Longitudinal studies

• Longitudinal studies

  • Research that takes place at regular intervals over a long period of time
  • Often large scale quantitative surveys used by positivists
• 7UP Programme

  • Followed children from aged 7 and continued every 7 years
  • Those who grow up in council estates often end up in working class jobs
  • W/C boy realises education doesn't matter, left school
  • M/C see education that can't be taken away, strive to work hard
• Strengths

  • Analyse change and make comparisons over time
  • Study how attitudes of the sample change over time
• Weaknesses

  • Hard to recruit a committed sample who will want to stay with the study
  • Need long term funding and to keep the research team together
  • Rely on interviews and questionnaires which might not be reliable or valid