Exploring narratives with children and young people over time

Exploring narratives

with

children and young people

over time

Patricia McNamara PhDSchool of Social Work and Social

PolicyLa Trobe University,

Bundoora, 3086 AUSTRALIA

[email protected]

Co-creating knowledge over time with young people:Experience of three studies applying qualitative longitudinal approaches

RESPECTFUL APPROACHES TO RESEARCH WITH YOUNG PEOPLECONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKThe principles and theoretical perspectives e.g. empowerment. developmental,

systems, narrative

METHODOLOGYThe overall approach or design e.g. qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods

METHODThe specific tools, techniques or procedures we use eg focus groups, interviews,

direct observation, ethnology

“The distinction between method andmethodology is especially important forresearch with children” Bessell, 2009

Adapted from Access Grid, October 22nd 2009 www.aracy.org.au

[email protected]

http://www.aracy.org.au/



Rights-based methodology

UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Article 12: Children’s right to express opinions on mattersconcerning them;Article 13: Children’s right to express their views in the way theywish;Article 3.3: Children’s right to the highest quality services,including research;Article 36 : Children’s right to protection from all forms ofexploitation, including protection from exploitationthrough research processes and throughdissemination of information;Article 31 : Right to rest and leisure.

www.aracy.org.au Access Grid October 22nd, 2009

Sharon Bessell

[email protected]

Models of children’s participation*Mason and Urquhart (2001) p.17 "Developing a Model for Participation by Children inResearch on Decision Making." Children Australia 26(4): 16-21.

Adultist Children’s rights Children’s movements

Initiation of participation strategy

Agency/external statutory agency


Children (eg children’s labour movements)

Ideological framework Positivist/market forces consumer involvement

Phenomenological/constructivist

Minority rights groups struggle

Children viewed as Passive, incompetent,developmentally incomplete, ‘becomings’

Actors, competent beings, oppressed

Actors, competent human beings

Locus of power Adults, through governance, ‘best interests’, asymmetrical

Questions the generational order;symmetrical

Children, empowered

Needs identification Normative from psychological literature

Individualised from listening to children

Asserted both as a group and individually

Method of decision-making

Adults structures, procedures

Negotiation between stakeholders

Children dominated

Knowledge Adult authority Opportunity for children to shape and contribute

Children experts on own lives; recognises and challenges adults power over children

Professionals Superiority of expertise used for empowering

Facilitate through alliances

Provide resources

Children’s services Filtered Reflexivity by adults and children facilitates children’s voices being heard

Challenge and unsettle adults

FIRST STUDY

Conversations over fifteen years with onetime residents of an adolescent psychiatric unit

The ecology of development

Bronfenbrenner, 1979

A study in three Stages#

Stage One – admission, discharge and six months follow-up

Stage Two - six year post discharge follow-up (completed 2000)

Stage Three – fifteen year follow-up (completed in 2007)

Original data sourceAdolescent Residential Unit,

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service

Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre,

Melbourne,

Victoria,

AUSTRALIA

#This is the first Australian longitudinal study of adolescent inpatients; internationally it is the first in the area to utilize a qualitative methodology.

Stage Three auspice

Anita Morawetz Scholarship inFamily Therapy ResearchSchool of Social Work ,

University of Melbourne,

AUSTRALIA

Centre for Adolescent Health Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.

Aims

Develop, pilot and refine assessment procedures (Stage One)

Learn “How did the kids/adults get on”? (Stages One, Two and Three)

Advance the clinical, academic and political cause of child, adolescent and adult mental health (Stages One, Two and Three)

What was asked of the young people?

