Longitudinal studies ( research methods)

Question 1

what is a longitudinal study

Answer 1

conducting a study and monitoring it over a long period of time at regular intervals

Question 2

what are strengths of longitudinal studies

Answer 2

• favoured by positivists and interpretivists
• gain in depth understanding (verstehen) of qualitative data over time
• spot trends and patterns over time by using quantitative data
• build rapport over time

Question 3

what are limitations of longitudinal studies

Answer 3

• time consuming and long term funds needed
• risk of going native
• sample attrition - not reliable or valid
• large amounts of data - hard to analyse

Question 4

what is the census study

Answer 4

a questionnaire sent out to every household every 10 years

Question 5

what is the 7-Up study by michael apted

Answer 5

interviewed 13 british children all aged 7
repeated his interviews with the same children again , 7 years later
- kept interviewing the children 7 years later for 7 years

Question 6

what is the national child development survey - douglas

Answer 6

aimed to study the very child born between 3rd to 5th of march - some 17,000 people
- parental interest for children became increasing important from primary to secondary school

Question 7

what is the northwest longitudinal study

Answer 7

• followed several hundred young people from the ages 14 to 18
• aim to understand how ordinary people developed attitudes towards availability of drugs , alcohol
• used questionnaires which was given to the same people 5 years later
• as study progressed participants were lost from the study - particularly those from wc and asian backgrounds