Detecting and Correcting Attrition Bias in Longitudinal Family Research

Keywords

attrition bias, external validity, Heckman's proce- dure, internal validity, longitudinal studi

Abstract

Bias due to the attrition of respondents poses a threat to the internal and external validity offind- ings in longitudinal family research. Differences in characteristics between two samples at initial and subsequent waves is a threat to external va- lidity, and differences in the relationships be- tween variables in the samples is a threat to inter- nal validity. Methods of detecting attrition bias are discussed, and Heckman's procedure to cor- rect attrition bias is presented. Data from the University of Southern California Longitudinal Study of Generations (N = 2,044) are used to il- lustra

Original Publication Citation

Miller, R.B., & Wright, D. (1995). Correction for attrition bias in longitudinal analyses. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 921-929.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

1995-11

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/5369

Publisher

Journal of Marriage and Family

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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