Semi-structured face-to-face interviews at admission, discharge and then at :

six months 7 years (average) 15 years (average) post discharge

Completion of Achenbach Youth Self Report and Harter (Measure of Self Esteem) at admission, discharge and six months post-discharge

McNamara P (2008) Negotiating welfare and mental health systems: The experience of former adolescent milieu residents over fifteen years. in Assessing the evidence base of intervention for vulnerable children and their families English (ISBN: 22-22243-24-8 and Italian version (ISBN: 88-88843-25-6)

McNamara P (2009) Feminist ethnography: Storytelling that makes a difference. Qualitative Social Work 8(2):161-177

Relationship to models of children’s participation*Mason and Urquhart (2001) p 17

Adultist Children’s rights

Children’s movements













Children, empowered







Children dominated





Provide resources



SECOND STUDY

The Sensitive Outcomes Study

Cross national research Six countries – Australia, Canada, Israel, NZ, UK,

USA Qualitative method Case study design Participant action empowerment approach Conducted under the auspices of iaOberfcs Developed with financial support from the

Fondazione Zancan in Padua, Italy

International Journal of Child and Family Welfare (2006),

9 (1-2)Special Issue, Edited by Professor Marianne Berry

iaOBERfcs International Association for Outcome-based Evaluation

and Research on Family and Children’s

Services

Aims

To identify sensitive outcomes or “small steps on the way” to larger outcome/change in community based child and family centres

One example of a sensitive outcome might be the child’s engagement in an after-school literacy support program

A larger outcome associated with this small step might be the child’s retention at school

What was asked of the young people? Background briefing conversation Two observed and videotaped family therapy sessions Several incidental conversations (telephone and face-to-face) Two home based research conversations (the second of which was

videotaped by the young people with equipment supplied by the researcher )

Permission to describe the research and show the home-based videotaped conversation at an international conference in New York

Brandon M, Fernandez E, Grietens H, Lightburn A, McNamara P, Warren Adamson C and Zeira A (2006) Introduction to Special Issue International Journal of Child and Family Welfare June 9, 1-2 1-11 International research on community centres for children and families:The importance of sensitive outcomes in evaluation

McNamara P (2006b) Mapping change in a child and family centre in Melbourne, Australia International Journal of Child and Family Welfare 9 1-2, 41-52

Relationship to models of children’s participation*Mason and Urquhart (2001) p 17

Adultist Children’s rights

Children’s movements













Children, empowered







Children dominated





Provide resources



THIRD STUDY

Preserving families through primary prevention:

The vital role of respite care

Research in Progress Scoping exercise (current) Giving voice to key stakeholders

including children and adolescents (in development for 2010)

What will be asked of the children and young people? Structured instruments –

administered to 100 children and young people

Focus groups: 10x10=100 children and adolescents

Individual conversations at three points over one year – twenty children and young people

Marr P and Maloney K (2007) University of Wollongong What about me?: Engaging children as co-researchers. www.googlescholar acessed 27/10/09

http://www.googlescholar/

OPPORTUNITIESand CHALLENGES of LONGITUDINAL NARRATIVE RESEARCHwith CHILDREN

Ideology Ethics Recruitment Trust Participation Development Culture Gender Logistics Dissemination

Ideology

Opportunities Participant collaboration Co-evolution Empowering Anti-oppressive Making a difference – for individual young

people and for groups and populations

Challenges Embedded power differentials Participant narratives of disempowerment and

marginalisation Generalising knowledge through voices of young

people

EthicsOpportunities ARC/NHMRC and Ethics Committees are more

supportive of child engagement in research Advice and guidance is now available to researchers

facilitating more ethically defensible proposals relating to research with children

Challenges Over-zealous gate-keeping can silence children and

young people Under-vigilance can result in both failure to protect

children’s rights to privacy and direct harm Can be expected to confront past or current abuse/

neglect/emotional problems/painful relationships Can feel pathologised/trapped by invitations to re-visit

again (and sometimes yet again) in longitudinal research

McNamara P (2005) Ethical guidance. in Directions in Education 14 (7): 2-3

Recruitment as co-investigatorsOpportunities Recruitment of children and young people as “research

collaborators”/”experts in their own lives” can empower them to have more control over how research is conducted, what is explored and how knowledge is disseminated

