Longitudinal Qualitative Research Research Articles

Analysing Adolescent Education and Health Trajectories in Crisis Contexts: Examples From a Multi-Year Longitudinal Cross-Country Study

Qualitative longitudinal research is a useful method for studying adolescent development, not least because the dimension of temporality in the analysis of longitudinal studies can help researchers understand the complexity of transitions during this unique and dynamic life stage. The Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence programme is a multi-year cross-country longitudinal study of adolescents in low- and middle-income countries. This article presents the methodological opportunities and challenges involved in analyzing such datasets, and seeks to offer insights for researchers undertaking qualitative longitudinal research. To ensure that both breadth and depth of such data are accurately represented in the analysis, a range of analytical approaches can be used. In this article, we provide key examples of how this data has been analyzed across a cohort of adolescent participants, exploring changes both pre- and post-Covid-19 including interactions with critical health and education services, and within individual life histories, exploring individual adolescent trajectories over multiple time points. Furthermore, we highlight how including caregivers’ and key informants’ perspectives can enhance triangulation of results. We show the importance of using a range of different approaches when analyzing a qualitative longitudinal dataset.

Examining Undergraduate College Students’ Experiences Participating in Longitudinal Qualitative Research

While many researchers describe the potential benefits to individuals if they opt to participate in qualitative research, it is not always feasible to empirically examine how engaging in a study influence the participants. Acknowledging this gap, we conducted a descriptive qualitative study to explore how 67 low-income students described their experiences as participants in a larger longitudinal qualitative research project that involved regularly submitting video diaries and participating in interviews over the course of three years. Overall, participants characterized their experiences as positive and highlighted unanticipated benefits of the project. Although many individuals were drawn to the project for the compensation, they found that regularly engaging in reflection with the support of a researcher they trusted to be beneficial. Participants often described their interviews as cathartic and as a place where they could make sense of their experiences in and outside of college. Opportunities for sustained reflection also helped participants increase their self-awareness. Additionally, participants described their videos as material evidence of their growth and development over time and indicated that this longitudinal project helped them develop their communication and time management skills.

‘They Say it was Her Fault… This is Not True!’ Using Vignettes With Adolescent Girls to Collectively Address Norms About Sexual Violence

This article discusses the piloting of vignette research tools within focus group discussions involving 34 adolescent girls aged 15–19 in Rwanda. The purpose of the research was to elucidate norms around sexual violence. Through a ‘collective capabilities’ lens, which focuses on ways to move beyond change at the individual level towards empowerment processes that benefit all girls, we reflect on the opportunities this methodological tool offers for expanding girls’ understanding of the norms that enable sexual violence, and the context-specific ways they can respond. After providing an overview of the vignettes exercise and the way in which the vignette on sexual violence was used with participants, we present girls’ accounts of sexual violence drawn from discussions based around the vignettes and our analysis of these findings. We find that gendered social norms around gender, sexuality, age, and responsibility for safety that apportion blame to girls who experience sexual violence play a role in preventing girls from using reporting mechanisms. Although girls have a strong sense of this being unfair, they realise they must also find ways to navigate these norms to avoid being blamed for their own victimisation. Based on this data, we suggest that the use of vignettes in the context of qualitative longitudinal research offers insights into norms about the drivers and causes of sexual violence that are otherwise challenging to elicit because of the sensitivity of the topic. We find that vignettes can be an empowering tool, both in raising ‘unspoken’ issues girls face and in creating the opportunity for girls to collectively work out pathways to accountability in a context where sexual violence is widespread but underreported. However, strategies to address sexual violence must account for barriers to reporting that include the social implications for girls of identifying perpetrators and exposing themselves to stigma and blame.

