Life lessons: a longitudinal study

Professor Johanna Wyn transcends time and space. Not personally, that is, but by mapping the entire lives of participants in her research project, Life Patterns, at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, with colleagues Hernan Cuervo, Graeme Smith, Jessica Crofts, and with Dan Woodman in the School of Social and Political Science. 

The project has followed two cohorts of participants since they left high school. The first stage commenced in 1991, with a group of young people – born around 1973 – who were just completing their secondary education. Fifteen years later, a second group of participants – born around 1989 – was recruited at the same life-stage. Their decisions and actions have been tracked since then and examined in their own right and comparitively. 

Voice asked Professor Wyn how studies like Life Patterns are executed, and what kind of information they offer. 

VOICE: What methods do you use to study people over the course of an entire life?

Professor Johanna Wyn (JW): We use mixed methods that capture broad data on how they are faring in life. Then we go deeper with interviews on a number of specific issues. It is like the geology process of first mapping the terrain and then digging deeper. 

VOICE: How do you go about recruiting people to this kind of research? What happens if they change their minds about wanting to participate at some point?

JW: We recruited at schools, TAFE and other places of education. Participants are reminded every time we send them a survey that their involvement is voluntary and they can withdraw at any time.

VOICE: What is the most valuable aspect of this kind of information to society as a whole? In what fields is it most important?

JW: Many studies, while valuable, are a snapshot of a social phenomenon at a single moment in time. Our Life Patterns study has the advantage of looking over several years; the decisions, actions, choices and aspirations of two generations over different aspects of their lives. 

For example, we can compare and contrast participants’ goals when they left secondary school to what really happened later in life. 

The Life Patterns research program looks at education, employment, health, and family issues. It makes connections between different spheres of life and how they impact or influence each other rather than looking at each sphere as its own separate and individual world. We look at young people – not as students or workers or siblings or daughters – but as students and workers and family members.

VOICE: How lasting is the research impact of longitudinal cohort studies?

JW: This is an ongoing longitudinal study that has the advantage of following people in real time to understand young people’s and young adult’s choices and actions over the years. 

VOICE: How do participants feel about their involvement – what kind of experiences do they report?

JW: In 2004 we were thinking of ending the study of the first cohort. We continued with the study however, when we were overwhelmingly exhorted by many of these participants to continue. We try to make our participants feel valued and make every effort to communicate our results to them.

They confirmed that the Life Patterns surveys represented an opportunity for them to reflect on how their lives were going and where they wanted to go in the future. Many said that receiving regular updates on the findings was a unique chance to compare themselves to others, and to understand their entire generation. 

Professor Johanna Wyn specialises in the sociology of education, youth, transitions and life patterns. Her recent publications include Education that equips young people in changing times (Melbourne University Press, pp56-72, 2013); Youth Policy and Generations: Why Youth Policy Needs to ‘Rethink Youth’ (Social Policy and Society. 12:265-275, 2013) and Gen X Women and the Gender Revolution: Pioneers or Traditionalists? (2012) among many more.