Post 4: Data Collection Methods
The qualitative data collection method that we are using is interview, the reason we chose this method is due to our topic. We want to focus on what the cause for abuse and neglect would be if in a higher income neighborhood, since researchers usually focus on lower income neighborhoods. The reason we thought it was the best option for us was because it was best to hear from the people themselves, rather than hearing it second hand.
Our population of interest is the people living in higher income neighborhoods. We will use the participatory approach, because the people being interviewed are involved and we want them to be as involved as they can. We will use different people from different neighborhoods and situations. We are going to use 10 people who were abused, and 10 who were the abusers, and we will use the simple random sample.
Since out interview is on a sensitive topic, we will use an intimate place. So we will conduct our interview in the house, we purposely chose this to make the participants feel comfortable. We will use different sites for each person according to where they live. We will gain access by asking the parents if we can use their house for the interview.
We will recruit participants by going to neighborhood centers, or churches, mosque’s and synagogues, this way we can meet the people in neighborhood and tell them about out study, so we can try to recruit people. We will interview parents and children. With the children it will be a more sensitive and simple questions, on a child’s level, with parents it will be more straight questions. It will be both formal and semi structured. We will have an outline and for according to that but still have room to make it more formal. It will be a one- on-one interview, because it is a sensitive subject and we don’t want the parent or child to feel like they cant say something. We feel that audio is the best way to record the interview, because it will be hard to remember all the answers since it will be a intimate interview. The interviews will take about 20-25 minutes.
Sample of questions:
Questions for children:
1.Were afraid to talk to mom or dad when they were drunk? If so, why?
- When did your mom/ dad start to hit you?
- Do you feel that it was your fault that they hit you?
Sample for Parents:
- Do you feel that your substance abuse affected the way to treat your child?
- Do you think the fact that you have a demanding job and pressure to give your family a certain lifestyle, affected your substance abuse?
- When did the substance abuse begin?
- When did the abuse begin?
