What can qualitative longitudinal research with
children and young people add to international
development?
Ginny Morrow & Gina Crivello
DSA, Birmingham
16th November 2013
Structure of talk
• Background to Young Lives
• Definitions of Qualitative Longitudinal Research
• QLR in development studies?
• QLR in Young Lives - two examples:
• (1) policy-relevant question - transition to
adulthood, and
• (2) QLR for a specific study linking research to
policy & practice
• Discussion and challenges
Background: Young Lives
• Longitudinal study of childhood poverty Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh, India, Peru and
Vietnam
• Commissioned by DFID to track progress of MDGs
• 12,000 children 2001-2017
• Survey every 3 years; Qualitative research with
‘nested’ sample n=200
• Interdisciplinary research teams
• Improve the understanding of causes and
consequences of childhood poverty
• How policies affect children
QUALITATIVE DATA
3 rounds collected from a nested sample of both cohorts in
2007, 2008 & 2011. 50 children in each country.
4th (final) round planned for 2014.
• Methods include: interviews with children, creative methods,
caregivers, group discussions, interviews with teachers/other
community members.
• Qual 1 & 2 – wellbeing, experiences of poverty, transitions
• Qual 3 – included social support, caregivers’ life histories.
Children’s life trajectories, role of poverty in shaping lifecourse, decision-making and choice
WHAT IS QUALITATIVE LONGITUDINAL
RESEARCH?
- Multiple
approaches to investigating aspects of time
and change (no single definition)
- Mixed methods approaches where qualitative
longitudinal elements are attached to a quantitative
study
- Planned prospective qualitative longitudinal studies
- Follow-up studies (revisiting communities)
- Evaluation/tracking studies
- Unit of analysis can be individuals, households,
communities, schools, NGOs, CBOs
QLR in development studies?
• What is the status of qualitative research in
development knowledge?
• Temporality - goals of development are change
and sustainability – but approaches to research in
development are cross-sectional/snapshot =
disjunction?
• Dominance of human capital approaches,
uncritical acceptance of developmental
psychology - marginality of children and young
people’s experiences.
QLR in Young Lives
- Embedded within a larger survey study (Young Lives not
originally designed as a QLR study)
- Complements other data sources
- Children’s and caregiver’s evaluations of what has shaped
their trajectories
- Identification of broad unifying research questions
- Iterative – survey and qualitative protocol design
- Adds depth to processes behind survey findings
- Adaptable to changing research contexts, age and
biographical circumstances of participants
-Policy and communications - individual cases in broader
context of changing communities
Example 1: ‘transitions’ to adulthood
• Work, school, marriage nexus and change over time in
rural AP.
• High rates of school leaving amongst rural poor
• Eg - Ranadeep – in 2007 was missing school to work, but
optimistic.
• 2008 - wanting to migrate, open a shop. Wanted to
continue his schooling, but complained about working.
• 2010 had failed Grade 10 - ‘I will be a waste’
• Can’t ask his family for support - ‘I know they are
struggling’; crop failure because of drought, indebtedness.
• Wants to support his mother/family.
Example 2: QL approach to Research to
policy and practice
• Oak-funded study on risks, vulnerability and resilience
for children
• To explore the challenges of translating research into
practice in Ethiopia and India
• Process – iterative, consultative –
• Background research - analysis of Young Lives data
(survey and qualitative) to identify question
• Interviews with stakeholders (policy, NGOs) = policy
context analysis
• Consultation meetings to identify research priority
•(Orphanhood in Ethiopia, hazardous work in AP)
Continued…
• Qualitative research study, highlighting context-
specific understandings of children’s vulnerability
• Results reported to stakeholders in consultative
process
Outcomes: in Ethiopia
•Opportunities to share learning: Child Research
and Practice Forum
•Meets regularly bringing together researchers,
policy-makers, practitioners
•Building a local network for using and engaging
with research, shaping future agenda
•2nd project ongoing on evidence-based
approaches to children’s work/child labour
Reflections
• QLR helps explain changing circumstances that led to
outcomes for Ranadeep
• QLR is a powerful way of linking individual biographies
with structural (poverty) factors
• Oak research emphasised the importance of creating
spaces over time, networks, relationships – meetings,
newsletters etc.
• QLR enabled ‘capacity-building’, two-way learning, trustbuilding between research teams others.
• OAK – strengthening relationships that transcends the
study, and continue.
Challenges
• Practicalities
• Costly
• Ethics – (respondent fatigue, maintaining
relationships in long-term research, etc)
• Data management – transcribing/translation
• Disciplinary boundaries – development economists?
• Mixed methods papers? Publishing conventions in
development studies?
• Getting beyond ‘stories’?
Data collection
Data Collection
Round
Year
YC Ages
OC Ages
Round 1
2002
6-18 months
7-8 years
Round 2
2006-7
5-6 years
12-13 years
Qual-1
2007
5-6
12-13
Qual-2
2008
6-7
13-14
Round 3
2009
7-8 years
14-15 years
Qual-3
2011
9-10
16-17
Round 4
2013
11-12 years
18-19 years
Qual-4
2014
12-13
19-20
Round 5
2016
14-15 years
21-22 years