Understanding young lives through longitudinal research design

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the nature and design of the mixed method longitudinal data that informs this book. Longitudinal panel studies are especially effective tools for analysing the dynamic lives of young people and tracing the intersections of individual biographies with societal processes across time. In this chapter we focus on the ways in which the longitudinal mixed methods design of the Life Patterns research program has provided insight into the lives of two generations of Australian young adults, focusing specifically on how it has made both change and continuity visible, and in so doing shedding light on old and new inequalities, and problematising the very concept of transitions...