Longitudinal studies

• What is a longitudinal study?


  It is research that is carried out over a long period of time. The same group of respondents are contacted several times and over a number of years. Longitudinal studies triangulate data to give a thorough and representative result.
• What is triangulation? 


  A research strategy using different methods to approach the same question. Researchers can identify trends and relationships in data but understand these at a deeper level. This is the collection of quantitative data and enhances reliability, representativeness and validity.
• Longitudinal study example: Seven Up! documentary

  A TV series directed by Michael Apted and he started this in 1964 with twenty 7 year old children. It visits and films participants every 7 years, the latest one was in 2019 called '63 Up'.
• Seven Up! Part 2:

  • How are the participants different? They have different social classes, ethnicities, gender, location. These are the variables.
  • What long term effects can this method give us info about? Aspirations, social mobility, relationships, level of education and health.
  • Problems for the researcher? Respondents may not want the attention anymore, keeping in contact, can be costly, can be intrusive.
• PET advantages of Longitudinal studies:

  Practical: Same group of people used overtime, can access participants easily (e.g. via volunteer sampling), no deception, researcher does not need many skills.

  Ethical: Right to withdraw, can maintain confidentiality.

  Theoretical: Triangulation can occur which helps to ensure VVRRG, researchers can analyse long term trends.
• PET disadvantages of Longitudinal studies:

  Practical: Time consuming, takes place over many years, costly as you have to pay researchers, hard to keep in contact, long term funding required.

  Ethical: consent issues (some participants start when they are children).

  Theoretical: Representativeness may be compromised.
• Who prefers to use Longitudinal studies?

  Positivists prefer this method because it is a large scale research and it produces quantitative data, meaning they are able to find correlations such as patterns and trends. Additionally, triangulation can help ensure reliability.