The longitudinal design is important because time is a factor in this study of cognitive abilities. If these children were only studied in grade 2 their would be no previous information to compare the data to.
A longitudinal study was important because the researchers wanted to study the effects of various factors on cognitive factors. These factors were measured several times during the study. If they had only studied the children in grade two, they would of had to rely on daycare and school records, as well as on the memories of parents or caregivers. They would not have been able to obtain reliable measures and this would have created confounds in their study.
The researchers used a longitudinal design because they were interested to see if the type of care the preschoolers recieved would predict cognitive development in the children when they were in elementry at the age of 8.
The researchers use a longitudinal design to gather appropriate baseline mesures of cognitvie, math, and verbal abilities. This study was designed to show that early childhood day-care had a dramatic influence on future development.
Longitudinal designs are used to take individual differences, which exist at the outset of the study, into account.Children vary greatly in their cognitive abilities, and without comparing their scores in grade two to previous scores, the researchers could not conclude that it was the daycare which affected their cognition.
Why did they decide to use only 4 waves of data collection over 7 years? I agree time is an important factor in this design; to see whether or not particular types of caregiving effects children's cognitive abilities. However, children also learn at different times, in different ways and resond better to certain environments. What if these environments had an affect on their cognitive abilites (ie: abusive environment )during the time in which there was no data collection occuring (there is alot of time in 7 years minus 4 visits from experimenters) How would the researchers determine if the affect was definatly from the daycare, or maybe from other factors not discussed?
The longitudinal study was necessary because they were keeping track of outside factors that may have effected their research. By using the same individuals it is more likely that any improvements to their skills were due to daycare and nothing else. It improves the credibility of the results.
A longitudinal study was necessary in this study to establish a baseline measure of certain abilities to use as a comparison with future measures. Having a number of checkpoints along the way also gave the researchers an idea of how various situations and times affected the child's measures of different abilities. This is important since not all children have had the same experiences at 2 or by the time they reach 8 years of age.
The researchers used a longitudinal design so they could study the children over a long period of time.With a longitudinal design they could monitor a variety of factors that occurred within them over time.If they would of started their research when the children where in grade 2 then they would be missing out on information on how the child was before daycare,therefore they could not tell if the children were better at there skills because of the daycare or if they were just smarter before the daycare.
By DonnaR on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:00 pm:
By Keri on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:01 pm:
The longitudinal design was used to see if the kind of pre-school care a child recieves helps shape what kind of cognitive capabilities the child will have later on in grade school, long term effects.
If they had just studied the children in grade two, they would not have seen if there were certain points from preschool to school that it appeared the type of care was a predictor for cognitive capabilities.
By Darren Behr on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:03 pm:
By Brandi G. on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:06 pm:
By Filgate C. on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:07 pm:
By Lynne on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:11 pm:
By Lori on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:13 pm:
By Dupuis on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:46 pm: