Upcoming Workshops
Strategies for Addressing Attrition in Longitudinal Studies
This is a virtual workshop. Zoom details will be shared with NIMLAS members prior to the event date. The workshop recording and related materials will be made available on our website 1-2 weeks after the workshop.
March 13, 2025 9:00am – 11:00am ET
Peter Lynn
Abstract: The workshop will focus on state-of the-art design and analysis strategies for addressing attrition in longitudinal studies. The objective is to provide participants with the basic components of a toolkit that can be used to consider and address attrition in a holistic way on any longitudinal survey. The session will begin with an overview of the importance of addressing attrition, identifying the ways in which attrition can affect the value and usability of longitudinal survey data. These potential impacts of attrition lead us directly towards the desired properties of strategies that we might consider to deal with attrition. Those strategies fall broadly into two categories: a) design and data collection strategies that aim to affect the nature of observed attrition in some desired way, and b) adjustment strategies that aim to improve the utility of the survey data in some way, conditional on the observed attrition. An overview of strategies of each type will be provided, including evidence of likely/possible statistical effects of the strategy as well as practical guidance on implementation of the strategy.
Bio: Peter Lynn is full professor of survey methodology at the University of Essex, UK. He is Director of Survey Futures, a major national initiative in the UK that aims to engage all sectors involved in social surveys – clients, data collection agencies, data and research users, and academic survey methodologists – in seeking ways of ensuring that it remains possible to carry out high quality public sector and academic surveys. This involve tackling research, capacity and procedural questions. Peter is also co-investigator of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, and is a member of the core scientific team of the European Social Survey. He is editor of two monograph volumes on the methodology of longitudinal surveys, published by Wiley in 2009 and 2021 and the author of over 100 journal articles and book chapters.