Capturing Complexity Through Longitudinal Research: The Canadian Paths on Life’s Way Project

In this chapter, I use the Canadian 33-year Paths on Life’s Way (Paths) project as a specific example of the general case of longitudinal research to illustrate the opportunities and challenges in collecting and analysing longitudinal data. I begin by situating the Paths project within the genre of longitudinal research and describe the development of a longitudinal project from beginning to end. Next, challenges in securing funding are discussed, followed by a reflection on how research questions evolve across time in relation to changing theories, societal contexts, world views, and findings from previous waves of data collection. Methodological and analytical opportunities and challenges are addressed by highlighting techniques that are particularly conducive to longitudinal data analysis. The chapter concludes with a discussion of different ways to extend analyses, including expanding number of the study participants, adding supplementary information from other sources, and conducting comparative longitudinal analyses.