Methodology
Research Design
This is a qualitative study using semi-structured, in-depth interviews.
Sample
I will be using purpose sampling and snowball subject recruitment. I will begin the recruitment process by reaching out to local refugee organizations, OSU departments, and professors. The number of subjects to be enrolled in this study is 15. There will be 15 subjects because it creates a reasonable work schedule for the 10 week period of the study. These subjects must be female, at least 18 years of age, English speaking, and refugees. I will not be excluding participants based on the legal definition of refugee. Anyone who meets the criteria listed above, fled their home country and settled in Central Ohio is welcome to participate.
Measurement/Instrumentation
The variables of interest include gender roles, socioeconomic status, countries of origin, age, and discrimination experienced.
Detailed Study Procedures
I will be collecting data through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. I will obtain
informed consent before conducting the interviews and throughout the process participants will be informed of all possible risks and benefits of participating in the study. In this study minimizing subject risks entails emotional protection, as sensitive subjects will be discussed. Emotional protection will be provided through interview etiquette, such as cross-cultural competency, empathy, discretion, and sensitivity. In addition, I will quickly respond to any questions or concerns from the participants and they will have the option to withdraw from participating at any time.
Subjects will be participating in the study for about 2 hours on average. This includes any pre-interview procedures — such as surveys to collect the country of origin, age at time of immigration, and current age — and the interview itself. The surveys will be connected to the interview by assigning them numbers. In order to provide safeguards for subject confidentiality all interview data will be de-identified, the list of study participants will remain confidential, and personal information will be deleted at the conclusion of the study. Only the country of origin and general time-frame will be associated with published data, specific ages will remain confidential unless authorized by the participant. The interview audio files, written transcriptions, and completed surveys will be stored in BuckeyeBox and only available to the researchers.
Internal Validity
A code book will be created. Questions will be reviewed by friends within the community. They will be asked to look over the questions and provide editorial feedback.
Data Analysis
The following analytic approaches will be utilized: thematic analysis, narrative analysis, and content analysis. They will be completed using the qualitative software Dedoose.