longitudinal design
Definition
Longitudinal design refers to a research approach in which the same participants are measured repeatedly across multiple time points, allowing researchers to examine how variables remain stable or change over time. In the study of White Americans' subjective status perceptions during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, a five-wave longitudinal design was used with a representative quota sample of 506 non-Hispanic White Americans, tracking attitudes from early September through Election Day. Stability in the measured constructs was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients, which ranged from .66 to .82 across the status indicators, indicating moderate to high consistency across waves. This approach also permitted tests of whether associations between perceived last-place status and outcomes such as DEI ban support and Trump vote were moderated by wave, which they were not.
Sources: Kukharkin et al. (2026)
Related Terms
- political psychology (1 shared article)
- status (1 shared article)
- economic inequality (1 shared article)
- latent profile analysis (1 shared article)
Applications
Longitudinal Design and Temporal Stability of Political Attitudes
A five-wave longitudinal design enabled the authors to test whether the association between perceived last-place status and political outcomes, including support for DEI bans and for Donald Trump, changed as the 2024 election approached. Wave did not moderate any of these associations, indicating that the relationships between subjective racial status perceptions and political attitudes were consistent across the entire measurement period.
Sources: Kukharkin et al. (2026)
Longitudinal Design and Latent Profile Analysis
The longitudinal structure of the study allowed the same four-profile latent solution, derived from White Americans' within-group and between-group status perceptions, to be evaluated across repeated waves. High intraclass correlations for the status indicators confirmed that profile membership reflected stable individual differences rather than momentary fluctuations, grounding the latent profile solution in durable subjective perceptions rather than measurement noise.
Sources: Kukharkin et al. (2026)