Understanding the Subjective Experience of Long-term Remote Measurement Technology Use for Symptom Tracking in People With Depression: Multisite Longitudinal Qualitative Analysis

Remote measurement technologies (RMTs) have the potential to revolutionize major depressive disorder (MDD) disease management by offering the ability to assess, monitor, and predict symptom changes. However, the promise of RMT data depends heavily on sustained user engagement over extended periods. In this paper, we report a longitudinal qualitative study of the subjective experience of people with MDD engaging with RMTs to provide insight into system usability and user experience and to provide the basis for future promotion of RMT use in research and clinical practice. We aimed to understand the subjective experience of long-term engagement with RMTs using qualitative data collected in a longitudinal study of RMTs for monitoring MDD. The objectives were to explore the key themes associated with long-term RMT use and to identify recommendations for future system engagement. In this multisite, longitudinal qualitative research study, 124 semistructured interviews were conducted with 99 participants across the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands at 3-month, 12-month, and 24-month time points during a study exploring RMT use (the Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Major Depressive Disorder study). Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, and interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded in the native language, with the resulting quotes translated into English. There were 5 main themes regarding the subjective experience of long-term RMT use: research-related factors, the utility of RMTs for self-management, technology-related factors, clinical factors, and system amendments and additions. The subjective experience of long-term RMT use can be considered from 2 main perspectives: experiential factors (how participants construct their experience of engaging with RMTs) and system-related factors (direct engagement with the technologies). A set of recommendations based on these strands are proposed for both future research and the real-world implementation of RMTs into clinical practice. Future exploration of experiential engagement with RMTs will be key to the successful use of RMTs in clinical care.

Waiting during disasters: Negotiating the spatio‐temporalities of resilience and recovery

AbstractAlways spatial, waiting time is the observation of past‐present‐future, and temporality is the condition of being bounded by time. Both are mechanisms of state governance that control how and when families recover from rapid‐onset humanitarian disasters. Analysing these spatio‐temporalities reveals how families leverage resources to engage in acts of resilience that challenge the state’s spatio‐temporal control of recovery. A case study focuses on the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017. We draw on qualitative longitudinal research to explore politicised spatio‐temporal experiences of waiting for the state to fix public infrastructures; approve financial support; and provide access to affordable consumables—which all shape families’ recovery rates and pathways. Disaster‐affected families do not passively wait for the state and often leverage their incomes and social networks to engage in resilience‐based strategies that ease their everyday lives and enable recovery while waiting for the state. Waiting feels more arduous for families with fewer resources and when there is uncertainty about access to the state and how and when to begin certain recovery activities. Waiting in disasters can also provide space for collective socio‐political practices such as community gardening to emerge in neighbourhoods. For researchers of disasters, this article highlights the spatio‐temporal dimensions of grassroots resilience and the ways in which state power and citizen agency interact in ways that subvert state control of families’ recovery rates in heterogeneous ways. Research on waiting during disasters has great potential to inform and reform governance for resilience and recovery.

Carers' experiences of caring for a friend or family member with dementia during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This study aimed to explore carers' experiences of supporting a family member or friend with dementia through COVID-19 and experiences of hope and resilience during this time. Qualitative longitudinal research was undertaken in the UK, with 13 unpaid carers of people living with dementia who took part in two semi-structured interviews 8weeks apart between June and October 2020. All transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes were developed and included: COVID-19 impacted negatively upon everyday living; carer resilience: adapting to COVID-19; analysis of risk: safeguarding the person living with dementia; and thinking about the future with COVID-19. The results illustrated how the sudden changes which occurred during the pandemic negatively impacted on carers and people living with dementia in several ways, including additional responsibilities and taking away hope. The importance of continued formal and informal support for carers and people living with dementia during COVID-19 were highlighted. Formal services, care homes, and organisations need to be supported to implement procedures to ensure a safe environment during future lockdowns or periods of social restrictions. This will enable carers to remain visiting their family members and increase their confidence in accessing services and allowing paid carers to support their family member with dementia. These results have also illustrated the resilience of carers, who adapted to sudden changes which impacted negatively on their wellbeing and the wellbeing of the person living with dementia.

