Title: Research designs in survey research
Course: UGQuants (SSPS) > Section: Survey Design

Research designs in survey research

There are three key types of research design in survey research: cross-sectional, longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional.

Cross-sectional surveys | Provide a one-off ‘snapshot’ of the phenomenon we are interested in. It is not possible to explore change over time using a cross-sectional study.
Longitudinal studies | Collect information from the respondents at at least two time points with the aim of exploring and assessing change and stability over time. Longitudinal surveys require considerable investment of resources of both time and money and can face particular difficulties of attrition (the loss of respondents at successive sweeps of data collection). The Growing Up in Scotland Study is an example of a longitudinal survey.
Repeated cross-sectional surveys | Ask the same questions at different time points but survey different respondents. Such surveys may allow a limited analysis of change over time at the aggregate level, but we cannot assess change at the individual level. An example of a repeated cross-sectional survey is the Labour Force Survey.