Alternative Methods for the Quantitative Analysis of Panel Data in Family Research: Pooled Time-Series Models

Abstract

This article examines quantitative panel analysis techniques appropriate for situations in which the researcher models determinants of change in continuous outcomes. One set of techniques, based on the analysis of pooled time-series data sets, has received little attention in the family literature, although there are a number of situations where these techniques would be appropriate, such as the analysis of multiple-wave panel data. The article explores the fixed effect (change-scare) and random effects models based on pooled time-series data and discusses their advantages and disadvantages for the analysis of survey panel data compared with other available approaches. An empirical example of these methods is presented in which the effect of marital duration and number of children on spousal interaction in intact marriages was examined in a four-wave panel sample. A significant development in the field of family research has been the increased availability of large panel survey data sets containing variables of interest to family researchers (e.g., National Survey of Families and Households Panel, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Marital Instability Over the Life Course Panel). The potential posed by these panel studies is often unrealized because of the greater complexity of panel analyses and the shortage of clear and accessible guidelines for selecting the appropriate analysis models and statistical software. Several guides to panel methods are available (e.g., Campbell, Mutran, & Parker, 1986; Collins & Horn, 1991; Finkel, 1995; Johnson, 1988; Kessler & Greenberg, 1981; Markus, 1979; Menard, 1991). While these guides can be of value, they have the following drawbacks: Some recent developments are not covered, the focus has been largely on methods for two-wave panels, and situations commonly encountered by family researchers in the analysis of survey data, such as missing waves for some respondents, have been neglected. One type of model commonly found in family research involves the analysis of change over time in a continuous dependent variable. For example, a researcher interested in explaining change in marital interaction over the course of a marriage may model the effects of increased duration of the marriage, changes in the number and ages of the children, spells of employment of both spouses, and changes in family income. This situation involves a continuous dependent variable (degree of spousal interaction) with continuous variables (marital duration, income) and events (addition and subtraction of children, spells of employment and unemployment) as explanatory variables. Panel studies of changes in psychological distress brought about by marital dissolution, changes in frequency of sexual intercourse over the duration of the marriage, and the effect of retirement on marital happiness are research problems with similar analytic needs. With two or more waves of panel data and a continuous dependent variable, the researcher has a choice among five basic panel analysis models. These are (a) regression with lagged dependent variables, (b) structural equation models with reciprocal and lagged effects (e.g., LISREL), (c) repeated measures analysis of variance, (d) growth curve and hierarchical effects models, and (e) fixed (change-score) and random effects regression estimators for pooled time-series data sets. Event history, or hazard, models (Teachman, 1982) and panel models for qualitative variables (Clogg, Eliason, & Grego, 1990) are excluded from this list because they are not designed for use with continuous dependent variables. The first three techniques have been widely used with panel data in the family literature, and are generally accessible to the researcher. Many of the regression techniques have been superseded by the structural equation approaches, which are capable of estimating reciprocal effects and control for biases introduced by measurement errors and autocorrelated errors. …