 400,000 American teenagers was launched in 1960; 58 years later, Project Talent is conducting a follow-up study that seeks to unravel the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease.
|
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Project Talent (www.projecttalent.org), the landmark longitudinal study launched during the Eisenhower Administration, is conducting its latest follow-up study. The project began in 1960 with funding from the U.S. Office of Education and the Office of Naval Research. Project Talent has been collecting information from its 400,000 participants intermittently for 58 years. Background Researchers and funders hoped to discover how different patterns of aptitudes, interests, and personality traits might lead to success in a variety of careers. Reflecting the priorities of a nation engaged in a Cold War and shaken by the U.S.S.R.'s successful Sputnik launch, their goal was to ensure that the talents of America's young people were being effectively identified and utilized to secure the nation's place as a global superpower. In support of the study, future Vice President Hubert Humphrey declared that, "Certainly, at this time we must use all our available abilities and talents to aid our national security." Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson agreed, stating that, "It would be difficult to think of a more worthwhile undertaking than your efforts to assure that the best use is made of our nation's most valuable resource." Current Study "The Project Talent follow-up data could produce important clues about the effects of schooling and socioeconomic background in the teen years on physical and cognitive health in later life," said John Haaga, director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging. "The research should help us not only to better understand Alzheimer's disease, but also to understand why many people overcame early obstacles and went on to live healthy and productive lives." The study is being conducted by the American Institutes for Research in conjunction with researchers from Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Southern California. It is funded by the National Institutes on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (Grant #R01AG056163 and #RF1AG056164). The most recent study to use Project Talent data was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on September 7, 2018 About the American Institutes for Research Media Contact: Sabine Horner
i Flanagan, John, C, Project Talent and Related Efforts to Improve Secondary Education, (Phi Delta Kappa International, Bloomington, Indiana, 1979), p.7.
SOURCE American Institutes for Research |
View original content to download multimedia:
