An ongoing research study done on the University of Wisconsin campus for the past 50 years is now being called the seminal study on the “baby boomer” generation by its researchers. 

The researchers work is centered around studying the generation’s life experiences and how these experiences shape people across America.

Since 1957, participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study have provided researchers with information on a wide range of topics from education and family life to aging, and most of the original participants have continued to do so, said Carol Roan, assistant scientist for the study.

“Although we typically have only contacted people on average six times since the first survey, we have had 80-90 percent retention rate of the original survey takers continue to participate in this study,” Roan said.

According to Roan, the study started after a survey was given out to the entire Wisconsin high school graduating class of 1957 on the decision of going to college and what influenced their decisions. William Sewell, a former chancellor of UW and a researcher at the time, found the surveys and began interviewing more students to see how education affects young adults.

The graduating class of that time was around 10,000 people, and the study has been able to survey or interview a total of around 12,500 of the original seniors and their siblings, Roan said.

Although the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study has interviewed the participants on a vast array of human experiences, the researcher’s ability to keep contact with the same group of people has allowed them to study memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease in recent years, work which has drawn funding from the National Institute on Aging since 1993.

“That’s what makes this project so interesting, there’s so many focuses. We’ve even expanded into DNA collecting and cognition studies in recent years,” said Joe Savard, Programmer Analyst for the Wisconsin Longitudinal study.

The study is now interviewing participants in person for the first time to gather information, a project receiving additional funding from the NIA as personal interviews are more expensive than the usual surveys, Roan said.

While the project isn’t the biggest social study ever done, Roan still believes it’s the top social science research study of its kind.

“I would call it the premier social science study. Some studies have researched more people, or for a longer period of time, but nothing really comes close in comparison to this,” Roan said.