It is an exciting time to be studying the social worlds in which we grow up and grow older. We have an unprecedented amount of information from high-quality panel and cohort studies that in some cases stretch over many decades. Such studies are not just limited to the United States and Europe; these types of studies are appearing in Africa, South America, and Asia. A great number of methodological tools have been developed to take full advantage of these studies, including advanced statistical techniques to harness repeated measures over many years and data linkages to records, biomarkers, or neighborhood that increase the explanatory power of these studies. The range and sophistication of the methods employed to study lives, couples, and families over time are illustrated in the important 2018 special issue of Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (JG:SS) on Methodological Innovations.

中文翻译：

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多样性，全球化和振幅：关于年龄和衰老的社会研究正当下

这是一个激动人心的时刻，要研究我们成长和成长的社会世界。我们从高质量的小组研究和队列研究中获得了前所未有的信息，在某些情况下长达数十年。这样的研究不仅限于美国和欧洲。这些类型的研究出现在非洲，南美和亚洲。为了充分利用这些研究成果，已经开发出许多方法论工具，包括先进的统计技术，以利用多年来的重复测量，以及与记录，生物标记物或邻域的数据链接，从而增加了这些研究的解释力。2018年重要的一期特刊显示了随着时间的流逝，研究生活，夫妻和家庭的方法的范围和复杂性老年学杂志：方法论创新的社会科学（JG：SS）。