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Narratives of childlessness: using quantitative longitudinal data to create life histories. Roona Simpson, CRFR, Univers

Narratives of childlessness: using quantitative longitudinal data to create life histories. Roona Simpson, CRFR, University of Edinburgh Jane Elliott, CLS, Institute of Education.

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Narratives of childlessness: using quantitative longitudinal data to create life histories. Roona Simpson, CRFR, Univers

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  1. Narratives of childlessness: using quantitative longitudinal data to create life histories. Roona Simpson, CRFR, University of Edinburgh Jane Elliott, CLS, Institute of Education

  2. The level of detail about individual lives often more than would be available through qualitative interviews, allows for individual life histories that take account of multitude factors across various domains. In a prospective study will provide information that isn’t dependent on recall. Information on changes over time both at the individual and the societal level: individual life histories can be situated in the framework of wider economic, political and social transformations, thereby allowing a focus on the specific contexts shaping individual experiences. Potential benefits:

  3. Detailed individual profiles or case studies can be used to illustrate the results of conventional quantitative analysis. They can be used to stimulate hypotheses about factors that work in combination to produce specific outcomes for individuals, in some cases as a precursor to more conventional statistical analysis (Singer et. al. 1998) Use of life histories in research:

  4. Childlessness by Birth Cohort (%),Females, Age 45.England and WalesSource: ONS Birth Statistics, Series FM l, Table 10.5

  5. “Women want to ‘have it all’, but biology is unchanged; deferring defies nature and risks heartbreak” Bewley S, Davies M, Braude P. ‘Which Career First?’, British Medical Journal 331 (2005),17th September:588-589

  6. Four British Birth Cohort Studies 1946 (National Survey of Health and Development) 1958 (National Child Development Study) 1970 (British Cohort Study) 2000 (Millennium Cohort Study) Children (over 17,000) born between March 3-9 1958. Sample followed at ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42, 46, 50 Multipurpose study: family life; education; employment; skills; housing; health; finances. Data also collected from parents, teachers and medical professionals. National Child Development Survey

  7. NCDS4 Questionnaire, ‘Family Plans’: Would you like to have any (more) children of your own? [Yes, No, Don’t Know] How many children would you like altogether? [Number, Don’t know/uncertain] (if No) Why don’t you want any (more) children? [Probe fully. Record Verbatim] NCDS8 Questionnaire, ‘Views’: People with no kids are missing out. Unless you have kids, you will be lonely in old age. Can have fulfilling life with no kids.

  8. Age 11 Essays: “Imagine you are now 25 years old. Write about the life you are leading, your interests, your home life and your work at the age of 25”. Age 50 Interviews: “Tell us about your life” ‘Social Participation and Identity’ Study. Interviewees selected in relation to geographic region and social mobility. As well as information on social engagement, interviewees were invited to say what they considered had been important in their life, and the main points of their life story from their own perspective. NCDS: Qualitative Data

  9. The connection of events into a sequence that is consequential for later action and for the meanings the narrator wants the audience to take away (Reismann 2008) Discourses with a clear sequential order that connect events in a meaningful way for a definite audience and thus offer insights about the world and/or people’s experiences of it (Hinchman and Hinchman 1997). Narrative encompass three essential elements – they are chronological, meaningful, and inherently social in that they are produced for a particular audience (Elliott, 2005). Defining Narrative:

  10. Elliott, J. (2005) Using Narrative in Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Sage: London. Hinchman, L.P. and Hinchman S. K. (1997) ‘Introduction’, in Hinchman and Hinchman (eds.) Memory, Identity, Community: The idea of Narrative in the Social Sciences. New York: State University of New York. Reismann, C.K. (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences, Sage: London. Singer, B., Rhyff, C.D., Carr, D. and Magee, W. J. (1998) ‘Linking life-histories and mental health: a person centered strategy’, Sociological Methodology, 28: 1-51. References:

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