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A key issue for panel surveys is the relationship between changes in respondent burden and resistance or attrition in future waves. In this chapter, the authors use data from multiple waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1997 to 2015 to examine the effects on attrition and on various other measures of respondent cooperation of being invited to take part in a major supplemental study to PSID, namely the 1997 PSID Child Development Supplement (CDS). They describe their conceptual framework and previous research. The authors also describe the data and methods. The PSID is the world’s longest-running household panel survey. PSID has a number of supplemental studies, which began in 1997 with the original CDS. To describe and analyse the effects of CDS on sample attrition in PSID, the authors also use survival curves and univariate and multivariate discrete time hazard models. 

Two major supplements to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) were in the field during the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States: the 2019 waves of the PSID Child Development Supplement (CDS-19) and the PSID Transition into Adulthood Supplement (TAS-19). Both CDS-19 and TAS-19 abruptly terminated all face-to-face fieldwork and, for TAS-19, shifted interviewers from working in a centralized call center to working from their homes. Overall, COVID-19 had a net negative effect on response rates in CDS-19 and terminated all home visits that represented an important study component. For TAS-19, the overall effect of Covid-19 was uncertain, but negative. The costs were high of adapting to COVID-19 and providing paid time-off benefits to staff affected by the pandemic. Longitudinal surveys, such as CDS, TAS, and PSID, that span the pandemic will provide valuable information on its life course and intergenerational consequences, making ongoing data collection of vital importance.