Understanding changes that occur during childhood and adolescence is a primary goal of developmental psychology and is of great interest to parents, healthcare providers, educators, and researchers. Also of great interest is understanding what circumstances, experiences, and behaviors in childhood and adolescence are related to better and worse outcomes later in life.
One of the important research strategies to understand how changes over time are related to outcomes of interest is to conduct longitudinal studies.
Observing and measuring behaviors of individuals at different time points can generate valuable information regarding how both positive (good physical and mental health; academic and vocational achievement; social adjustment) and negative outcomes (poor physical and mental health; underachievement; vocational problems; antisocial behavior) may be related to earlier precursors.........