Abstract
Built on a neighborhood-based qualitative study that was carried out in Istanbul, this article explores the use of complementary research methods that explore how children contextualize their well-being within the spatial boundaries of a particular social location. Therefore, spatiality is used as a methodological tool to understand children’s subjective construction of well-being embedded in a web of relations. Using the framework of the social studies of childhood that constructs child as an agent, the research study puts emphasis in involving children in the research process as active participants and encouraging them to build their own narratives that manifest authentic childhood experiences. A variety of methods that are developed according to the age of the child are used in this study like in-depth interviews based on spatial experiences, in-depth interviews with a projection method, thematic focus groups and photography study. They are designed to facilitate a participatory research process that encourages the child to think through the spaces (school, home, neighborhood, etc.) along with a web of relations that his/her well-being is embedded in. The spatial understanding of child well-being in relation to subjective and objective conditions is the focus of the analysis of the qualitative research.
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Notes
The research ‘Developing Child Well-Being Indicators for Turkey’ (Project No: 108 K235) was supported by TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey – Program Code 1001). As this is the first attempt in Turkey to produce a comprehensive index of child well-being indicators, a qualitative and a quantitative study were conducted in Istanbul to test the chosen indicators and to propose a list of indicators to be used widely in Turkey. Both studies validated the usefulness of the indicator set as a tool for monitoring child well-being. For a detailed discussion of the research and the findings see Uyan-Semerci et al. (2012).
The ethical issues involved in doing qualitative research with children goes beyond parental consent. How children can be approached for participation; how to understand whether the child felt free to agree or refuse to participate; how the children could let the adult researcher know that they did not want to talk about a subject or that they wanted to end the interview were the issues discussed among the team before starting the interviewing process. The means of approaching each phase of the research that reflected sensitivity to these issues were explored during the piloting stage, which allowed for a format of individual interviewing that reflected the sensitivities based on allowing the children to shape both the participation and narration process.
If the numbers of the volunteers were high, the participants among the volunteers were decided through casting lots.
It was seen that a positive start in an interview helped the children to get rid of their uneasiness in front of an adult researcher. Such a beginning helped them to express their feelings and experiences in a positive atmosphere and helped them to talk about their negative experiences within the course of the interview more easily. Building a positive interaction with the participant and a comfortable atmosphere to talk about different experiences were essential for the actualization of our research aims.
As it was conceived that children would like to take pictures in their homes, cameras were given to children overnight and the following day the disposable cameras were collected.
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Akkan, B., Müderrisoglu, S., Uyan-Semerci, P. et al. How Do Children Contextualize Their Well-Being? Methodological Insights from a Neighborhood Based Qualitative Study in Istanbul. Child Ind Res 12, 443–460 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-018-9532-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-018-9532-9