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
Project Talent was designed to be "the
first scientifically planned national inventory of human talents:
the aptitudes and abilities of a people"i. The study
assessed the aptitudes, interests, personality traits, cognition,
health, home life, and aspirations of 400,000 students from public,
private, and parochial schools in every state.
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
Project Talent is the only large-scale,
nationally representative study that tracks participants from
adolescence to retirement age and beyond, presenting an
incomparably rich data source. The latest follow-up study examines
early determinants of later life cognitive diseases, including
Alzheimer's disease in a random sample of 22,500 original
participants. Researchers will examine the long-term impact of
school quality and school segregation on brain health, and the
impact of adolescent socioeconomic disadvantage on cognitive and
psychosocial resilience. A special focus is being placed on the
experiences of participants who identify as belonging to a racial
or ethnic minority.
"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
Established in 1946, the American Institutes for
Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that
conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers
technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the
areas of health, education, and workforce productivity. Visit
www.air.org.
Media Contact:
Sabine Horner
646-656-1514
203151@email4pr.com
i Flanagan, John, C, Project Talent and Related
Efforts to Improve Secondary Education, (Phi Delta Kappa
International, Bloomington,
Indiana, 1979), p.7.
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SOURCE American Institutes for Research