Longitudinal Grounded Theory — Grounded Theory Across Time

Longitudinal grounded theory is a qualitative research design that applies grounded theory's inductive, iterative logic to data collected from the same participants or settings across multiple time points. It is used to build substantive theory that accounts not only for social processes but also for how those processes unfold, shift, and are renegotiated over time. The approach is particularly suited to studying change, trajectory, and temporal experience in social and health research.