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Young Lives Longitudinal Qualitative Research Guide: A Guide for Researchers

There are very few studies in developing and low-income countries that combine a child-focus, wit

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Qualitative longitudinal research

Students and teacher working on an exercise

Alongside the household and child surveys, Young Lives developed a  qualitative longitudinal stream of research following a sub-set of 200 children over a seven-year period. The nested case studies were drawn from the survey to achieve an even spread of boys and girls across both age cohorts and in each of the four study countries. We capture experiences in early childhood through to early adulthood.

 

Table 1: Ages of children at each round of qualitative data collection

 

Younger Cohort

 Older Cohort

Qual-1 (2007)

 age 5-6

 age 12-13

Qual-2 (2008)

 age 6-7

 age 13-14

Qual-3 (2010/11)

 age 9-10

age 16-17

Qual-4 (2014)

age 12-13

age 19-20

The data from our qualitative research are not shared nor put into a public archive because of concerns about confidentiality. If you have questions, please contact our lead qualitative researcher Gina Crivello.

Key insights from the qualitative data can be found in our collection of children’s perspectives, Towards a Better Future? Hopes and Fears from Young Lives.

Research questions

By tracking the same sub-set of children at different time periods, the qualitative research is a unique opportunity to study how poverty impacts on children’s daily lives and on their outcomes later in life, as adolescents and young adults. We also want to know which policies and programmes are helpful and how children and families experience them.  

Through this research we have been documenting and analysing children’s (and caregivers’) detailed narrative accounts, reflecting on their childhoods (past, present and future), including their perspectives on what has contributed to shaping their situations, trajectories and well-being, their aspirations and goals, as well as realistic expectations for future outcomes. These themes are pursued through the following research questions:

  1. How do choices, decisions and actions influence children’s trajectories?
  2. What are the environmental and social factors that influence children’s trajectories?
  3. What are the factors that prevent or support children in pursuing the lives and futures that they value?

Research approach

From the outset, we developed a child-centred methodology that positioned children and young people as key sources of data for use in systematic scientific analysis. We have worked with children as young as five years-old through to teenagers who have themselves become mothers in the course of the study. Our fieldwork protocols are developed jointly between the Oxford-based qualitative researchers and Lead Qualitative Research partners located in each of the study countries. We routinely publish our fieldwork guides and ethical reflections in the spirit of shared learning. Our most recent qualitative fieldwork guide for Round 4 is now available. 

The methods toolkits are adapted for each round of data collection to reflect new research priorities, past learning and the changing ages of the young participants. They combine semi-structured interviews with the case study children, their parent/caregiver and community collaborators (e.g. teachers, healthcare workers), as well as creative tools, such as drawing, mapping, photography and mobile methods.

 

 

Some of our learning from Qualitative Longitudinal Research

  • Poverty affects children differently at differing ages, such that for older children, the psychosocial impacts of poverty are especially important, as the sense of stigma and shame and resulting social exclusion become more acute.

  • Boys, girls and their families have high aspirations for their future. The teen years are a critical window in the life course when young people and caregivers adjust plans and expectations according to perceived future prospects. Gender disparities begin to widen noticeably from the age of twelve.

  • Children’s trajectories and their experience of social transitions are fluid. Boys and girls take breaks from schooling, they get stuck in the same grade for years, they return to school sometimes only to leave again. Erratic trajectories are often explained by the instability of household economies and the way unexpected family crisis affect children’s everyday lives.

  • A key aspect of everyday life that children spontaneously described, often when asked about their well-being, was the violence they experienced at home, and in schools, in various forms and at differing ages, according to gender.

  • The quality of data generated through QLR relies heavily on maintaining good relationships with research collaborators, including children, families and fieldworkers. Attrition remains a risk of QLR, and sometimes alternative methods of data collection need to be employed, such as telephone interviews.

Other qualitative research

In addition to our qualitative longitudinal research, we have carried out a number of discrete qualitative sub-studies on specific topics of interest, involving children and families in Young Lives communities. We have used sub-studies to deepen understanding of child protection issues in the study countries, including children's experiences of violence, parental death and work. We have explored children's experiences of particular social protection programmes such as the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia and participation in rural employment schemes (MGNREGA) in India. Other sub-studies have looked at the drivers of child marriage and early child-bearing in Ethiopia and India, and at fertility decision-making, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs, choices and behaviours, and experiences of parenthood amongst married adolescents in India.