From Quantitative to Qualitative: Adapting the Life History Calendar Method.” Field Methods

Since its inception, the life history calendar (LHC) methodology has been primarily used for large-scale quantitative life course research. In a metho-dological innovation, the study described in this article explores the poten-tial of a semistructured LHC to facilitate qualitative life course research. By merging the characteristic detail across multiple domains of the LHC with in-depth interviews, this semistructured protocol succeeds at producing nuanced longitudinal data. The author highlights benefits and limitations of this methodological innovation, as well as implementation advice. Practi-cal matters discussed include choosing time cues, defining domain cues, allowing for multiple starting points, recommended materials, and data anal-ysis. The article includes examples of semistructured life history calendars from a qualitative study of Latino young adults ’ educational trajectories