Summarising Complex Longitudinal Data – Sometimes Less is More

This is a live-stream of an on-campus event. If you are a University of Edinburgh student or staff member and would prefer to attend in person, please register for the on-campus event using the following link: summarising-complex-longitudinal-data.eventbrite.co.uk

This seminar forms part of the Research Training Centre's Talking Methods seminar series delivered in association with the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science.

Abstract

For my current research I was interested in exploring how exposure to domestic abuse in the household was related to children's social and emotional developmentary trajectories. I worked with cohort data from the Growing Up in Scotland survey and wanted to summarise trajectories of internalising, externalising and prosocial behaviours over four times points in children's lives using repeated measurements. This led me down a rabbit hole where I learned how to apply group-based trajectory analysis, also known as latent class trajectory modelling, to extract developmental trajectories. In the end, after considering what this complex method had to offer for the data I was using it on, I opted to summarise the same data in a much simpler way, by pooling together standardised scores across time points. This was an interesting exercise of immersion and apprehension of new methods, as well as an exercise in learning to let go of fancy methods in situations where simpler approaches can achieve the same task.

Biography

Dr Valeria Skafida is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh. Her research uses mostly longitudinal social survey data to look at changes in children’s health and wellbeing over time. She is currently undertaking longitudinal quantitative research to explore how children are affected by growing up in homes where mothers experience domestic abuse.

University Profile: www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/valeria-skafida