The landscape of longitudinal research today This volume has presented examples of world class longitudinal research with policy and programme relevance. They join a growing number of researchers working with longitudinal data. In the last ten years, the number of publications citing use of longitudinal data has grown by 75%, shown in Figure 9.1 . This growth presents an important resource for policy makers and practitioners towards meeting their sustainable development targets. Figure 9.1: Growth of longitudinal research in peer-reviewed journal
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The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), also known as Children of the 90s, is a world-leading birth cohort study that uniquely enrolled participants in utero and obtained genetic material from a geographic population. It instigated the innovative but controversial ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee.
This book describes in detail the early work of this Committee, from establishing the core ethical principles necessary to protect participants, to the evolution of policies concerning confidentiality and anonymity, consent, non-intervention and disclosure of individual results, data access and security. Quotes from interviews with early members of the Committee reflect not only on its pioneering work but also on the unusual style and inspirational leadership of the first Chair, Professor Michael Furmston.
This will be of interest to those involved in other cohort studies in understanding the evolution of ethical policies as ALSPAC developed.
traditional practices (including child marriage and female genital mutilation) to ensuring quality education and training – investing in a more robust evidence base and improved measurement is critical. The Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) research programme addresses these evidence and measurement gaps. This chapter discusses the design and methodological choices made by the GAGE study – to date, the largest longitudinal study (covering nine years, 2015–24) focusing on adolescents (10–19 years) in the Global South. GAGE is following 18,000 adolescent girls
Introduction This chapter uses evidence from the Parenting across Cultures (PAC) project to illustrate ways in which longitudinal data can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ ). The chapter begins by providing an overview of the research questions that have guided PAC as well as a description of the participants, procedures and measures. Next, empirical findings from PAC are summarized to illustrate implications for six specific SDGs. Then the chapter describes how longitudinal data offer advantages
27 THREE Survey designs for longitudinal research Elisabetta Ruspini What is longitudinal research? ‘Longitudinal’ is a rather imprecise term. It implies the notion of repeated measurements: the observations are made on a certain number of occasions (van der Kamp and Bijleveld, 1998, p 1; Taris, 2000). Thus, the term longitudinal refers to a particular type of relation between phenomena: the type which evolves over the course of time and is termed diachronic, and the opposite of synchronic. With longitudinal research, time regains its rightful place within the
Key messages Analysis of longitudinal data is enhanced by information on context and vice versa. Neighbourhood effects in health and development largely reflect individual circumstances. Designs of British Cohort Studies illustrate the limits to building in contextual data. Complementary use of different surveys, cross-cohort and cross-national analysis can all aid the study of context. Introduction As John Bynner has always argued, life course research is not just about tracing individuals’ histories across time. It should set these
knowing that people may not fully realise the change that has occurred until later on in their lives, we need to consider longitudinal studies. For those who operate exclusively in the short term, the types of initiative that have a long-term impact are those which work with vulnerable groups of people or that seek attitude and behavioural change, such as growth in self-esteem and agency. We can, of course, gather evidence in the short term, but sometimes the high quality and richness of development over time is worth seeking out. This chapter seeks to explain
Key messages In QLR the choice of methods have implications for what can be determined as change across time. Several ways of ensuring comparability across time are described. Sampling strategies are outlined aiming to achieve heterogeneity of cases. Introduction: a new research area on the rise Longitudinal research takes into account time and the passing of time, following actors over time. In quantitative research a longitudinal study with measurements at several points in time is the favoured pathway for assessing causality, enabling
157 Conducting longitudinal epidemiological research in children NINE Conducting longitudinal epidemiological research in children John Henderson Introduction The increasing recognition that events during pregnancy and early infancy have a bearing on future health and disease through later life (Barker et al, 1993) has led to the development of longitudinal, epidemiological studies beginning in early life to study the antecedents of important public health outcomes. The case for such studies has been further enhanced by developments in human genetics stemming
