3-197 - Re-Designing the Study of Development: Four New Procedures for Longitudinal Measurement, Study Design, and Analysis

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Articulating and testing theoretical notions about developmental phenomena often requires dealing with a multiple entities, with multiple levels of analysis, and multidirectional change that proceeds simultaneously on multiple time scales. In trying to understand these complexities, developmental researchers have demanded and continue to demand innovative analytical methods, research designs, and measurement tools. In turn, methodological innovations and the empirical results derived from them have challenged existing theoretical perspectives and pushed for further precision and refinement in how we think about behavioral change. This dialectic has been described as a dance where theory and method stand toe-to-toe—each sometimes leading and sometimes following the steps and movements of the other.
In this symposium we share recent thinking from a cadre of developmental methodologists - we challenge current practice, and outline the recent advances in measurement, study design, and longitudinal analysis that may disrupt, in a good way, the progression of developmental inquiry. The first paper tackles measurement practices and how they might be updated. The second paper finds power in how smaller longitudinal studies can be combined to obtain robust results. The third paper examines how three commonly fit bivariate panels models can be aligned to focus on the separation of within- and between-person effects with longitudinal panel data. The fourth paper highlights identification of time-scale and new thinking about when to collect the repeated measures. The presenters challenge each other and the field to envision and enact new procedures for studying development and change.

Sub Unit

• Methods, History, Theory

Chairs

• Nilam Ram, Pennsylvania State University

• Kevin Grimm, Arizona State University

Individual Presentations

• Back to Basics: Design and Measurement Issues in Longitudinal Research - Presenting Author: Todd Little, Texas Tech University

• How Integrative Data Analysis Can Advance the Study of Child Development - Presenting Author: Daniel Bauer, University of North Carolina; Andrea Hussong, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Patrick Curran, UNC Chapel Hill

• Return of the Bivariate Growth Model: Separating Within- and Between-Person Effects in Longitudinal Panel Data - Presenting Author: Kevin Grimm, Arizona State University; Holly O’Rourke, Arizona State University; Jonathan Helm, University of California, Davis

• How to Select the Time Interval in A Longitudinal Study? Discovering What We Don't Know - Presenting Author: Nilam Ram, Pennsylvania State University; Byron Reeves, Stanford University