TWINNING FOR YOUTH

Longitudinal studies follow people over an extended period to collect data that shape our understanding of life trajectories. The collection and analysis of these data is a research specialism of academics based in Southampton’s ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) and Centre for Population Change (CPC).

Insights into the transition from youth to adulthood can lead to better support and outcomes for young adults. A new twinning programme between Southampton and three other European universities is working to shape the design of a study that will enable this understanding of young people in Estonia.

YouthLife is a three-year twinning project led by Tallinn University that will bring in the expertise of sociologists from the University of Southampton, the University of Bamberg in Germany, and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute. Together, they will shape the design of a new Estonian Longitudinal Study of Youth to better understand the critical transition from teen to adult.

The study will track young people’s education and employment trajectories, following them from school through to creating families, and monitoring their health behaviours. It will bridge qualitative and quantitative approaches to life course research.

The Southampton research team comprises Ros Edwards, Professor of Sociology, Ann Berrington, Professor of Demography and Social Statistics, and Susie Weller, Senior Research Fellow.

Ros explained: “It’s not a one-way project, that’s the exciting part. We’re all learning from each other. At Southampton, we have expertise in qualitative and quantitative longitudinal research methods, and how to design a longitudinal survey, as well as how to mix quantitative and qualitative together.

“Mine and Susie’s expertise is in the qualitative aspect – studying young people over time through a whole range of methods such as interviews and documents and visual methods, and how to analyse that data. Ann is an expert on life course research using quantitative longitudinal methods.”

Academics at Bamberg are world-renowned for their demographic methods, and the team in the Netherlands specialises in population and demographic trends.

Sharing expertise

YouthLife, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, kicked off in 2020 with an online seminar series in which project partners shared elements of their work.

In 2022, the Southampton team will be delivering a qualitative longitudinal research package and a mixed methods workshop. Ros said: “We will be sharing our expertise in interviewing in person and online, in creative

Professor of Sociology methods, and in retrospective methods – looking back at various aspects of people’s past – and prospective methods where you are tracking people through time.

“We’ll also be sharing knowledge around analysis. We’ll be teaching the ‘breadth and depth’ method, which is a method of analysing large amounts of qualitative data that was developed here at the NCRM. We’ll also be teaching Visual Analysis, and the ‘I Poems’ analytic method. I Poems are very powerful in understanding someone’s sense of themselves and how they convey that to other people. You can use them longitudinally to look at how someone’s sense of self shifts over time.”

The value of longitudinal

Studies that follow people over extended periods of time are invaluable at enabling insights into various stages of people’s lives.

“We’re blessed in the UK with longitudinal studies, which are really rich with data,” said Ros. “Some of the studies here have been from birth through to older age. In the UK they have tended to be quantitative but they are starting to include more qualitative data.”

Ros and Susie worked on the first major qualitative longitudinal study in the UK. The Timescapes study, which ran from 2007, followed groups of people at different stages of life, from childhood to older age, for up to a decade. The study has produced insights into the dynamics of personal relationships and family life. By ‘walking alongside’ individuals and family groups as their lives unfolded, the research captured the intricacies of biographical and intergenerational processes.

The twinning project will have wider outcomes than just the major longitudinal study of Estonia’s youth.

Ros concluded: “The intention is that we will also conduct research and write publications together, and collaborate on new ideas and projects. We’re also getting a strong sense of how to deliver international training, and we’re strengthening our capabilities in terms of research methods and substantive knowledge in the field.”