Modeling the Days of Our Lives: Using Survival Analysis When Designing and Analyzing Longitudinal Studies of Duration and the Timing of Events

Psychologists studying whether and when events occur face unique design and analytic difficulties. The fundamental problem is how to handle censored observations, the people for whom the target event does not occur before data collection ends. The methods of survival analysis overcome these difficul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological bulletin 1991-09, Vol.110 (2), p.268-290
Main Authors: Singer, Judith D, Willett, John B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Events
Experiences (Events)
Experimental Design
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics. Statistics. Methodology
Social research
Statistical Analysis
Statistics. Mathematics
Survival analysis
Survival strategy
Time Perspective
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Summary:Psychologists studying whether and when events occur face unique design and analytic difficulties. The fundamental problem is how to handle censored observations, the people for whom the target event does not occur before data collection ends. The methods of survival analysis overcome these difficulties and allow researchers to describe patterns of occurrence, compare these patterns among groups, and build statistical models of the risk of occurrence over time. This article presents a unified description of survival analysis that focuses on 2 topics: study design and data analysis. In the process, we show how psychologists have used the methods during the past decade and identify new directions for future application. The presentation is based on our own experience with the methods in modeling employee turnover and examples drawn from research on mental health, addiction, social interaction, and the life course.
ISSN:0033-2909
1939-1455
DOI:10.1037/0033-2909.110.2.268