From coercion to choice. Young adults and remote work during the pandemic in qualitative longitudinal research

From coercion to choice. Young adults and remote work during the pandemic in qualitative longitudinal research

Making things work-In spite of a pandemic small scale enterprise managers' approach to business changes and health issues.

Covid-19 is one of the worst crises in modern working life with a direct negative impact on many enterprises and organizations. The aim of this study is to explore what managers in Small Scale Enterprises (SSEs) changed in their business during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly addressing health issues. A longitudinal qualitative research methodology was used, interviewing 16 managers of SSEs in the Norwegian and Swedish manufacturing and service sector both before (round 1) and during the pandemic (round 2). In this approach, time is designed into the research process, making change a key focus for analysis. The analysis resulted in two main themes, resilience and demanding occupational health and safety conditions, and five sub-themes. Results show how managers in SSEs changed their business during the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of these changes. Although, the enterprises were heavily affected in the beginning of the pandemic, several managers found new solutions for their businesses to maintain and reach new customers. They applied a socially responsible management which addressed different health issues. Crises like the Covid-19 pandemic will have future impact on SSEs making it important to understand how managers in such enterprises address business and health issues. This knowledge may have practical implications for supporting managers in SSEs in how to perform a socially responsible management and maintain occupational health and safety measures. The managerial implications from this research are that they need to be flexible, reorientable and, at the same time, be loyal to the core business. This study shows the importance of doing longitudinal studies about business and health issues among mangers in SSEs.

The Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Lockdown Policies on Young Fathers: Comparative Insights from the UK and Sweden

This article explores the impacts of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown policies on young fathers and their families. We present analyses from a larger programme of qualitative longitudinal research examining young fatherhood in the UK and Sweden to develop a unique international comparative and empirical contribution. The views and experiences of young fathers are examined in the context of two ostensibly different policy approaches during the pandemic. Organised thematically to enable comparison, our findings demonstrate myriad impacts, illustrating heightened precarity in young fathers’ transitions into and through fatherhood linked to restrictions on their engagement and changes to their education and employment trajectories and relational contexts, especially in the UK. We observe how differences in policy approaches before and during the first wave of the pandemic shaped the experiences of young fathers in the respective countries.

Understanding Organisational Risks and Opportunities Associated with Implementing Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme from the Nonprofit Service Provider Perspective—Findings from Quantitative Research

In this paper, we provide useful lessons from a quantitative analysis across several nonprofit organisations undergoing generational change due to the implementation of the Australian government’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This paper contributes to the field in demonstrating the usefulness of the approach in revealing how change has to occur at both the micro and macro levels of the organisations involved, affecting both followers and transforming leadership, whilst simultaneously reinforcing the need to address the strategic and operational risks inherent in such transformational change. It represents a follow-up to an earlier published longitudinal qualitative research and provides further evidence on the key findings associated with the development of the NDIS Implementation Framework. The current paper considers the importance of the risk and opportunity conundrum associated with the implementation of the NDIS among Australian nonprofit service providers. This paper recognises that, as entities operating ostensibly outside the purely commercial realms of service design and delivery, nonprofit service providers are potentially handicapped by an historic lack of relevant and necessary market-based skills. The risks necessitate an accelerated programme of skill development and skill acquisition to enable the full range of opportunities to be realised. The change management processes, identified using the conceptual framework of readiness → implementation commitment → sustainability, as discussed in this paper, highlight the potential financial consequences which have substantial impacts on such nonprofit service providers. Organisations in these settings are challenged by ongoing financial sustainability issues where very small financial margins, resulting directly from the generational business model shift from a supply-driven system to a demand-driven system, may prove the difference between organisational survival and failure.

