Developmental Study Descriptive Design

Choosing the appropriate research design is crucial to any research undertaking. Research designs serve as the guide of the researcher in the data collection and analysis. One of the quantitative designs is the descriptive design. This design aims to describe the characteristics of a given population systematically. Quantitative research designs nowadays employ the collection of data over time to examine the development of ideas and trends (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Concerning this, one study that utilizes this design is Developmental Study. The purpose of developmental research is to describe and assess changes over a period of time. Types of this study include (1) cross-sectional research, (2) longitudinal research, and (3) cross-sequential research. Cross-sectional research compares samples that represent a cross-section of the population. The data in this study are collected and measured only once. This is the least expensive of the three types. On the other hand, longitudinal research involves studying the respondents over a long period of time. This poses a problem with costs and subjects, which may drop out of the study at any time. Lastly, cross-sequential research combines aspects of the previous techniques. It begins with a cross-sectional sample and measures it through time. Similar to longitudinal research, using this method is expensive, and attrition is also possible.