Cognitive performance following a natural disaster and demographic and socioeconomic outcomes
Summary
This project will investigate the evolution of cognitive functioning over 7 years among adolescents and its relationship with educational, economic, and family outcomes in early adulthood. Data will come from the Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recover (STAR), a 15-year panel study of coastal communities, households, and individuals in Aceh and North Sumatra on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, as well as two rounds of a pilot study, which collected domain-specific measurements of cognitive functioning of a 25% random subsample of STAR respondents using touch-screen tablets. This project will leverage the panel design of STAR and the cognitive pilot to directly track changes in cognitive functioning of respondents over 7 years, identify socioeconomic and other factors that predict changes in cognitive skills, and provide evidence of the impact of cognitive skills on longer-term wellbeing by estimating the association between cognitive skills measured in early adolescence and life outcomes measured in later adolescence and early adulthood.