[Traminer-users] linking short sequences with clusters based on long sequences

[Rimantas Vosylis]

Dear Traminer users and experts,

 

I wrote this question few weeks ago but no one answered. I will make it
brief this time, so maybe I will get some response :)

 

I am interested in transitions to adulthood. I have two groups one is called
30-year-olds and another one -  25-year-olds. For both of these groups I
have a sequence of life situation statuses. For 30-year-olds the sequence is
longer than for 25-year-olds.

 

I want find the typology these sequences (transitions to adulthood) and I
also want to assign sequences of 25-year-olds and 30-year-olds to these
types (trajectories).

So the main issue for me is how can I assign the 25-year-olds that have
shorter sequences to the clusters that  were found based on analyses that
also would include 30-year-old group. 

I came up with several strategies, but I am not sure which on is better, or
maybe there is something else I can do but I don't know.

 

1.       The first strategy is that I simply run optimal matching
calculations for the full dataset (including the ones that have long
sequences and shorter ones) and those that have shorter ones' are already
assigned to some cluster. 

Q1. My first question to You is: does this seem like a valid strategy to
assign 25-year-olds to the clusters that are actually created using also
30-year-olds? 

 

2. The second strategy is that I first analyze only 30-year-olds, then I
extract ideal types representing each cluster, then I include these ideal
types into dataset of only 25-year-olds and I rerun Optimal matching
analysis. Then based on the shortest distance from each ideal type sequence
to each participants' sequence I assign them to those clusters. Something
similar was discussed by Martin, P., Schoon, I., Ross, A., Beyond
Transitions: Applying Optimal Matching to Life Course Research 

 

Q2. Does this seem like a more valid strategy than the first one? 

 

Q3. Perhaps You could provide another option on how to do such assigning?

 

I would really appreciate any help on any of these questions. 

 

Rimantas

 

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