Levensloopanalyses

Levensloopanalyse, or life course analysis, is a set of quantitative and qualitative methods used to study the paths individuals follow through different life domains—such as education, work, family, and health—over time. It treats life as a sequence of states and transitions, and emphasizes the timing, ordering, duration, and sequencing of events, as well as the cumulative effects of earlier life conditions on later outcomes.

Data for leversloopanalyse typically come from longitudinal or retrospective life histories, panel surveys, or administrative records, which allow researchers to observe state at successive time points. Common analytic approaches include sequence analysis for comparing life trajectories, trajectory or group-based trajectory modeling to identify typical patterns, and multistate or event history models to estimate transition probabilities between states. Researchers may also use latent class analysis or growth models to capture heterogeneity in trajectories and relate life-course patterns to outcomes such as employment, health, or well-being.

Applications span labor market research, family formation and dissolution, retirement, health trajectories, migration, and social inequality. The life course perspective emphasizes the interplay of individual choices, social context, and public policies, and seeks to understand how early life conditions and cumulative exposure shape later life.

Limitations include data quality concerns, recall bias in retrospective histories, censoring and missing data, and the complexity of modelling multiple domains simultaneously. Ethical considerations and interpretability are important, as life course analyses often inform policy decisions affecting individuals.