The Transformation of Parents’ Values and Aspirations for Their Children: A Retrospective Qualitative Longitudinal Analysis of Changing Cultural Configurations

This article contributes to new scholarship on family change as bricolage and institutional layering. Focusing on the classic topic of parental values and aspirations for their children, we used a retrospective qualitative longitudinal analysis to trace the evolution of four overlapping cultural configurations across the 20th century: (1) standing back and not interfering, (2) cultivating achievement, (3) encouraging positive relationships, and (4) promoting happiness and self-fulfilment. We show that there was a directional change in the emphases and inflections placed on these configurations, and in the moral ambivalence that parents displayed as they reconciled them in their narratives. Meanings centred on autonomy and cultivation were layered onto relatedness across changing social contexts. Engaging with recent debates on the value of qualitative interviews, our analysis demonstrates how qualitative longitudinal research can provide rigorous analysis of long-term cultural change.

Strategic talent management in hotels during COVID-19: upper echelons and dynamic attention-based perspectives

PurposeThe purpose of this longitudinal study is to qualitatively investigate the role of the general managers (GMs) and senior managers (SMs) in strategic talent management (STM) in hotels during COVID-19. Using upper echelon theory and the dynamic attention-based view, this paper explores the role of upper echelon theory cognitive characteristics (orientation towards STM and decision-making approach) and three dynamic attention-based view attention dimensions (communication, resource attention to the HR function and new configurations of STM) in influencing STM.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses semi-structured interviews with hotel GMs and SMs at two time points over the duration of COVID-19 in six hotels (family-owned, boutique and international hotel chain) located in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Singapore and India.FindingsThe findings of this study reveal that GMs and SMs across the different hotels differed in their orientation towards STM and their decision-making approaches and this influenced cognitive and resource attention to STM. GMs and SMs remained cognitively attentive to STM through their communications around STM, and they revealed resource attention through resources to the HR function and new configurations of STM practices during COVID-19. The authors identify three distinct configurations of STM practices in operation in hotels during COVID-19.Practical implicationsThis study’s findings reveal important practice implications in that GMs and SMs have a key role to play in the implementation of STM and the need to reconfigure how STM is undertaken during the crisis. This contrasts with the more espoused role suggested for these talent actors in the literature.Originality/valueThe authors used a longitudinal qualitative research design to surface the dynamic role of GMs’ and SMs’ cognitive and resource attention to STM in hotels during COVID-19 and the key role that orientation towards STM and decision-making approach affected both cognitive and resource attention dimensions.

Art-based Assessment of Disease Experiences in Children and Adolescents with Cancer: Cognitive and Emotional Dimensions

This study assessed the disease experiences in children and adolescents with cancer through an art-based assessment. It used a longitudinal qualitative research design with inductive content analysis. The study included twenty children (6-17 years old) diagnosed with cancer from the Hospital de Especialidades Pediatricas, Maracaibo, Venezuela. The art-based assessment program consisted of 7 individual sessions in which self-image, family relationships, disease perception, child's experiences at the hospital, concerns about the disease and treatment, and positive feelings were evaluated through art exercises. Two main categories emerged from the analysis: (1) Cognitive Dimension, related to awareness and concerns regarding the disease and treatment, as well as patients' ability to take responsibility for their health, and (2) Emotional Dimension, which covers the positive emotional states, such as fighting spirit, affection towards others, happiness, and hope, along with the negative emotional states which include sadness, anxiety-fear, and anger. The results of this research support previous findings indicating that art-based assessment is a valid and effective tool to evaluate thoughts and emotions in children and adolescents with cancer.

Experiences and Perceived Outcomes of Low-Income Adults During and After Participating in the British Columbia Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon Program: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study

