Title: Qualitative and quantitative narratives about individuals' lives: the British Cohort Studies as a resource for mixed methods research
1Qualitative and quantitative narratives about
individuals' lives theBritish Cohort Studies as
a resource for mixed methods research
Sub-brand to go here
- Jane Elliott
- Centre for Longitudinal Studies
CLS is an ESRC Resource Centre based at the
Institute of Education
2Aims of the presentation
- Introduce the British Cohort Studies as a
resource for the analysis of real lives - Design
- Content (closed and open questions)
- Opportunities for analysis
- Raise/discuss broader methodological issues
- Criticisms of quantitative research
- Narrative features of cohort data
- Possibilities and challenges when combining
qualitative and quantitative methods - Focus on gender in qualitative and quantitative
approaches - Practical emphasis with examples from two
projects - Preliminary analysis of essays written at age 11
- Overview of new project on social participation
3British Birth Cohort Studies
- Fully representative samples of the British
population - Based on one weeks births - approximately 17,000
babies - Followed up from birth into adulthood
- Four British Birth Cohort Studies
- 1946 National Survey of Health and Development
(MRC funded) - 1958 National Child Development Study
- 1970 British Cohort Study 1970
- 2000/1 Millennium Cohort Study
41958 Birth Cohort Study
- Representative sample of over 17,000 infants born
in March 1958 (Perinatal Mortality Study) - Sample followed at ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42, 46
(prospective study) - Multipurpose study family life education
employment skills housing health finances
citizenship - Focused bio-medical study at age 44 (MRC funded)
- Approximately 12,000 individuals are still
participating - Now core funded by ESRC with data collected every
four years
5NCDS follow-ups and sources of information
6Hypothetical life history
Age 16
2000
2004
1991
1981
Age 42
Age 46
Age 23
Age 33
7Narrative elements of cohort studies
- Allow us to trace lives through time understand
how childhood circumstances may impact on adult
outcomes - Potentially allow for the construction of
individual case studies based on detailed
information collected over the years (while
preserving confidentiality) - Allow for a focus on the historical context which
has helped shape individual experiences - Comparisons between cohorts can enable the
development of a narrative about social change
8Resources for mixed methods research
- Structured, numeric data collected longitudinally
- Analysis of questionnaires and other materials as
historical documents in their own right e.g.
focus on wording of questions - Textual material
- 1958 cohort Age 11 essays
- 1958 cohort Age 50 open ended question
- 1970 cohort answers to open questions at age 16
- Interview transcripts
9Approaches to mixing methods
- Text -gt quantitative codes -gt quantitative
analysis - Comparisons between groups ext
- Text -gt quantitative coding -gt analysis of the
text - Large sample -gt characteristics-gt selection of
sub-sample for qualitative work - Quantitative longitudinal data -gt case study of
an individual (Burton Singer approach)
10NCDS 11-year old Essays
- At age 11, in 1969 NCDS Cohort members completed
a short questionnaire (at school) about leisure
interests, preferred school subjects and
expectations on leaving school - They were also asked to write an essay on the
following topic - Imagine you are now 25 years old. Write about
the life you are leading, your interests, your
home life and your work at the age of 25. (You
have 30 minutes to do this). - 13669 essays completed, mean length 204 words
- Copies of the original essays (in childrens
handwriting) are available on microfiche at CLS
and are currently being digitised.
11Existing research on the essays
- A small sample of 521 essays have been coded for
word count - Boys 180 words
- Girls 228 words
- All essays have been coded for employment
aspirations, over 90 give a classifiable
occupation - No other systematic coding and analysis of the
essays has been carried out to date
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13Research project (March 2006- 2007) funded by the
Nuffield foundation (Elliott and Morrow)
- Pilot study
- Aimed to type up and code a sub-sample of 560
essays conduct preliminary descriptive analyses - Sample stratified to reflect gender ability
social class family structure - Essays were coded for themes such as
- family life leisure employment housing
expectations contact with parents pets
transport and travel aspirations vs expectations - Both qualitative and quantitative analysis
carried out using NVIVO.7 and SPSS to help
organize, code, and analyze the data
14Historical context being eleven in 1969
- Films and TV cultural reference for children,
discourses around gender and social class - Popular toys, games and activities
- Family life living conditions, housing, role of
mother and father - School life type of school, class sizes, gender
of teacher head teacher.
