The Other Side of the Story: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Longitudinal Research Participation

Background and Purpose

While research exists on the costs and benefits of research participation, there is little research that captures the experiences of participants. The purpose of this qualitative research was to understand the experiences of research participants in a five-year longitudinal study of the development of race and gender concepts and attitudes in young children. The initial research included home visits at seven development points between the ages of 6 months to 5 years and interviews with parents, primarily mothers.

Methods

The qualitative research study was designed to gather “thick descriptions” of 14 mothers who participated in the longitudinal study with their children. A maximum variation sample was used to include a range of demographic variables including maternal age, participant child’s birth order, mother’s educational level, assigned home tester, and geographical location. Participants were drawn from a pool of 85 white mothers who completed the study. The qualitative study occurred two years after the completion of the longitudinal study. A loosely structured interview guide was used for individual face-to-face interviews. Data were analyzed using a thematic and heuristic analysis that captured both the stories of the mothers and experience of the researcher. Following the initial analysis, a member-check focus group was conducted with eight of the 14 mothers during which summary results were presented and discussed to confirm, clarify, and increase the researcher’s understanding of the data. Research was conducted with approval of the university’s IRB.

Results

Applying a person-context-process model, a theory of research participation was developed with the stages of engagement, awareness, reflection, and change that occurred within the research context. As parents became engaged in the research process through observing the home tester with their children, viewing cross racial stimuli, and the content of questions, the mothers reported becoming aware of both their young child’s observation of racial differences and the child’s emerging attitudes. This led to both self-reflection and increased discussions with their partners and friends about their own social construction of the meaning of race. Reflections included the mothers’ stories of racial awareness, attitude development, observations of racial discrimination and injustice, and discussions of how they wanted to raise unbiased children. The changes that occurred included acknowledgment and dismissal of the colorblind myth, a willingness to discuss race and oppression with their children, commitment to try to raise unbiased children, and in some cases a commitment to increasing their children’s cross-racial experience and advocating for changes in their child’s school.

Conclusion and Implications

Research participation potentially represents a rich interaction between researcher and participant. Better understanding of the process can increase effectiveness of social work researchers and increase sensitivity to the need for debriefing research participants as well as taking opportunities to increase understanding of the research content. Further research can increase the understanding of the experience from multiple perspectives utilizing diverse groups of participants. The study also provides additional insights into working with white parents to increase constructive conversations on race with their children and shattering the colorblind myth.