Summary
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Subject index
What are the most effective methods for doing life course research? The field's founders and leaders answer this question, giving readers tips on: the art and method of the appropriate research design; the collection of life-history data; and the search for meaningful patterns to be found in the results.
Retrospective versus Prospective Measurement of Life Histories in Longitudinal Research
Retrospective versus Prospective Measurement of Life Histories in Longitudinal Research
To link earlier and later events within individual lives or show the evolving structure of the life course, we need valid and reliable reports about people's life histories. Obtaining accurate and complete information about the past is not easy. The focus of this chapter is on two distinct, but related, methods for collecting life history data in formats that are amenable to life course analysis. One method involves collecting data prospectively by a series of current reports on present circumstances. In this design, the same individuals are reinterviewed at different points in time to build up a series of measures that can be used to study the unfolding changes in people's lives. The alternative method ...
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