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16Popular toys of the 1960s
- The Toy of the year Awards began in 1965
- 1965 James Bond Aston Martin Die cast Model car
- 1966 Action Man
- 1967 Spirograph
- 1968 Sindy
- 1969 Hot Wheels Cars
171969 1970 Action man dolls
1969 1970 Sindy dolls
18August Isle of Wight Festival
1969
August UK troops in Belfast
January Beatles last ever live performance
March Concorde maiden flight
March Krays get life
July 21 Man on the Moon
19Home experiences
- 46 of the eleven-year-olds were living in
owner-occupied accommodation while 42 were in
council housing - 44 of children had their own bedroom
- 19 of girls and 16 of boys shared a bed with
another member of the family - 61 of mothers reported being in work at some
time since the child was seven (only 3.2 were
in professional or managerial occupations,
compared with 20 of fathers) - 66 of mothers reported that the father took an
equal role in managing the child and a further
24 described the father as having a significant
role
20School experiences (1969)
- The majority of children were in primary schools
when they wrote the essays - Only 4 of children were at independent schools
- At age 11 the median class size was 36 pupils
(mean 34.3), while at age 7 the median class size
had been 37 with a mean of 35.25 - 82 of children were in a school with a male
head-teacher - 45 of children had a female class teacher
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22Results themes in boys and girls essays
23Gender within quantitative and qualitative
approaches to research
- Gender (sex) within quantitative analysis is
relatively unproblematic,it is one of the easiest
variables to code, use and understand - There is an assumption that gender is constant
over time (for individuals) - Cross-cohort comparisons can be used to start
exploring whether the meaning of gender is
changing within British society - However it is only by adopting a qualitative
approach that we can problematise gender and
explore the individuals role in establishing
their own gendered identity - Qualitative analysis needs to acknowledge that
individuals can only act within the constraints
of a gendered society and have access to specific
resources with which to construct a gendered
identity - Also need to be aware that social class and
ethnicity are key components of identity and
interact with gender
24Narrative identity
- Narrative can be understood as a resource for
organising long sequences of events and
experiences into a coherent whole - Narrative provides a practical means by which the
individual can understand themselves as living
through time, a human subject with a past,
present, and future made whole by a narrative
plot with a beginning, middle and end. - Allows conceptualisation of individual as having
a continuous presence through time without
becoming fixed or essentialized - Identity as idem or ipse (identical or selfsame
soi-meme) permanence through time without
sameness through time (Ricoeur).
25The essay task creating a narrative identity?
- Striking that children all took the task of
writing an essay so seriously - Children understood that they were part of a
special longitudinal study - They had already taken part at age seven
(medical, parental interview, reading and maths
tests) - Only one or two children at each school would
have been part of the study - Essays were written at school and children had
already completed ability tests - Essay task demands an ability to imagine the
future - Future society but also an individual future
- Children are also being expected to imagine an
adult identity but to maintain a continuous sense
of their own selfhood (Ricoeur Ipse and Idem) - The main resources that children use successfully
to complete the task are the binary oppositions
of adult/child and male/female
26510168 I run a farm but it is not an ordinary
farm, it is a pet farm and I have many animals.
If someones pet has got hurt or burned I can
help it for I am a vet and many people come to
me. At home we are very happy with dogs, cats,
rabbits, baby lambs, chicks, ducklings and goats
around everywhere. My husband is a vet as well
and every weekend we go to the village to buy
food for us and the animals. I go on my horse
and my husband goes by the van. My sister often
visits us with her pet dog and cat. I exercise
the dogs by going for a 2 mile run every morning
and evening. Near our home is a wood and many
squirells and Deer come and visit us in the
morning and I cant resit giving them some thing
to eat. Farmer Browning who is our often
brings us some of his vegetables and fruit. as a
present of his cows or sheep get ill and we can
use it. The farm is in the country and it is very
peaceful in the day. In the night you can hear
an owl or two and sometimes in the old hay barn
you can hear a barn-owl and see some bats. I
love it in our farm and we wouldent swop the farm
for a million pounds nor the animals for I love
animals and birds very much. To much ever to sell
all of them.