More likely to identify with and feel part of investigations

Empowered to participate in the search for knowledge that often impacts most on them

Challenges Children and young people are often given little choice

about their involvement in research if those entrusted to make decisions on their behalf consider it desirable that they participate

Children and young people may find it hard to withdraw

Trust Opportunities Travel part of life’s journey with young people Stories deepen over time as relationships with

young people become develop continuity and become more intimate

Partnerships and collaborative approaches Chances to facilitate advocacy/challenge

emerge Challenges Confidentiality (de-identification issues) Duty of care with growing intimacy (protective

issues, mental health issues etc) Vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue

ParticipationOpportunities Positive affect (Morrison, 2007) Sharing airspace Brainstorming Idea development Problem solving Conflict resolution

Challenges Negativity reinforcing past/present pain Accepting withdrawal/disengagement Re-visiting blame and shame experiences Over-extension of children’s capacity to

concentrate remain active and responsive (UN - CORC)

Marr P and Maloney K (2007) University of Wollongong What about me?: Engaging children as co-researchers. www.googlescholar acessed 27/10/09

http://www.googlescholar/

Development

Opportunities Opportunity to explore impact of growth

and change over time Children and young people often taking

greater command of the methods (tools, techniques etc) as they grow more confident, mature

Challenges Different methods required as children

grow and change Children becoming adults and having

their own children..can/should the next generation be invited to enter the study

Culture and language

Opportunities Engage with children and young people from

CALD backgrounds whose voices are rarely heard

Can empower young people from CALD backgrounds to agitate for resources

Learn more diverse ways of knowing and of “finding out”

Challenges Interpreting Cultural competency Building trust with child participants and

gatekeepers

GenderOpportunities Giving girls and young women voice Improving our understanding of gender diversity, sexual

expression, preferences etc Empowerment/inclusivity of difference eg same sex

attraction, cross-gender identity issues, body image Use of online research to engage young people less

directly

Challenges Girls and young women can be silenced in groups –

especially in presence of males Ensuring duty of care obligations (eg re offering

counselling access) are met during and following research around highly sensitive and confronting issues

Remaining tentative and neutral in drawing interferences and making interpretations

McNamara P (2009) Feminist ethnography: Storytelling that makes a difference. Qualitative Social Work 8(2):161-177

McNamara P (2008) Changed forever: a victim’s friends reflect on intimate partner homicide Special Issue Journal of Family Studies 14(2-3):198-217

Logistics

Opportunities Creativity in data collection methods – art,

play, drama, journaling, movie-making, web design etc

Flexible approaches and locations ( individual, group, family, home, park, school, coffee shop, car etc)

Accessible by mediated means of communication

Challenges Children young people and families moving

about, becoming lost to the researcher Adolescents busy lives and pull to the peer

group

Dissemination

Opportunities Hearing from young people through their own

voices Use the web and other multimedia creatively

and effectively

Challenges Confidentiality De-identification Social protection? Duty of care

EXPLORING NARRATIVES WITH CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE OVER TIMEPATRICIA M MCNAMARA PHD

Exploring narratives with children and young people over substantialperiods of time presents special opportunities and challenges for theresearcher. This paper draws upon the author's research experience inmental health and child and family welfare to illustrate opportunitiesfor co-creation of knowledge about young people's lives usingqualitative longitudinal approaches. Methodological challenges metduring these research journeys will also be shared. Ethical dilemmas,developmental issues and logistical challenges will be specificallyaddressed. The author firstly draws illustrative methodological examplesfrom a fifteen year follow-up with former residents of an adolescentpsychiatric milieu. Another relevant study involves the exploration of proximal outcomes with adolescents using the services of a community based child and family agency. The challenges and opportunities already evident within a research project currently in development will also be considered; this study involves children and young people using respite care. In recent years the author has developed a preference for engaging actively with children and young people in the development and implementation of research; she has also been engaging with them more directly in dissemination of findings. Some of the complexities associated with this shift will be discussed.

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Exploring narratives with children and young people over time