Cross-sectional surveys are effective tools for collecting information regarding peoples’ current experiences (Creswell, 2012). If your research question pertains to the current attitudes, opinions, or beliefs of a population–or even draws comparisons between different groups–at a single point in time, then conducting a cross-sectional survey is likely the right choice for you. Cross-sectional surveys are like a snapshot in time, capturing a group’s sentiments at a particular moment.
Deakin University. (n.d.). Cross-sectional study. Deakin University Libguides. https://deakin.libguides.com/quantitative-study-designs/cross-sectional
Cross-sectional studies can be easier to organize and have lower costs than longitudinal studies because respondents are only surveyed once. However, this means that cross-sectional studies cannot be used to track changes over time or determine causation. A causal relationship cannot be determined from a single observation. For that reason, cross-sectional studies cannot be used to disentangle the effects of age, time, and cohort.
For Example…
Let’s say you are interested in researching the mental state of young adults who engage in regular exercise and who do not during the exam period at school. You survey a group of college students, appropriately sampling individuals that do and do not exercise, asking them about their current mental state.
When you analyze your results, you may find the average reported difference in mental health status between active students and non-active students is lower than you expected it to be. You are not able to determine whether this is due to their levels of exercise or due to the ongoing exam season, which induces stress and worry. In other words, you cannot easily disentangle the effect of being active from the effect of the exam pressure. Ideally, you would want to compare the mental state of the cohort of active young adults during exam season to the mental heath of the cohort of active and non-active adults at another point in the semester to more fully understand the intersections between exercise and historical moment. But a one-time cross-sectional survey is not able to provide those comparisons.
Cross-sectional surveys may seem like an ideal choice for student research, in part because of time and funding constraints. However, there is a tradeoff between saving time and money and losing out on analytical power.
Below are some other pros and cons to conducting cross-sectional studies that you will need to consider (Carr et al., 2018).
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Effective for getting a snapshot from a specific point in time | Ineffective for tracking trends across time |
| Lower cost because usually only conducted once | Difficult to disentangle which variables affect results |
| Relatively easy to administer | Difficult to make inferences about reasons behind findings |
