The project was launched in 1987 to investigate the human consequences of the Farm Crisis that began in the late 1970s and continued to affect rural America up to 1997, a decline more drastic than any downswing since the 1930s. The core project is directed by Rand Conger of Iowa State University while Elder serves as a co-principal investigator and director of the "Rural Social Change" component of the project.

Data collection began in 1989 with a sample of 451 two-parent families from eight north central counties of Iowa. The counties were selected for their rural farm economies and proximity to the project's home at the Family Research Center in Ames, Iowa. In order to facilitate the recruitment of farm families and minimize variations in family structure, the study design called for two-parent families with a 7th-grader and a near sibling (within four years of age). The initial pool of families was defined in terms of 7th grade students who were enrolled in public and private schools during the fall term of 1989. The 7th grade criterion provided a match to the sample used in the study Children of the Great Depression (Elder, 1974).

The sample has been followed up annually from 1989 to 1992, then again in 1994 (senior year of high school), 1995, 1997, and 2000. Parents and children were surveyed in each of these years, and in most of the years family interactions were videotaped. The videotapes provide the basis for behavioral ratings of husband-wife interaction, sib interaction, and family interaction. Shortly after the project began two additional samples were added to the project sample; a sample of 107 single-parent families in 1991 and approximately 900 grandparents in 1994. The grandparents were contacted again in 1998 with a subsample participating in an in-depth, face-to-face interview. As of 1999, approximately 500 families are still active participants in the project.

The Iowa project is widely regarded as having the richest archive of life record data on rural families and children in the United States, and it is likely to continue for some time to come. Most of the target children are approximately 26 years at present, and periodic data collection is planned over the next five years with support from the National Institute of Mental Health.

The Iowa State and UNC teams have worked out a division of labor which reflects the unique strengths and interests of each group. The members of the Ames group share a primary interest in family interactive processes and personal adaptation whereas the Chapel Hill team has developed a program of research concerned with social change in families and lives, with emphasis on the life course and health outcomes.

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