Longitudinal research is a broad field in which substantial advances have been made over the past decade. Unlike many of the existing books that only address the analysis of information. The Handbook of Longitudinal Research covers design and measurement as well as the data analysis. Designed for use by a wide-ranging audience, this Handbook not only includes perspective on the methodological and data analysis problems in longitudinal research but it also includes contributors' data sets that enable readers who lack sophisticated statistics skills to move from theories about longitudinal data into practice. As the comprehensive reference, this Handbook has no direct competition as most books in this subject area are more narrowly specialized and are pitched at a high mathematical level. Contributors and subject areas are interdisciplinary to reach the broadest possible audience (i.e., psychology, epidemiology, and economics research fields) Summary material will be included for less sohisticated readers Extensive coverage is provided of traditional advanced topics

One of the major changes in the social science research landscape in recent years has been the introduction of computerised panel surveys in Europe and the US which make longitudinal data widely available to graduate students for the first time. Elisabetta Ruspini here provides a concise yet comprehensive introduction to the issues involved in this kind of research. This book: * Defines the concept of longitudinal research * Gives guidance on sources of longitudinal data in Europe and the US and their strengths and weaknesses * Discusses the choices that need to be made in this kind of research - for instance the advantages and disadvantages of certain types of research data and of different types of analysis * Highlights some of the problems involved, e.g. the issue of comparability within longitudinal research

"Since ... writing the first edition of this monograph in 1990, ... the 1990s have seen an increasing focus on more sophisticated approaches to dealing with missing data in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research. Software applicable to longitudinal research has also improved, and more evidence for the rapid pace of change in longitudinal analysis can be found in the dozen or so books written and edited about longitudinal research design and data analysis published in the 1990s and early in the present millennium. The organization of this monograph remains the same as in the first edition. ... There is much less said about the application of traditional methods of analysis to longitudinal data, and more focus on analytical methods specifically designed for longitudinal data, including time series analysis, linear panel analyis, multilevel and latent growth curve modeling, and event history analysis."--Preface.

Background In July of 1992, approximately sixty scholars and researchers met for a week at the "Fritz Erler Akademie" in Freudenstadt, Germany, to participate in a workshop entitled "Cross-National Lon gitudinal Research on Human Development and Criminal Behavior". The participants represented 15 nations and 45 universities and research centers. Although longitudinal research in criminology has a long history, this workshop represented the first one in the field of criminology in which it was attempted to get together the main scholars in this field from around the world. The largest group of the workshop represented American scholars (19), a reflection of the fact that longitudi nal research in criminology is predominantly conducted in North America. This volume is the result of the workshop process and in particular of the invitations to participants to prepare pre or conference papers. The chapters in this volume were selected from a larger set of pre- or conference papers. As workshop conveners and volume editors, it falls to us to set some of the context for this enter prise. Longitudinal research in criminology became a major approach after the publication of the land mark study by Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin "Delinquency in a Birth Cohort" in 1972. Around the same time, when Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin started their Philadelphia cohort study, were longi tudinal studies, although different in scope and aim, launched by Shannon in the USA, West in England, Janson in Sweden, and Goppinger in Germany.

This Handbook is a very timely contribution to organization and business studies. Most calls for longitudinal research are made in sections of published work that deal with limitations of the study or suggestions for further research. This book places longitudinal research methods at center stage. With its practical, hands-on approach it guides us how to design a longitudinal study in and around organizations whether qualitative or quantitative and how to implement it. I warmly recommend this Handbook to ambitious senior and junior researchers. It makes the commonly presented excuses for not undertaking longitudinal research completely redundant. Rebecca Piekkari, Aalto University, School of Business in Helsinki, Finland This is a very timely book that fills an important gap in the field of research methods. So far very little attention has been paid to longitudinal research methods, while the usefulness of this type of research has often been discussed in many papers and conferences. Insights provided by scholars who have been doing this type of research provide useful guidelines for anyone interested in research methods from senior scholars to young researchers and PhD candidates. This volume will serve as an excellent complement to the existing range of books on research methods. Pervez Ghauri, Kings College London, UK This innovative Handbook demonstrates that there is no single best approach to conducting longitudinal studies. At their best, longitudinal research designs yield rich, contextualised, multilevel and deep understanding of the studied phenomenon. The lack of resources in terms of time, funding and people can pose a serious challenge to conducting longitudinal research. This book tackles many of these challenges and discusses the role of longitudinal research programmes in overcoming such obstacles. This book shows how longitudinal research methods enable the understanding of dynamics, mechanisms, causalities and interrelationships of organizational and business concepts in context and in relation to time. It discusses the richness and versatility of longitudinal research and offers, to students and experienced scholars alike, numerous viewpoints, reflections and personal accounts about conducting longitudinal research, from planning and fieldwork to reporting and managing of research projects.

This timely book showcases the variety of qualitative longitudinal methods and tools available to researchers today. It will help you find, generate, and manage data from a variety of research tools

Occupational health psychology (OHP) involves the application of psychology to improving the quality of work life and to promoting and protecting the safety, health and well-being of employees. Achieving these aims requires researchers and practitioners to possess in-depth knowledge of the processes that are presumed to bring about the desired outcomes. To date, most studies in OHP have relied on cross-sectional designs in examining these processes. In such designs all variables of interest are measured simultaneously. Although this has generated useful insights in how particular phenomena are associated, such designs cannot be trusted when it comes to drawing causal inferences: association is not causation. This book therefore focuses on longitudinal research designs in OHP, whereby the concepts of interest are measured several times, offering much stronger evidence for causal relationships. The authors focus on design issues in longitudinal research (such as the number of measurements chosen, and the length of the time lags between these measurements), and illustrate these issues in the context of applied research on topics such as the work-family interface, conflict at work, and employee well-being. By doing so this volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of current research in OHP, both in terms of its findings and methodologies. This book is based on a special issue of the journal Work & Stress.

This overview of the central issues of data quality in longitudinal research focuses on data relevant for studying individual development. The topics covered include reliability, validity, sampling, aggregation, and the correspondence between theory and method. More specific, practical issues in longitudinal research, such as the drop-out problem and issues of confidentiality are also addressed. The volume is the result of an interdisciplinary endeavor by leading European scientists to discuss appropriate ways of handling various types of longitudinal data, including psychiatric data, alcohol data, and criminal data.

First published Open Access under a Creative Commons license as What is Qualitative Longitudinal Research?, this title is now also available as part of the Bloomsbury Research Methods series. This volume offers a new introduction to an evolving research method in the social sciences. Qualitative Longitudinal (QL) research is conducted through time. In its qualitative dimensions it opens up the potential to 'think dynamically' in creative, flexible and innovative ways. QL enquiry is rooted in a long-established tradition of qualitative temporal research, spanning the fields of social anthropology, sociological re-studies and biographical research. But over the past two decades, a growing body of scholarship has begun to document this approach and explore its theoretical underpinnings. This in turn has fuelled a growing interest in and rapid uptake of QL methodology across the disciplines and in international context. This practical volume will be a first port of call for students and researchers wishing to use QL research in their own projects. The chapters follow a logical development, from conceptual and methodological foundations, to research practice and ethics, to the generation and analysis of data. Each chapter offers practical examples drawn from the research field to illustrate key themes and the rich possibilities for new applications.

This volume examines longitudinal research in relation to crime and delinquency, and brings together prominent scholars in criminology to discuss theory, methodology, and impact of longitudinal studies in criminology. It answers a key question in Criminology: What have we learned from recent longitudinal studies of crime and delinquency? The volume includes a synthesis of longitudinal studies in criminology over the last 25 years and an appendix.