Aging Institute Honors USC Director

Vern Bengtson of South Pasadena, professor of sociology and director of the Gerontology Research Institute at USC, has won a MERIT Award from the National Institute of Aging for his longitudinal study of three-generational families.

Bengtson and his research team began the study in 1971. The focus is on changes and continuities in relations between grandparents, parents and grandchildren over time. One of the team’s major concerns is the way in which family members change in response to the health-related dependencies of older family members.

Surveys are administered every three years to the more than 1,500 family members participating in the study, and intensive interviews are conducted in other years with about 100 participants.