NEW ITEMS FOR THE NATIONAL COUPLES’ HEALTH AND TIME STUDY LONGITUDINAL DATA COLLECTION
Overview
The National Couples’ Health and Time Study (NCHAT) is collecting a new wave of data! The Principal Investigators, Claire Kamp Dush and Wendy Manning with support from NICHD, are inviting proposals from health equity scholars to contribute survey items to the next round of data collection. This initiative aims to foster innovative research on health disparities by providing researchers with the opportunity to field their questions without the burden of high startup costs. Our goal is to widen the playing field, allowing a more diverse group of researchers to contribute to survey content.
Opportunity
NCHAT is a nationally representative, multi-method study of cohabiting and married individuals ages 20 to 65 who were in a same- or different-gender couple in the United States. Our study includes oversamples of persons who are LGBTQ+ and who are Hispanic/Latina/o/é, Black, and Asian. The main respondent sample includes 3,642 respondents collected in 2020/21. The baseline survey focused on physical health, psychological well-being, health behaviors, stressors, discrimination, relationship functioning, emotion regulation and racial trauma. For more details and codebooks, check out this link. A short follow-up survey (Wave 2) was administered one-year after the baseline. Wave 3 will include the main respondents and a new refresher sample of 300 respondents between the ages of 20 and 29. Several measures from Wave 1 will be included in the Wave 3 survey. We will have about 5 minutes dedicated to new survey items. Each applicant can propose up to 8 items. We anticipate accepting 4-5 applicants. Awardees will receive data through the Data Sharing for Demographic Research at ICPSR. We anticipate fielding the survey in Spring/early Summer 2025, and we plan to rapidly disseminate the data shortly after cleaning and weighting are completed. The team will work with DSDR and NICHD to release the data as rapidly as possible.
Eligibility
- Applicants must hold a Ph.D. or equivalent degree.
Proposal Requirements
- Applicants should submit a short 2-page proposal, along with their CV. Specific instructions are described at the end of this call.
Review Process
Proposals will be reviewed by the NCHAT PIs and the full NCHAT team (including faculty, a postdoctoral fellow, and graduate students), and the interdisciplinary NCHAT advisory committee in collaboration with Gallup. Our goal is to jump start novel research on health disparities and support the research of junior scholars. The review will proceed with an eye towards innovation combined with feasibility. If during review suggested edits are identified, applicants may be asked to revise their measure.
Collaboration and Compliance
Awardees will work closely with our team to ensure compliance with Gallup’s rigorous survey methodology standards, including clarity of language and response options. Awardees must be ready and available to respond quickly to queries. Proposed items will undergo a pretest with a small subset of respondents for final validation. All items will be approved by both the University of Minnesota Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Gallup’s IRB and awardees will be expected to produce documentation for both sets of IRB reviews.
Updates and Data Release
Once data collection commences, awardees will receive monthly updates on progress. All data will be released via the Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR) platform of ICPSR, with appropriate human subject protections in place. Contributors will acknowledge the NICHD NCHAT grant (R01HD094081) in publications using the items. Awardees will be acknowledged in the data release documentation.
Submission Deadline
Please submit your application via email to nchat@umn.edu by 5:00 pm (CST) Friday, November 22, 2024. Decisions will be made on or before January 6th, 2025.
For questions or further information, please email nchat@umn.edu.
We look forward to reviewing your innovative proposals!
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
Applications should be submitted as a single PDF file to nchat@umn.edu and must include the following:
_____Cover Sheet. The cover sheet should include the project title; the designation of one investigator as principal investigator if the project involves multiple investigators; and the contact information for all investigators.
_____Research Proposal. Applicants should prepare a short, 2-page research proposal (12-point font, 750-word limit, 1-inch margins; excluding references and tables). Please include page numbers.
The research proposal must include:
- Value of Proposed Questions: Clearly explain how the proposed data will stimulate research on sexual and gender diverse or racial and ethnic health disparities. Specify whether the entire sample or only a specific subgroup will be expected to respond.
- Cross-disciplinary Impact: Describe how the proposed items will be utilized across multiple disciplines and fields.
- Current Measurement Gaps: Address the limitations of existing measures and how the proposed items will address these gaps.
- Evidence of Quality: Provide supporting evidence for the quality and validity of the items, such as prior use in published work or dissertations, or evidence supporting their validity (e.g., cognitive testing, pilot data). Provide references if applicable. Please be mindful that the mode of interview is on-line.
- Commitment to Timelines: Confirm readiness to meet the project’s deadlines, including those of Gallup and the various Institutional Review Boards (IRB).
- Career Contribution: Discuss how this project aligns with the applicant’s research trajectory and how it will contribute to their long-term professional growth.
_____Appendix. Please include the exact questions / items and response categories in an appendix.
_____Curriculum Vitae. Include a CV for each investigator.