 Introduction to sequence analysis and its application in the social sciences using school-to-work transition patterns 
Several areas of research in psychoeducation, developmental psychology, and sociology are aimed at examining individual and group changes in the population. For example, they seek to identify typical pathways during specific developmental periods, such as delinquency in adolescence and the school to work transition in early adulthood, in order to understand those that appear maladaptive or optimal. The purpose of this paper is to present an algorithmic approach for tracing such pathways as sequences based on categorical/nominal variables, like statuses (e.g., occupational, marital), states (e.g., health), or behaviors (e.g., drinking habits). This approach, named sequence analysis, is widely used by European researchers, but remains little known in North America. This article presents the foundations and application of this analytical approach, describing each step of the analysis using a fictitious example drawn from data banks on the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The article concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of sequence analysis in the social sciences. The script used to perform the analyses in this article is also provided online for readers interested in this analytical technique.