Historic National Study Returns to Smackover to Follow Up with Original Participants

WASHINGTON D.C. –In 1960, the students of New Hope High School, of Mt. Holly and Smackover Training School became part of Project Talent. The project is a landmark study of 400,000 American teenagers; Project Talent has launched a 58-year follow-up of its participants, focusing on unravelling the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease.

The new study is seeking to include the experiences Project Talent participants who identified in 1960 as belonging to a racial or ethnic minority. Researchers wish to understand the health disparities that exist between minority and non-minority groups and to examine the long-term effects of attending racially segregated versus integrated schools.

These students joined 2,818 students from 17 schools in Arkansas. This survey gave a snapshot of a generation coming of age on the cusp of a new era, it was the most comprehensive study of American high school students ever conducted and included students from all walks of life and every racial and ethnic group. This week, 58 years since the original study was launched, participants will be sent a questionnaire and asked to take part in a follow-up study designed to learn how their lives have unfolded over the past five decades.

Project Talent Director Susan Lapham said “These findings will be important in informing current health policy. Segregation in schools has been increasing in recent years but we know little about the potential long-term impact on health in later life.”

Project Talent is the only large-scale, nationally representative study that tracks participants from adolescence to retirement age. It helps Americans understand how experiences, environments, genetics and behaviors combine to make Americans who they are and influence how they age.

The new follow-up study will have a special focus on memory and cognitive health in an effort to develop evidence-based policies to combat the looming Alzheimer’s crisis. The National Institute on Aging reports that by 2050, the number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease will more than triple, reaching 16 million. The cost of caring for sufferers will exceed $1 trillion annually.

Follow-up studies collected information on occupations, family formation, education, and health. The study was originally developed by the American Institutes for Research and funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The new Alzheimer’s study is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

“The Project Talent generation has contributed to important research in the past five decades,” Lapham said. “Now, they have the opportunity to help us address some of the most pressing public health concerns currently facing our country.”

In 1960, Project Talent was remarkable for the diversity of its participants, who represented every facet of American life. Researchers have designed the new Project Talent study to be just as diverse. Members of New Hope High School and Smackover Training School classes of 1960-1963 who are asked to participate in the 2018 study are strongly encouraged to complete the survey and share their experiences with researchers.

Over two full days in the spring of 1960, Project Talent assessed the aptitudes and abilities, hopes and expectations of these high school students. The goal was to identify the unique strengths and interests of America’s young people and to ensure they were being guided into careers that would make the best use of their talents.

Participants can contact Project Talent on 1-866770-6977 or send an email to projecttalentstudy@air.org. You can also visit http://www.projecttalent.org.