Longitudinal Study Cross sectional Study

Longitudinal Study vs. Cross-sectional Study
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Longitudinal Study vs. Cross-sectional Study
Circumstances
A researcher can prefer longitudinal research to a cross-sectional study when he wants to conduct repetitive observational research on a single subject over an extended time, say ten years. A researcher can also choose a longitudinal study when analyzing a cause and effect relationship among variables over time because it provides patterns and correlations efficiently. A longitudinal study is also preferable to cross-sectional research when one wants to examine developmental trends, for instance, across lifespans (Caruana, Roman, Hernández-Sánchez, & Solli, 2015). Unlike the longitudinal study, where study variables can change over time, the cross-sectional study is done in one instance with all study variables of the research subjects remaining constant throughout.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies have their advantages and disadvantages. The first advantage of a longitudinal study is that it allows the researcher to identify and correlate events to specific exposures and determine patterns, chronicity, and timing (Caruana et al., 2015). For example, one can easily explain the pattern or trends of Down syndrome in Children by studying them longitudinally from their birth to their later years. The second advantage of a longitudinal study is that the accuracy of data collecti…