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 life-course, 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, trust-building 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

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

Data collection