Current Issue

Longitudinal Research on Social Dynamics: The PSID at 50 Years

Guest Editor: David S. Johnson, Katherine A. McGonagle, Vicki A. Freedman and Narayan Sastry

Vol. 680, November 2018

This volume of The ANNALS addresses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the longest running longitudinal household panel survey in the United States. For 50 years, the PSID has collected data on the same families and their descendants to evaluate poverty dynamics and the various factors that impact well-being, such as employment, marriage, health, and family circumstances.

The essays in this volume discuss intergenerational mobility, income volatility, impact of divorce, child well-being, life course influences on adult well-being, geographic mobility, and impacts of public health programs on future well-being. Through the data offered in the PSID, researchers are able to correlate childhood life events and conditions with adult outcomes and well-being.

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From the Archives

Truth as a Weapon in the Free World
Vol. 278, November, 1951
Richard Brecker

From the Introduction

In an address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 20, 1950, President Truman declared that it was necessary for us to, “make ourselves heard round the world in a great campaign of truth”.   Calling attention to the vital importance of the psychological front in the present battle for world friendship, the President noted that the task of presenting the truth, “to the millions who are uninformed or misinformed or unconvinced… is not separate and distinct from other elements of our foreign policy. It is as important as armed strength or economic aid.  “We must,” he said, “pool our efforts with those of the other free peoples in a sustained, intensified program to promote the cause of freedom against the propaganda of slavery.”