ABSTRACT
The once little-challenged view that the longitudinal research design is the sine qua non of developmental methodology has met with increasing criticism. A simple longitudinal design typically involves repeatedly studying a group of people born in or near a single point in time. This chapter discusses procedures and/or recommendations that recognize the limits of conventional longitudinal research. Erich W. Labouvie has appropriately cautioned researchers about the issue, and J. Lowman and M. David Galinsky have suggested that in addition to age, one must look at other demographic variables, such as sex or race, as potential markers of status-specific person-context relations, in order to understand variation in the role of particular psychopathological symptoms at one point in life for later functioning. However, despite the method of analysis one may use in a particular study, the general point is that theory-guided research is essential if we are to significantly move towards correcting many of the deficits in extant longitudinal research.
