Session: WITHDRAWN Exploring Visual Methods in Technology-Mediated Qualitative Studies: Conceptualizing Resilience in Research with Diverse Sexual and Gender Minority Youth (Society for Social Work and Research 26th Annual Conference - Social Work Science for Racial, Social, and Political Justice)

Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) have particular expertise and comfort with information and communications technologies (ICTs). ICTs expose SGMY to inevitable risks (e.g., cyberbullying), but also provide them with access to critical opportunities to build their social support networks and develop their identities. SGMY report that online communities allow them to build confidence, hope, and belonging and that they feel consistently safer online than offline. As an emerging approach to research, digital visual methods (e.g., photo elicitation, digital vignettes) offer alternatives and complements to more traditional quantitative research (e.g., surveys), as well as qualitative (e.g., interviews, focus groups) data collection, which is typically lmited to textual analysis. Recent multimethod studies have identified that the use of visual methods with marginalized populations enables the exploration of expression and emotion, which can generate a more holistic understanding of the participant experience. Further, as the incorporation of visuals can providea a stimulus for the elicitation of deeper narratives. There may be physiological benefits to engaging visually and such methods can support participant-researcher rapport building. The integration of visual methods in research that utilizes digital technologies has been steadily gaining prominence in social work, and the novel coronavirus pandemic has expedited its use.

This symposium will share the results of five innovative, technology-mediated studies that utilized visual methods to explore the risks and resiliencies of SGMY in the digital milieu by The International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR). Led by social workers, INQYR is an interdisciplinary, international research partnership designed to support the development of creative research methods with SGMY across diverse global contexts.

This symposium will commence with a brief discussion of the history, aim, and objectives of INQYR, as well as its progress towards the production of novel regional and international research to benefit SGMY. Subsequently, five papers outlining research conducted in the four partner regions that utilized a range of visual methods will be discussed by co-chairs of each of the regional networks. Partners from Canada, the United States (US), Mexico, and the United Kingdom (UK) will share studies that add to the literature on applied visual methods and elucidate how SGMY leverage digital technology, describe the discrimination they experience, and facilitate their own resilience. The first paper reports results from QueerVIEW, a digital photo-elicitation project with SGMY in Canada. The second paper articulates the arts-based findings from snapshoT, a photo-elicitation study involving trans* and nonbinary youth in the US. The third paper shares findings from Towards Free Expression of Identity and Desire, a focus group study of SGMY integrating photographs across Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, and Yucatan. The fourth paper describes the O(nline) N(egativity) Study, including highlighting the novel digital vignette approach employed in the mixed-methods survey about digital microaggressions experienced by SGMY. The fifth paper leverges digital recruitment and interviewing strategies to illuminate how migration shapes developmental processes of SGMY. Each paper highlights applications of their visual methodologies with SGMY and the subsequent implementation of the results to support social change processes with this population.