This chapter introduces the sequence analysis methodological framework to study trajectories in a life course perspective and discusses its potential for occupational health research. Aside from a conceptual presentation of the main concepts, it also aims to provide general and practical recommendations on the main decisions to be made when using sequence analysis.

Regularly identified as one of the key approaches for life course analysis, sequence analysis aims to analyze trajectories described as a sequence of categorical states using a holistic perspective. It regroups methods ranging from visualization to explanatory methods and provides a comprehensive overview of the observed trajectories taken as a whole. This overview can then be used for various purposes, such as describing a set of entire trajectories, identifying relevant or atypical regularities, or contrasting these trajectories according to other key aspects such as gender or education level. This general introduction to sequence analysis is based on a simple illustrative study of work-related stress trajectories following a corporate restructuring in Switzerland.