Longitudinal Study Essay

Why the Longitudinal Study is best in Helping Children with Divorce

When parents divorce one of the main concerns is the child. Worrying about what kind of impact it will have on them has always been a concern for psychologists and parents alike. Having parent’s divorce can cause stressful situations with the child and their surroundings while trying to adjust to this new situation (Felner Terre & Rowlison 1994). There have been two different studies to research the impact on children and divorce. One of the most widely used methods is the cross-section study which can compare different population groups at a single point in time. The other study which seems to be more suited in studying children and divorce is the longitudinal study.

This type of study is done over a long period of time and allows researchers and psychologists the understanding of how children adjust to divorce in different phases of their lives. The longitudinal study has its pros and cons, but in the end it is the best method to give the most thorough information on what impact divorce has on children and what problems a child may develop during this trying time.
Long Term Studies Show Impacts
Long term studies have shown that one of the major impacts of divorce is the parent-child relationship, and how it seems to weaken the family and the parents’ relationship with their children in every phase of research.

This has a lot to with how old the child is, their gender, and if the child has a hard time with stress and coping. When stressful events are outnumbered by available protective factors, even children who seem to handle hard situations well can develop problems (Werner 1990). Research suggests that parent-child relationships who have problems associated with divorce seem to continue throughout the life course (Amato and

Booth,1996).

Advantages of Longitudinal Study
The longitudinal study is conducted at different times in a child’s life. Unfortunately most children do show some sort of negative effects that divorce has on them. It is said that children from broken families are more likely to not be content with their lives compared to children with families still intact (Furstenberg & Teitler, 1994). There are many advantages to conducting this type of study. One advantage would be that instead of a researchers gathering information from different children, they would actually be watching and recording the same children many different times, and over years and even decades. By conducting this type of study, researchers can compare and be sure that any changes in a child’s behavior is not just because the child is in a particular the developmental stage. By comparing the children over a long period of time, this gives them a much better understanding of the effects of divorce on a child. This is one powerful way in which researchers come to learn about cause-and-effect relationships. The main thing to keep in mind is that longitudinal studies go beyond a single moment in time. As a result, they can establish sequences of events and give you a better understanding (Ismal, pg. 1.)
Disadvantages of Longitudinal Study
Even though longitudinal studies are better, have more precise data, and are more accurate, there are some disadvantages to this type of study ("Research methods: Some Notes to Orient you,", pg.

4.). They are quite costly and time intensive, which makes this type of study more rarely conducted. The other disadvantage of this type of study is if the child being documenting throughout the years decides they do not want this anymore, the data collected is basically useless. One other disadvantage would be that it is extremely difficult for the same person to conduct the study over the years. This could have an impact on results, being that many different people may be taking over the testing at different times in a child’s

life.
Summary
Even though there are a few different methods to document children and divorce, the one method that stands out as being the most accurate is the longitudinal study. This study seems to give the best all around results in determining how divorce affects children, and what impacts it may have on their lives. Even though this study is the best choice in the child and divorce situation, unfortunately in our society it seems like time and money wins out over what would be the most accurate and beneficial study available.