longitudinal studies

• longitudinal studies 


   studies in which data is collected at specific intervals over a long period of time in order to measure changes over time.
• examples of longitudinal studies

  10 year census

  sue Sharpe - interviewed women in the 70s then again in the 90s
• strengths of longitudinal studies

  • ethical - informed consent
  • theoretical - establish trends, patterns, compare sets of data
  • practical - not difficult to access as participants usually give consent
• weaknesses of longitudinal studies

  practical - time-consuming, funding agencies reluctant to make long-term financial commitments

  ethical - research spans of significant amount of years - unexpected issues may arise e.g death

  theoretical - (sample attrition) participants may not be committed, withdraw at any point, Hawthorne effect
• sample attrition


  when participants drop out prior to the end of the study and do not return