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Psychology vocabulary · Research Methods and Statistics

Longitudinal study

Meaning in psychology, with examples

nounCommon term

In psychology, longitudinal study means: A study that follows the same people over a long period, measuring them repeatedly to see how they change and what predicts later outcomes.

In Turkish: boylamsal çalışma, boylamsal araştırma

How it is used

Common in developmental and health psychology, for example in birth cohort studies. It is contrasted with a cross-sectional study, which compares different age groups at one point in time. A typical problem is attrition, as participants drop out.

Example sentences

  1. The longitudinal study followed about 1,000 children from birth to age 32.

  2. In our longitudinal study, about 20% of participants had dropped out by the third wave.

Common collocations

  • longitudinal data
  • longitudinal design
  • cross-sectional study
  • follow-up wave
  • experimentA study in which the researcher deliberately changes one factor and measures the effect on another, while keeping other conditions as constant as possible.
  • correlationA statistical relationship in which two variables change together, in the same direction (positive) or in opposite directions (negative), without showing which causes which.
  • sampleThe group of people actually studied in research, chosen from a larger population so that the results can, ideally, be generalised to it.
  • developmental milestoneA skill that most children reach within a typical age range, such as smiling, sitting, walking or saying first words, used to track development.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Research Methods and Statistics

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