The British Columbia Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Program (FMNCP) is a farmers' market food subsidy program that provides low-income households with coupons valued at $21/wk for 16 weeks to purchase healthy foods at participating BC Association of Farmers' Markets members' markets. This study aimed to explore changes, differences, and similarities in participants' experiences and perceived short-term outcomes during and after participating in the FMNCP. A longitudinal qualitative research approach was used to conduct a recurrent cross-sectional analysis. Data generation and analysis were guided by Freedman etal's theoretical framework of nutritious food access. Data generation occurred during 2019 FMNCP program (time 1) and 4 to 7 weeks after (time 2) the program year ended. Data at each time point were analyzed separately using directed content analysis, followed by a comparative analysis to identify changes, differences, and similarities between time points. Twenty-eight adult participants were interviewed during the program; 24 were re-interviewed post program. Three communities in British Columbia, Canada. Three themes were generated: temporary relief and engagement; lasting experiences and outcomes; enhancing participant experiences and outcomes. The first theme related to how participants' experiences and perceived outcomes, such as increased financial support and improved diet quality and health, were temporary. The second theme reflected positive lasting experiences and outcomes from participating in the FMNCP, including increased food and nutrition knowledge and enhanced social ties. The third theme focused on enhancing participants' program experiences and outcomes, including increasing the duration of food subsidies. The FMNCP temporarily enhanced access to nutritious foods and had lasting positive effects on participants' nutrition-related knowledge and social outcomes. Nevertheless, participants struggled to maintain healthy eating practices post program due to financial constraints. Expanding farmers' market subsidy programs may improve access to nutritious foods; maintain positive dietary, social, and health outcomes for participants; and reach more low-income households.

The two‐child limit and fertility decision making: When policy narratives and lived experiences collide

AbstractThe UK's two‐child limit restricts the child element in Universal Credit and Tax Credits to two children in a household. Given that the policy aims to influence the fertility decision making of parents in (or at risk of) poverty, it is important to explore the impact it has here. This article contrasts the policy rationale for the two‐child limit with everyday realities of fertility decision making. We share new empirical findings from qualitative longitudinal research with parents directly affected by the two‐child limit, contrasting these with the assumptions found in government speeches and statements on the policy. This exploration reveals a series of mismatches, which help explain the relative absence of fertility effects, which has been uncovered in previous quantitative analysis. We show how a government narrative of “choice” over fertility decisions is contradicted by situated realities, where choice is often absent or unresponsive to changes in financial incentives. We also find low levels of awareness of the two‐child limit, militating against it affecting fertility decision making. Our findings demonstrate the importance of better and more sustained engagement with qualitative evidence in the design and review of policies, essential if we are to prevent harms like those witnessed as a result of the two‐child limit.

Born in Bradford Age of Wonder cohort: A protocol for qualitative longitudinal research

Born in Bradford (BiB) has followed the lives of 13,776 children born in the district between 2007 and 2011. Children in the birth cohort are now entering adolescence, and the next phase of the research - Age of Wonder (AoW) - will be a whole city cohort capturing the experiences of 30,000 adolescents progressing into young adulthood. This protocol focuses on one component of the AoW programme: qualitative longitudinal research (QLR). The study will gather in depth and detailed accounts from a sub-sample of 100 young people across four major research priorities: personal life; social and community life; growing up with difference, and growing up in Bradford. As well as using traditional qualitative methods such as interviews, focus group discussions, and ethnography, we are adopting innovative creative methods including expressions through art, activism, online and digital content, portraits, and critical events. The process of engaging in and co-producing QLR potentially provides a route to empowering young people to shape the narrative of their own lives as well as informing intervention development.

Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior – A Longitudinal Study of Entrepreneurial Intentions

Abstract Most recent research about entrepreneurial intent (EI) examines EI and its determinants as a one-time event, but whether and how EI is continuously changing during early-stage entrepreneurship has not been adequately addressed. We track the shifts in the EI of young creative sector early-stage entrepreneurs vis-à-vis their changing external circumstances and their developing perceptions of the realities of business start-up. Our findings of 11 established and 10 new determinants of EI contribute to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and guide our appreciation of EI as a dynamic, longitudinal construct, which is the link between intent and realized action. Our findings have profound implications for policy-makers and practitioners, for instance those wishing to help early-stage entrepreneurs to establish businesses when they only possess limited entrepreneurial experience. This research study, therefore, responds to calls for more longitudinal qualitative research into the determinants of EI, entrepreneurial processes, and early business exit.

