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Welcome to the Add Health Parent Study

The Add Health Parent Study (often called, the Parent Study) is an ongoing project that builds off the National Longitudinal Adolescent to Adult Health Study (Add Health) that your child(ren) were enrolled in in the mid 1990s. This study explores the important role families play in shaping health and well-being across generations.
By participating, you’re contributing to groundbreaking research that helps us understand how parents and their adult children influence one another’s health over time. The first phase of the study took place from 2015 to 2017, gathering social, behavioral, and health information from parents of Add Health participants first interviewed in 1995. Over 5,500 parents, aged 50 to 80, shared valuable insights that represent more than 2,200 families.
Now, in Phase 2, we’re expanding this important work. We’ll be collecting more information about health, behavior, and cognition from parents and their spouses or partners. We’re also working to link this information with past data from Add Health participants to create one of the most comprehensive family health studies ever.
Together, these efforts will allow us to better understand how family connections impact health and caregiving over time. Your involvement makes a difference and helps create a resource for future discoveries about health and family dynamics.
Add Health Parents are Important!
You are a unique piece of the puzzle!

Here at the Parent Study, we are interested in learning more about parents like you, aged between 50 to 90. Research is an opportunity for people of all kinds to understand the relationship between themselves, their environments, and their families. Our goal is to understand how getting older affects things like memory, taking care of loved ones, and staying healthy. We are interested in how these aspects of life might be connected to your children’s health and well-being.
Because you took part in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) in 1995 and the Add Health Parent Study Phase 1 (AHPS) in 2015, we are excited to invite you to join the next phase of the Add Health Parent Study. In this new phase, you are one of 5,500 people invited for an in-person interview. Our goal is to learn how various factors influence aging and health across generations.
While there are no immediate benefits, your participation will help future researchers make informed decisions about the health and well-being of people just like you!
Your Participation Matters
Your Experiences are Important to Us!

We want to hear about your life and experiences! Join one of the first studies to explore aging across two generations using long-term, nationally representative data that includes both adult children and their parents. Your participation in the study will help inform improvements related to aging and will fill gaps in health research. Our goal is to seek findings that can lead to a healthier future. By taking part in the Parent Study, you can help our communities define what it means to age well.
