Methodology
Research Design
This is a qualitative study using semi-structured, in-depth interviews.
Sample
I used purpose sampling and snowball subject recruitment. I began the recruitment process by reaching out to local refugee organizations, OSU departments, and professors. I aimed for a maximum of 15 participants. I was able to complete 6 within the time period of the fellowship. These subjects were all female, at least 18 years of age, English speaking, and refugees. I did not exclude participants based on the legal definition of refugee. Anyone who meets the criteria listed above, fled their home country and settled in Central Ohio was 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 collected data through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. I obtained informed consent before conducting the interviews and throughout the process participants were 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 was provided through interview etiquette, such as cross-cultural competency, empathy, discretion, and sensitivity. Emotional protection was also provided by having the questions reviewed by friends within the community. They were asked to look over the questions and provide editorial feedback. In addition, I quickly responded to any questions or concerns from the participants and they had the option to withdraw from participating at any time.
Subjects participated 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 are connected to the interview with assigned numbers. In order to provide safeguards for subject confidentiality all interview data was de-identified, the list of study participants has remained confidential, and personal information was deleted at the conclusion of the study. Only the country of origin and general time-frame was associated with published data, specific ages remained confidential unless authorized by the participant. The interview audio files, written transcriptions, and completed surveys were stored in BuckeyeBox and were only available to the researchers.
Data Analysis
The following analytic approaches were utilized: thematic analysis, narrative analysis, and content analysis. They were completed using the qualitative software Dedoose.