Abstract
Studies examining various life-course themes are increasingly employing longitudinal studies that contain three adjacent generations from the same families. These studies enable the investigation of continuity and discontinuity in the behavior of interest across the generations, as well as mediating and moderating influences that help explain how the lives of parents and children (and grandchildren) become linked over time. Although these studies are used more frequently now, there is still a lack of agreement about what constitutes a “three generation study.” The present chapter proposes a set of core design features that, in combination, both define three generation studies and distinguish them from traditional longitudinal designs. It then identifies several major methodological challenges that confront three generation studies and discusses potential solutions to them. In keeping with one of the central themes of the Handbook, throughout the chapter I offer suggestions for future research. Finally, the chapter addresses the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and the potential yield that three generation studies offer to the investigation of life-course themes.
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Notes
- 1.
There are exceptions to this, for example, intergenerational studies in gerontology, which are discussed below.
- 2.
I would like to thank my colleague Kimberly Henry of Colorado State University for contributing this analysis to the chapter.
- 3.
This can only be investigated for G2 fathers since virtually all G2 mothers, about 95 %, are the child’s primary caregiver.
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Acknowledgement
Support for the Rochester Youth Development Study has been provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA020195). Work on this project was also aided by grants to the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at the University at Albany from NICHD (P30HD32041) and NSF (SBR-9512290). Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the funding agencies. I would like to thank Jason Boardman, Kimberly Henry, Marvin Krohn, Thomas Loughran, and Pamela Porter for commenting on and helping with this paper.
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Appendix: The Rochester Intergenerational Study
Appendix: The Rochester Intergenerational Study
The Rochester Intergenerational Study started as an add-on to an existing longitudinal study, the Rochester Youth Development Study, which began in 1988. Its core design is summarized in the left-hand portion of Fig. 3. We began with a sample of 1,000 seventh and eighth graders from the Rochester, New York public schools. The initial purpose of the project was to study the causes and consequences of serious, chronic, and violent delinquency. Because of that, we oversampled males, 3 to 1, given their greater involvement in serious violent offending. We also oversampled youth who resided in neighborhoods with a high resident arrest rate. The sample can be weighted to account for this stratification. The final sample of G2 participants averaged 14 years of age; 73 % were males and 27 % were females. The full G2 panel was followed forward with 12 interviews from age 14 to 23, at which point the retention rate was 85 %. In addition, we also interviewed one of their G1 parents 11 times; 85 % of the G1 respondents were the G2 child’s biological mother and another 10 % were stepmothers. In addition to the interviews that were conducted at regular intervals, we also collected information from schools, police, and child protective services. Details of the Rochester study design are presented in Thornberry et al. (2003).
The Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS), described in the right-hand portion of Fig. 3, began in 1999. The focal participants are the oldest biological child of each of the initial G2 participants. In Year 1 (1999), 370 children (ages 2–13, average age 6) and their families enrolled in the study. In each subsequent year we identified additional first-born children and enrolled them in the study as they turned 2. A total of 530 G3 children have enrolled in the study, currently ranging in age from 2 to 29 with an average age of 19. Importantly, therefore, many now overlap in age with the age of the G2 parents when they were first assessed as part of the original Rochester study.
For each family in the intergenerational study we annually interview three participants. We assess the G2 parents (the original adolescent participants in the Rochester Study), the G3 child when they are 8 years and older, and another primary caregiver (OCG) for each G3 child. In the case of G2 fathers, the OCG is almost invariably (93 %) the child’s biological mother. In the case of G2 mothers, however, the OCGs are grandmothers (47 %), biological fathers (31 %), stepfathers (6 %), aunts (7 %), and others (9 %). At younger ages when G3 could not be interviewed, we conducted videotaped observations of G3 interacting with G2 and with OCG. We also collected DNA from a subsample of the families. Finally, we collect data from official agencies such as police and social services. More detail about the RIGS design can be found in Thornberry (2009).
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Thornberry, T.P. (2016). Three Generation Studies: Methodological Challenges and Promise. In: Shanahan, M., Mortimer, J., Kirkpatrick Johnson, M. (eds) Handbook of the Life Course. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20880-0_25
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