Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Social Research Methodology on 24/01/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13645579.2017.1279915
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Assembling life history narratives from quantitative longitudinal panel data
T2 - what’s the story for families using social work?
AU - Sharland, Elaine
AU - Holland, Paula Jane
AU - Henderson, Morag
AU - Zhang, Meng Le
AU - Cheung, Sin Yi
AU - Scourfield, Jonathan
PY - 2017/11/1
Y1 - 2017/11/1
N2 - Embedded within quantitative longitudinal panel or cohort studies is narrative potential that is arguably untapped but might enrich our understanding of individual and social lives across time. This paper discusses a methodology to assemble the life history narratives of families using social work by drawing on quantitative data from the British Household Panel Survey. It explores whether this person-centred approach helps us to understand the counter-intuitive results of a parallel multivariate analyses, which suggest that families using social work fare worse than similar others over time. Our findings are tentative, due to the experimental use of this narrative method and the limits of social work information in the data-set. Nonetheless, the life histories presented bring to light complexities, diversity and the non-linear pathways between families’ needs, support and outcomes that the aggregates obscure. We conclude that reconstructing families’ lives in this way, especially in the absence of complementary longitudinal qualitative data, affords the wider opportunity to interrogate and better understand the findings of quantitative longitudinal studies.
AB - Embedded within quantitative longitudinal panel or cohort studies is narrative potential that is arguably untapped but might enrich our understanding of individual and social lives across time. This paper discusses a methodology to assemble the life history narratives of families using social work by drawing on quantitative data from the British Household Panel Survey. It explores whether this person-centred approach helps us to understand the counter-intuitive results of a parallel multivariate analyses, which suggest that families using social work fare worse than similar others over time. Our findings are tentative, due to the experimental use of this narrative method and the limits of social work information in the data-set. Nonetheless, the life histories presented bring to light complexities, diversity and the non-linear pathways between families’ needs, support and outcomes that the aggregates obscure. We conclude that reconstructing families’ lives in this way, especially in the absence of complementary longitudinal qualitative data, affords the wider opportunity to interrogate and better understand the findings of quantitative longitudinal studies.
KW - Life history
KW - narrative
KW - panel and cohort studies
KW - mixed methods
KW - social work
U2 - 10.1080/13645579.2017.1279915
DO - 10.1080/13645579.2017.1279915
M3 - Journal article
VL - 20
SP - 667
EP - 679
JO - International Journal of Social Research Methodology
JF - International Journal of Social Research Methodology
SN - 1364-5579
IS - 6
ER -