PRI Funded Data Collection and Analysis Projects
This page highlights some of PRI's current and past data collection and analysis projects. The linked pages below provide extensive information about each study, such as the project background and objectives, data download information, representative variables, and publications resulting from the project. For a complete listing of current funded research projects, please see this page.
- Family Formation in an Era of Family Change
Using data from Waves I, II, and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (ADD Health), this investigation will provide a comprehensive analysis of the family formation behavior of young men and women in the contemporary United States. In particular, we will examine cohabitation, childbearing (nonmarital and marital), and marriage up to the age of 25.
Research Team: Nancy Landale, Paul Amato, Alan Booth, David Eggebeen, Susan M. McHale, Robert Schoen - Health Insurance Dynamics (HIDyn)
HIDyn makes longitudinal data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census's 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) available to health care researchers and students in an easy-to-use format for studying health insurance patterns and evaluating coverage reform.
Research Team: Pamela Farley Short, Deborah Roempke Graefe, Adetokunbo Oluwole, Don Gensimore, and Jeanne Spicer - Marital Instability
Over the Life Course
The Marital Instability Over the Life Course Study, also referred to as the Work and Family Life Study, is one of the longest running national studies of marriage in existence, and the only one with detailed information on marital quality and interaction.
Current Research Team: Alan Booth, David Johnson, Paul Amato, and Stacy Silver.
- Measuring Spatial Segregation
This project will develop and refine a new approach to measuring spatial (race/ethnic) segregation that addresses known flaws in other measures.
Research Team: Sean Reardon, Stephen Matthews, Glenn Firebaugh, Barrett Lee, David O'Sullivan, Chad Farrell, Yosef Bodovski - Measuring State
Welfare Policy Variations and Change
This project developed a methodology for categorizing state welfare reform policy guidelines into quantitative dimensions to effectively manage the magnitude of data on recipiency rules.
Investigators: Gordon De Jong, Deborah Roempke Graefe, Matthew Hall, and Shelley K. Irving - Neighborhood, Food Environment, Diet and Health: Quasi-experimental Study
The purpose of this innovative pilot study is to evaluate, using a quasi-experimental design, the impact on diet and psychological health of a five-year $40 million state-government funded program - The Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative - that aims to improve the local built food retail environment in Philadelphia.
Investigators: Stephen Matthews, Steve Cummins (University of London), and Ana Diez Roux (University of Michigan), consultant - Nonresident Father Involvement and Child Well-Being
This project draws on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, the National Survey of Families and Households, and the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The study's objectives are (1) to better understand how nonresident fathers participate in the lives of children and how paternal participation varies by characteristics that represent the increasing diversity of families in the U.S.; and (2) to assess the importance of nonresident father involvement for child well-being and to determine the contexts in which such involvement is most beneficial to children.
Investigators: Valarie King, Paul Amato, and Alan Booth - Puerto Rican
Maternal and Infant Health Study
The Puerto Rican Maternal and Infant Health Study (PRMIHS) is a cross-sectional study designed to provide information on the determinants of poor infant health among Puerto Ricans.
Research Team: Nancy Landale, R. Salvador Oropesa, and Ana Luisa Davila (University of Puerto Rico) - TREMIN Research Program on Women's Health
The TREMIN Research Program on Women's Health is one of the world's oldest ongoing research programs dedicated to studying women's health. Initiated in 1934 by Dr. Alan E. Treloar at the University of Minnesota, this unique, intergenerational study was established to document the normal menstrual cycle.
Project Director: Phyllis Kernoff Mansfield - Welfare Reform and Migration of Poor Families
This project provided a systematic test of the thesis that, as a result of increased state welfare rules inequality, the 1996 welfare reform act not only enhanced incentives for poor families to migrate, but also created disincentives for them to stay in states with stringent welfare eligibility and behavior-related rules. The consequences of inter- and intra-state migration for the well-being of poor families were also investigated. Please see Measuring State Welfare Policy Variations and Change for further information.
- Welfare, Children
& Families: A Three City Study
This study collected data in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio with the goal of evaluating the effect of welfare reform on the well-being of children and families and to follow these families as welfare evolves.
Last modified: 07/09/09 | Contact Webmaster







