Abstract
The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study is a longitudinal investigation of the health and development of 1037 people born in Dunedin in 1972-1973. Many of these people have now had their own children. A project focusing on this next generation of the study was initiated in 2006, with a view to documenting generational change. A protocol was developed to understand the lives of the 15-year old children of the original study participants. The complexity of living situations experienced by contemporary whanau/families over the 15 years of the participants' lives required a versatile and comprehensive approach. However, there is a dearth of methodologies capable of depicting the range of living arrangements, life and health events which may be encountered. The authors developed a new type of Life History Calendar, completed separately by parents and young people, designed to capture this diversity and complexity. We will be discussing how and why we developed this calendar, some of the challenges and problems encountered with the methodology and how well it fulfils its aims.