When Interviewing “Family”

LaSala, Michael C.

doi:10.1300/j041v15n01_02

Cited by 51 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Song and Parker (1995) note that shared experience of discrimination (in their work, racism) may be a particularly powerful site of commonality in a research relationship. In writing about research with sexual minority people, La Sala (2003) similarly notes that insider research may be preferred by participants because “they perceive that the researcher shares their desire to rectify social misconceptions of their group” (p. 18). One might therefore anticipate that shared experience of discrimination on the basis of bisexual identity, a phenomenon well documented in the research literature (e.g., Flanders, Dobinson, & Logie, 2015), might have been a very significant point of connection in the relationship examined here.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An account from the inside: Examining the emotional impact of qualitative research through the lens of “insider” research.

Ross

2017

Qualitative Psychology

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The benefits and challenges of insider positionality have been much written about in relation to qualitative research. However, the specific emotional implications of insider research have been little explored. In this manuscript, I aim to bring the literature on insider positionality to the study of emotion in qualitative research through a reflection on my experiences as a “total insider” conducting interviews for a longitudinal qualitative study examining mental health during the transition to parenthood among sexual minority women. On the basis of this experience, I highlight emotion-related benefits and challenges of my insider positionality, as they pertain both to the quality of the research and to my personal experiences as a qualitative researcher. In particular, I examine the potential benefits of my insider positioning for establishing rapport and my capacity for empathy, and the personal emotional growth and learning that my insider positioning made possible for me. With respect to challenges, I examine how my emotional investment in the researcher-participant relationship influenced my role as a research instrument, and discuss the difficulties I encountered in managing appropriately boundaried relationships and making decisions about self-disclosure. I close by highlighting promising avenues for further exploration of the emotional implications of insider research, from the perspectives of both researchers and participants.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An account from the inside: Examining the emotional impact of qualitative research through the lens of “insider” research.

Ross

2017

Qualitative Psychology

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“…It is possible that the participants may have given different responses to an LGB interviewer/researcher or that I may not have asked some pertinent questions (e.g., I did not ask about how integrated participants were within an LGB community, which Porche and Purvin, 2008 , suggested might make a difference). There are both benefi ts and drawbacks of having an insider status (LaSala, 2003 ).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving from Ambivalence to Certainty: Older Same-Sex Couples Marry in Canada

Humble

2013

Can. J. Aging

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A qualitative study, within a life course perspective, explored the transition into marriage for mid- to later-life same-sex couples. Twenty individuals (representing 11 couples) were interviewed - 12 lesbians, seven gay men, and one bisexual man. At the time of their marriages, participants were between 42 and 72 years old (average age: 54) and had been with their partners from six months to 19 years (average: 7.5 years). Three processes highlighted the ways in which these same-sex couples' experiences of deciding to marry were influenced by their life course experiences. First, individuals had to integrate marriage into their psyches (integration). Second, they had to consider why they would marry their specific partner (rationale). Third, the study participants demonstrated how their experiences of wedding planning and their wedding characteristics were imbued with intentionality as a result of lifetime experiences of homophobia and/or heterosexism (intentionality).

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“…Our MIoSG likely had some influence on the swift and sizable response to our call for participants. In our experience, students from minoritized social identities are more likely to volunteer for a study and/or talk to a researcher who shares a MIoSG, a notion supported by scholars who note that LGBTQ researchers have insider knowledge and terminology that can establish rapport and facilitate recruitment and data collection (Bettinger, 2010;LaSala, 2003).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 78%