November 2017: The Center for Child Well-being and Development at the University of Zurich along with the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development conducted a workshop on longitudinal studies on 30 November 2017 at the University of Zurich.
Longitudinal studies are often the way to analyze long-term development. By its nature, such studies require repeated observation of study subjects over a long period of time. This poses several challenges, for example related to sampling, tracking strategies, and ethical concerns.
This interdisciplinary workshop, organized by the Jacobs Center, focused on the best practices, challenges, and opportunities in the context of longitudinal studies. The workshop brought together international experts working on the design and maintenance of longitudinal panels. The aim of the workshop was to help researchers who are in the process of starting a longitudinal study to recognize caveats and to improve their study designs.