Abstract
This chapter focuses on the nature and design of the mixed method longitudinal data that informs this book. Longitudinal panel studies are especially effective tools for analysing the dynamic lives of young people and tracing the intersections of individual biographies with societal processes across time. In this chapter we focus on the ways in which the longitudinal mixed methods design of the Life Patterns research program has provided insight into the lives of two generations of Australian young adults, focusing specifically on how it has made both change and continuity visible, and in so doing shedding light on old and new inequalities, and problematising the very concept of transitions. The research program has several distinctive features. It is a panel longitudinal study, which means that it tracks the same people over time; it tracks two cohorts of Australian young people, the first of whom left secondary school in 1991 and the second in 2006; it uses qualitative and quantitative research tools which inform each other; it generates data on young people’s lives and records their subjective understandings; and it contains a participatory element. We consider three important aspects that have emerged from the analysis of the data to highlight both the design features of the research program, and the affordances of this design. Firstly, we consider entrenched patterns of gender inequality in the field of work that are inconsistent with the equality of participation evident in the sphere of education. Secondly, we examine the impact of precarious employment on the lives of cohort 2, including their emerging consciousness that insecure work is the new norm. Thirdly, we discuss spatial and residential mobility trends in both Life Patterns cohorts to illuminate inter-generational differences in housing and mobility opportunities. Using the insights from this analysis, we demonstrate how this longitudinal design has provided a platform for researchers interested in examining entrenched assumptions about inequality and youth transitions in a period of rapid social change.
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The use of the term ‘vanguard’ is not to imply a ‘celebration’ of this group, but simply to indicate that they were establishing a new pattern.
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Cuervo, H., Cook, J. (2020). Understanding Young Lives Through Longitudinal Research Design. In: Wyn, J., Cahill, H., Woodman, D., Cuervo, H., Leccardi, C., Chesters, J. (eds) Youth and the New Adulthood. Perspectives on Children and Young People, vol 8. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3365-5_2
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