Stellas essay at age 11
27Stella got a degree and married in September
1979. Her husband was two years older than her
and they met when she was 19 years old. The
marriage ended in 1983 when she was 25. In the
following year she started cohabiting with a new
partner. At age 23 she reports working 35 hours
per week but its not clear what her job
is. Brief summary of life at 46 Stella is now
50, when she was last interviewed, in 2004, she
was living with her cohabiting partner age 47 and
her two children aged 11 and 6. She is working as
a classroom assistant and describes their
financial situation as just about getting
by. She describes her health as excellent and
exercises regularly two or three times per week,
although she also reports drinking alcohol most
days. In terms of overall life-satisfaction she
reports a score of 7 out of 10.
28Social participation project Qualitative Sub-
study of NCDS 2008
- Social Participation and Identity combining
quantitative longitudinal data with a qualitative
investigation of a sub-sample of the 1958 Cohort
study - Joint project with CRESC at Manchester
- Jane Elliott
- Andy Miles
- Sam Parsons
- Mike Savage
- Funded by the ESRC Research Resources Board
29Qualitative component of 2008 sweep
- There is no history of including a qualitative
component with the main sweeps of data collection
for the cohort studies - Some sub-studies have adopted a qualitative
approach e.g. work on step-families (Paul
Thompson) - A small sub-sample of 180 of those interviewed as
part of the 2008 survey for NCDS will be asked to
take part in a second qualitative interview - Age 50 is an obvious time for reflection on
biography
30Objectives
- Provide a resource of qualitative biographical
data that can be used alongside the quantitative
data - Substantive focus on social participation across
the life course and what factors are the key
predictors of participation in mid-life - Understand more about cohort members experiences
of being in the study - Understand more about individual lives from the
perspective of the individuals themselves what
the quantitative interviews may be missing
31Collecting qualitative data?
- Benefits of collecting qualitative data
- Excellent sampling frame from which to design the
study - Detailed information about work histories
previous answers to questions - Information about responders and non-responders
- Ability to combine qualitative and quantitative
data and analysis - Methodological insights improving ways of
asking questions identifying important aspects
of individuals lives that we may not be covering - Gaining a better understanding of perceptions of
cohort members - Data in a form that might be more accessible for
dissemination to cohort members (improving long
term response)
32Collecting qualitative data?
- Potential risks of collecting qualitative data
- Respondent burden asking too much of cohort
members - Cohort members not used to qualitative open ended
style of interviewing - Need to be careful about preserving
confidentiality - Need to be clear about archiving and secondary
use of data
33Structure of sample for qualitative interviews
- Sampling will be theoretically led rather than a
simple random sample - 60 cohort members in three geographic regions
- Stratified in terms of social mobility measured
in terms of social class during childhood and
highest qualifications - Initial quantitative analysis is needed to define
sample more precisely
34Structure of the qualitative interview
- Aim for an average of ninety minutes
- Interviews tape recorded and transcribed verbatim
- Interview in three main parts
- Individuals current social participation and
leisure activities - Retrospective account of biography focusing on
key turning points and influences - Brief discussion of experiences of being in the
cohort study
35Conclusions/issues for discussion?
- To what extent does the 1958 cohort study answer
criticisms often made of quantitative research? - To what extent can cohort data be described as
having narrative qualities? - Can we resolve the tension between using
qualitative material to create a quantitative
indicator and performing a more wholehearted
qualitative analysis of the essays? - What are the advantages and disadvantages of
having a very large sample of textual material? - Is gender real?...does it have the same meaning
within both qualitative and quantitative
approaches to analysis?
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