Longitudinal Qualitative Research

Abstract

An emerging body of work has begun to reveal the empirical and theoretical successes of longitudinal qualitative research. The techniques open a window through which to see how others experience and make meaning of lives over time. Longitudinal qualitative research is amenable to studying a broad spectrum of settings and situations that characterize contemporary social life. Careful design enables such techniques to capture the conditions and processes of inter-cohort and intra-cohort variation. What is more, the methods are vital to identifying and characterizing trajectories, turning points, and interpretive stances that cover both short and long periods of time. Longitudinal qualitative methods thus push a frontier of knowledge about socially-rooted differences in development and aging. While robust in its descriptive and explanatory power, longitudinal qualitative research remains underdeveloped as a methodological tradition, and is therefore in need of codification. Using examples from the author’s own work on careers as well as other studies ranging across families, illness, education, and crime, the present work discusses the parameters that guide the use of qualitative methods in longitudinal research. Three sets of issues are discussed: issues of design (including the origination of research, number and frequency of study episodes, and protocol format); issues of execution (including subject attrition and retention, respondent reaction, and research ethics); and issues of analysis (including iterative and summative modes of data interrogation).