Data Resource: The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

Carol Roan, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Pamela Herd, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The WLS is releasing its latest round of data, collected via in-person interviews, in the spring of 2013. Our poster will educate current and potential WLS data users on the content and availability of the entire WLS dataset which spans 55 years. Visitors to the poster will also have the opportunity to ask questions directly to a WLS expert. The WLS is an excellent resource for studying life-course processes and aging in a family context because of its longitudinal scope, its exceptional sample retention, the broad content and quality of survey and administrative data, and its relational design. It has followed a large and socioeconomically diverse sample from high school graduation to the retirement years, and it tracks social and economic relationships among the graduates and their significant others; parents, children, siblings, nieces and nephews, and high-school friends.