Add Health Parent Study

The Add Health Parent Study (AHPS) is designed to improve the understanding of the role that families play through socioeconomic channels in the health and wellbeing of the older, parent generation and that of their offspring. This unique data set supports the analyses of intergenerational transmissions of (dis)advantage that have not been possible to-date. Add Health Parent Study data permits the examination of both short-term and long-term linkages and interactions between parents and their adult children. Phase 1 data collected gathered social, behavioral and health survey data in 2015-2017 on a probability sample of the parents of the Add Health respondents who were originally interviewed in 1995. Data for 2,013 Wave I parents, ranging in age from 50-80 years and representing 2,247 Add Health sample members, are available. The majority (73%) of Phase 1 respondents were non-Hispanic White. Phase 2 of the AHPS will collect social, behavioral, and health data on all available Black and Hispanic parents, and cognitive and DNA data on all AHPS Phase 1 and BHS sample parents and their current spouse/partner. Combined data from AHPS Phases 1 and 2 will be linked with rich longitudinal data on original Add Health respondents to create and disseminate the first nationally representative multigenerational biosocial resource with cognitive, genomic, behavioral, and social data for the study of racial/ethnic disparities in cognitive aging and AD/ADRD risk. Cognition and genomic data will be harmonized across the two generations of parents and children for innovative analysis of intergenerational predictors of AD/ADRD; the role of genetic processes in AD/ADRD etiology/progression; and intergenerational and lateral caregiving.