Belongingness challenged: Exploring the impact on older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ObjectivesThe sense of belonging is a fundamental human need. Enacting it through face-to-face social activities was no longer possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we investigate how the sense of belonging, and how it is enacted, changed longitudinally amongst older adults in the UK. In addition, we examine the interplay of the sense of belonging and resilience over time.MethodsWe employed a longitudinal qualitative research design to explore the experiences of older adults during one year of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020-April 2021). The analysis was undertaken with constructivist grounded theory.FindingsBefore the pandemic older adults were free to engage in social relationships with family and friends, often enacted within social activity groups where they felt valued and gained positive experiences. During the pandemic face to face enactment of belongingness was reduced; adjustments needed to be made to maintain the sense of belonging. The experience of older adults was heterogeneous. We examine three themes. First, how belongingness was enacted prior to the pandemic. Examples include: family holidays, visiting each other, sports activities, eating with friends and family, and visiting cultural events. Second, how participants adapted and maintained their social involvement. Examples include: distanced face-to-face activities; and learning new technology. Third, for some, a belongingness gap emerged and persisted. There was an irretrievable loss of family members or friends, the closure of social groups, or withdrawal from groups as priorities changed. As a consequence, of challenged belongingness, participants expressed increased loneliness, anxiety, social isolation, frustration and, feelings of depression. For many, the disrupted sense of belonging no longer fostered resilience, and some previously resilient participants were no longer resilient.

Qualitative longitudinal research in health research: a method study

BackgroundQualitative longitudinal research (QLR) comprises qualitative studies, with repeated data collection, that focus on the temporality (e.g., time and change) of a phenomenon. The use of QLR is increasing in health research since many topics within health involve change (e.g., progressive illness, rehabilitation). A method study can provide an insightful understanding of the use, trends and variations within this approach. The aim of this study was to map how QLR articles within the existing health research literature are designed to capture aspects of time and/or change.MethodsThis method study used an adapted scoping review design. Articles were eligible if they were written in English, published between 2017 and 2019, and reported results from qualitative data collected at different time points/time waves with the same sample or in the same setting. Articles were identified using EBSCOhost. Two independent reviewers performed the screening, selection and charting.ResultsA total of 299 articles were included. There was great variation among the articles in the use of methodological traditions, type of data, length of data collection, and components of longitudinal data collection. However, the majority of articles represented large studies and were based on individual interview data. Approximately half of the articles self-identified as QLR studies or as following a QLR design, although slightly less than 20% of them included QLR method literature in their method sections.ConclusionsQLR is often used in large complex studies. Some articles were thoroughly designed to capture time/change throughout the methodology, aim and data collection, while other articles included few elements of QLR. Longitudinal data collection includes several components, such as what entities are followed across time, the tempo of data collection, and to what extent the data collection is preplanned or adapted across time. Therefore, there are several practices and possibilities researchers should consider before starting a QLR project.

Supporting and Enabling the Process of Innovation in Public Health: The Framework for Public Health Innovation.

This manuscript introduces a new framework for creating innovations in public health—the Framework for Public Health Innovation. The framework was developed through a longitudinal qualitative research study that investigated the process of creating innovative adolescent health programs. Interviews were conducted with a national sample of 26 organizations over two time points. Data collection focused on the process of innovative program development; organizational capacity; training; and technical assistance needs, successes, and barriers. The framework was developed and modified based on interview findings and expert advice; then, the final framework was validated with content experts. The framework illustrates a dynamic process of innovation that begins with dissatisfaction with the status quo, and then, illustrates three necessary components for innovation—space, process, and partnerships. Four categories of innovation, which range in complexity, are proposed: (1) creating a new component to an existing program, (2) adapting an existing program to meet new needs, (3) taking an alternative approach to addressing an existing program, and (4) reframing a health problem from a new perspective. As illustrated by a feedback loop, the resulting innovations disrupt the status quo. This model can be applied to any content area in public health and is useful for both research and practitioners.