Harvard Second Generation Study (G2)

CLIENT

Robert Waldinger, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director, Laboratory of Adult Development, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

DESCRIPTION

The Harvard Second Generation Study (G2) seeks to understand the intergenerational factors that contribute to healthy aging. In the mid-1940s, over 700 young men in Boston participated in extensive interviews about life and health. They were re-interviewed at intervals for over 70 years in the renowned Study of Adult Development. In 2015, funded by the National Institutes of Health, researchers sought to extend this research across generations with the 1,941 biological, step- and adopted children of men in the original study. The study’s long history with the fathers placed it in a unique position to understand the effects that one generation may have on the health of the next generation, and how these effects may vary within a family. Study protocols included a 45-minute telephone interview and a 40-page follow-up questionnaire. Participants became eligible for additional protocols administered at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Vicki Lein

DATE IN FIELD

July 2015 to December 2016