Longitudinal Study
What Is Longitudinal Study?
Longitudinal study is actually a type of research methodology in which the time period of research is extended over a longer period of time. This type of research methodology is usually used in the field of psychology or sociology.
This study need not necessarily be qualitative or quantitative in nature. Rather it can be used in both qualitative research as well as quantitative research. Another important characteristic of this is that the research does not interfere with the respondent or their natural environment. They simply distribute the questionnaire then observe and record the changes in the respondents behaviour and attitude.
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Types Of Longitudinal Studies
As we now know that the data collection for this are stretched over a longer period of time. In this longer time frame there are many ways in which one can collect data but remember the type of longitudinal study chosen at the beginning of your research work should be consistent throughout the time frame for which longitudinal study will take place. Let’s look at the type of longitudinal studies that one can take up for research work and data collection.
Panel Study
In panel study, data is collected through surveys conducted from a sample population chosen from a significant population in specified intervals over the period of time. This means that in panel study, data is collected from the same sample of people chosen at specified intervals in time. Panel studies are done for both qualitative and quantitative analysis but in most of the cases, the study is done to collect quantitative data from the respondents.
Cohort Study
The word cohort means grouping. In cohort study, the data is collected from a sample population based on a certain event or experience which they experience at the same point in time. Cohort studies are usually taken up by medical researchers and therefore are often mistaken for clinical trials. However, clinical trials and cohort medical researchers are different as, in clinical trials an interference is made by conducting parties in the form of tests. However, no such intervention is made while conducting cohort study.
Retrospective Study
In retrospective study, the data is collected using secondary methods. This means that no primary data is collected and the data collected by already conducted researchers is used. The secondary research data used in the research is taken from the research that used the same methodology and variables as required in the ongoing research work. The secondary data can take up any form like one-to-one interviews, pre-existing database records or data from government databases and many more.
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Advantages Of Longitudinal Study
Now that we know what is a longitudinal study. We can clearly understand that as is the nature of this type of study, it is mostly used in the fields of science and medicines. It comes with its own set of benefits which makes it suitable for scientists and researchers to take this method of study for their research work. Let’s look at some advantages of this study and understand that in what sense it can be useful for your research work:
- It helps in forming cause and effect relations between the subjects of study and their environment. This is so because longitudinal study requires long term study of subjects in real time.
- As study records subject’s data for over a period of time, it eliminates the risk of incorrectly recalling the past data. This is usually called recall bias.
- As longitudinal study is done for a longer time frame, it usually collects unique datasets and generates unique results which other short term researchers tend to miss out.
- It tends to form data trends as it collects data from sample populations over a period of time. Therefore, change in datasets and formation of trends is easily visible in longitudinal study.
Disadvantages Of Longitudinal Study
Like every other thing, it also comes with a few drawbacks. The authenticity that it provides may seem to be very attractive for your research work. But one should be very mindful and should align their research objectives and check if it matches the need for conducting a longitudinal study. Let’s look at the disadvantages of this and know the tradeoff one can have between advantages and disadvantages of conducting or not conducting this study for their research.
- The major disadvantage of conducting a longitudinal study is that it is a time taking research process.
- Another major drawback of conducting a longitudinal study is that it has the risk of giving out unpredictable results. This is so because, if any respondent of the sample population cannot be a part of research for some unforeseen research then results generated will be highly disrupted.
- Apart from ample amount of time, it is also a costly research work as it requires more time, effort and energy for a longer time frame.
- Some research work needs longitudinal study but the sample size for it might not be sufficient for it to form trends and give out concrete analysis.
- It often poses a risk of bias in data collection as it requires observing the respondents of the sample population which might be misinterpreted by the researcher based on his knowledge, beliefs and understanding.
Conclusion
Now that we know all that we need to know about longitudinal study before we start with our research. Let’s do a quick recap of what we read and see how we can start with longitudinal study. It is in real terms a research methodology and comes with its own sets of advantages and disadvantages.
To begin with it, one should be very clear about a few things like their research objective and the type of data that one might want to collect – primary or secondary. Once you are clear with your objective and you find this to be the best fit then you must decide whether you will collect primary data or go with the secondary data sets. Once that is decided, then you are good to initiate the first stepping stone for your study.
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FAQs
When would you use a longitudinal study?
Longitudinal study will be an ideal form of research methodology if you want to establish some trend in your research or identify the changes that might have happened over a period of time or want to see the presence of cause-and-effect relationship, if any.
What is a longitudinal study example?
A very easy example of longitudinal study can be the scores of the same students in different subjects for eight years.
