2019 Volume 30 Issue 4 Pages 299-314
Because longitudinal cohort studies involve ongoing relationships between researchers and collaborators, it should be a meaningful experience for all involved. We implemented children's camps emphasizing self-determination from infancy to adolescence, and conducted follow-up with researchers and collaborators. We aimed to develop an exploratory model of this life-span study by (1) exploring the meaning of the experience of the 19 researchers and 20 collaborators, and (2) interpreting the transformation of the relationship between researchers and collaborators when the children became 30 to 50 years of age. Analysis of the researchers' and collaborators' autobiographies and narrative reviews of the camps found that (1) the researchers used self-reflection in order to support the children's self-determination/fulfillment, (2) the collaborators trusted researchers and bonded with peers based on their shared experience of acceptance/fulfillment, which influenced their subsequent lifestyles, and (3) researchers and collaborators developed “equal dialogical relationships” over five distinct periods. These equal relationships were attributed to the role of the researchers, who always reflected, spoke evenly, and interacted with the children. This approach, which sees collaborators also actively constructing equal relationships with researchers, can be used as an exploratory model for life-span longitudinal studies, and for furthering our understanding of collaborative construction of psychological realities.
