Fernando, Rajulton

Ravanera, Zenaida R.

English

Scholarship@Western

Theoretical and Analytical Aspects of Longitudinal Research

paper has a three-fold aim: To outline briefly the historical development of ideas that have given rise to the current interest in longitudinal studies, particularly in the social sciences;  to discuss relevant theoretical considerations when analyzing longitudinal data; and to illustrate approaches toward analyzing longitudinal data when measured as binary and categorical variables. The overall aim is to promote a better understanding of the type of information that longitudinal data provide and of the appropriate techniques needed to analyze such data. A. Longitudinal Research-Development of Ideas Although the very first longitudinal study is traced back to 1759 when Gueneau de Montbeillard recorded his son’s growth to the age of 18 (Buffon, 1837), questions on advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal research were raised as early as 1920s when for the first time criticisms were directed against cross-sectional methods. In essence, most of those arguments were to discard age as a definition of a population and replace it with duration since the latter, it was argued, was the one that could explain growth. The key ideas associated with a longitudinal study were already contained in those arguments, and these ideas gave rise to the quest for developmental sequences and their inter-relations. More elaborate discussions on advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal research had to wait for four more decades. Two important studies are worth citing here. One is that of an eminen

O Rajulton

Zenaida R. Ravanera

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http://sociology.uwo.ca/longitudinal/rajulton2.pdf

Theoretical and Analytical Aspects of Longitudinal Research

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