Aided by his assistants, Terman selected, from large and medium-sized urban areas of California, 857 boys and 671 girls ages 3 to 19 years who had IQs above 135.  So far, 13 waves of data collection have been carried out beginning in 1921-1922 with interviews of parents and the study children and an array of tests and inventories.

The first 1922 and 1928 data collections focused on family life and school experience, and included interviews and questionnaires involving mothers of children in the study.  Fathers were not thought to be important in child rearing, at least compared with mothers, so they were not included among the respondents.  The 1936 and 1940 follow-ups occurred at a time of educational achievement and the start of adult careers for many, whether marriage, family, or work.  At the next follow-up, questions were asked about these topics, the war and various service roles.  The postwar years through 1960 were times of marriage and family development, career beginnings, and accomplishment.  Each topic was investigated by mail (1950, 1955, 1960).  Various life changes within the Terman sample and new leadership from Robert Sears, Lee Cronbach, Pauline Sears, and Albert Hastorf brought fresh attention to issues of aging, work life and retirement, family, and life evaluation across follow-ups for 1972, 1977, 1982, 1986, and 1991-1992.

Data collection across multiple waves relies mainly on survey forms mailed to the study members.  The slender base of financial support for the study and the large sample size favored this least expensive method.  However, the files include a rich selection of other data, such as news clippings, interviews with parents, questionnaires from spouses, letters from study members, other record data, and birth and death certificates.  The letters, in particular, add a great deal of richness beyond the often narrow structure of the survey forms.

Consider the following sequence and comparison.  The older men entered the 1930s and the economic collapse during the usual time of career placement and advancement, but expectable career options were not available because of the Great Depression.  Consequently, they tended to prolong their education -- a Master's degree, a Ph.D., a Law degree, multiple degrees.  They ended up with more education than the younger cohort but not with a higher occupational status.  The younger men were mobilized into the Second World War during their college or advanced education.  Their exposure to managerial roles in the war (as officer, etc.) increased their postwar mobility.  But managerial experience made no difference in the worklives of the older men; they were too old during the war to take advantage of service opportunities in management during the postwar years.

The greater education of the older men did not reflect their goals or motivation. and the latter did not accurately predict their occupational achievement in later life.  By contrast, early motivation, education, and worklife attainment were more highly correlated in the lives of the younger men.  This coherence is due in part to the timing of World War II in their lives -- they were mobilized for duty in their 20s, whereas the older men were more often recruited out of their 30s, a time of family formation and career advancement.  As a result, wartime service proved to be more disruptive and disorganizing for the older men -- their marriages were more likely to breakup after the war (among the men who married before the war) and they experienced more worklife disruption and income loss.  A significant number of older veterans never recovered the income that was foregone when they entered the service.  The older veterans also experienced a significantly higher risk of early physical decline and death, when compared to veterans from the younger cohort.  Such decline accounts in part for the earlier and more abrupt retirement of the older cohort.

This compressed report does not do justice to the rich detail we have accumulated on the life patterns and aging of the two cohorts.  For example, we were able to assess the effects of both military service and homefront mobilization (for war industries) on life course discontinuities by cohort and their postwar expression.  In a  competing risk model, we show that prewar occupation sorted men into different wartime roles, and that it was more influential than family or health status.

Several of CPC's postdoctoral and predoctoral trainees are also working with these data.  Please go to the Students Page to find their specific research interests described.

Elder, Glen H., Jr., Eliza K. Pavalko, and Elizabeth C. Clipp. 1993. Working with Archival Data: Studying Lives. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. 

Elder, Glen H., Jr., Michael J. Shanahan, and Elizabeth Colerick Clipp. 1994. "When War Comes to Men's Lives: Life-Course Patterns in Family, Work, and Health." Psychology and Aging, Special Issue 9(1):5-16. 

Lee, Kimberly A., George E. Vaillant, William C. Torrey, and Glen H. Elder, Jr. 1995. "A 50-Year Prospective Study of the Psychological Sequelae of World War II Combat." The American Journal of Psychiatry, 152(April):516-522.