Research Theory, Design, and Methods
Walden University
Research Questions and Hypotheses Checklist
Use the following criteria to evaluate an author’s research questions and/or
hypotheses.
Look for indications of the following:
•
Is the research question(s) a logical extension of the purpose of the
study?
•
Does the research question(s) reflect the best question to address the
problem?
•
Does the research question(s) align with the design of the study?
•
Does the research question(s) align with the method identified for
collecting data?
If the study is qualitative, does the research question(s) do as follows?
•
Relate the central question to the qualitative approach
•
Begin with What or How (not Why)
•
Focus on a single phenomenon
•
Use exploratory verbs
•
Use nondirectional language
•
Use an open-ended format
•
Specify the participants and research site
If the study is quantitative:
•
Do the descriptive questions seek to describe responses to major
variables?
•
Do the inferential questions seek to compare groups or relate variables?
•
Do the inferential questions follow from a theory?
•
Are the variables positioned consistently from independent/predictor to
dependent/outcome in the inferential questions?
•
Is a null and/or alternative hypothesis provided as a predictive statement?
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
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Research Theory, Design, and Methods
Walden University
•
Is the hypothesis consistent with its respective research question?
•
Does the question(s) and/or hypothesis specify the participants and
research site?
If the study is mixed methods, do the research questions and/or hypotheses do
the following?
•
Include the characteristics of a good qualitative research question (as
listed above)
•
Include the characteristics of a good quantitative research and/or
hypothesis (as listed above)
•
Indicate how the researcher will mix or integrate the two approaches of the
study
•
Specify the participants and research site
•
Convey the overall intent of the study that calls for a mixed methods
approach
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
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Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology
Volume 4, Number 1
Spring 2012
83
Latina/o Adolescents in an Emerging Immigrant Community:
A Qualitative Exploration of their Future Goals
Laura M. Gonzalez, Gabriela L. Stein, and Laura R. Shannonhouse
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Mitchell J. Prinstein
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Abstract
Although immigrant adolescents typically have high hopes for their futures, educational and
career outcomes often do not match aspirations. The future aspirations of 17 Latina/o
adolescents in an emerging immigrant community were explored. Qualitative interviews were
conducted and analyzed using consensual qualitative research methodology (CQR). Interviews
focused on goals for education/career and supports and barriers to reaching those goals.
Overall, students expressed high aspirations but were unclear on how to achieve them. Family
members and school personnel were seen as supportive, but with limitations. Barriers
mentioned by most participants included early pregnancy, finances, and circumstances beyond
their control; they declined to endorse other barriers when prompted. Students also held less
optimistic views of the educational and career possibilities of an “average” Latina/o/a as
compared to their own goals, which is framed in terms of stereotypes. A clear theme emerged
where students placed the primary responsibility for their success or failure on themselves
without acknowledging many barriers in the environment. Findings are discussed from a social
justice point of view with implications that pertain to provision of college planning information,
context for applying it, affective support, and systemic advocacy.
Keywords:
Latina/o or Hispanic, emerging immigrant community, educational goals,
educational barriers, qualitative research
Introduction
Immigrant families often make the difficult choice to leave their home countries because they
are seeking better opportunities in the host country – economic opportunities for the adult
generation and educational opportunities for the children (Hill & Torres, 2010). Unfortunately,
national reports document that the educational aspirations of recent Latina/o immigrant families
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do not always translate into positive outcomes. Data presented by the Pew Hispanic Center
(2009) indicate that 89% of Latina/o adolescents identify a college education as valuable for
success in life, but far fewer (60% of native born Latinas/os and 29% of foreign born
Latinas/os) plan to obtain a bachelor’s degree themselves. Although college participation rates
have increased, only 12% of Mexican-born or Central American-born adolescents age 18-24
were enrolled in US colleges in 2010. Caribbean-born (37%) and South American-born (44%)
adolescents were participating at higher rates (Patten, 2012). This is important because
education remains one of the primary ways to improve one’s economic or occupational
circumstances, and many Mexican and Central American immigrant families have labor intensive
jobs with relatively little pay (Patten). Counselors or other advocates in leadership positions
could play a pivotal role in fostering social justice by helping to reduce those barriers or
collaborating with immigrant families to create new systems that support educational
participation. However, youth in emerging immigrant communities are under-represented in
the professional literature. Thus, the current study sought to highlight their voices and
perspectives on their future goals.
Review of the Literature
Researchers have identified many potential explanations for the gap between educational
aspirations, expectations, and outcomes for Latina/o students in immigrant families. One set of
explanations are systemic, including fewer college preparatory resources and low expectations
at the high schools where Latina/o immigrants tend to be enrolled, and school practices like
course tracking or cultural marginalization (Hill & Torres, 2010; Kimura-Walsh, Yamamura,
Griffin, & Allen, 2009). Another set of explanations center on family characteristics, such as low
levels of income, low levels of parental knowledge about US educational systems, or barriers to
communication with schools (Bohon, Johnson, & Gorman, 2006; Calaff, 2007; Fann, Jarsky, &
McDonough, 2009; Marquez Kiyama, 2010). A third set of explanations are environmental in
nature, including community constraints like gangs or drugs, limited social network of college
role models, and cultural and linguistic adjustment (Calaff; Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). Finally,
the literature lists individual characteristics that could contribute to the gap, such as English
fluency, valuing of family responsibilities over educational aspirations, legal status, or
acculturation status (Bohon et al.; Perez, 2010; Pew Hispanic Center; Tseng, 2006).
However, few researchers have examined how Latina/o students in immigrant families
conceptualize barriers to college or career. Calaff (2007) published an ethnography focused on
the educational pathways of successful Latino immigrant adolescents that mentioned some of
the challenging circumstances encountered by these students, but did not attempt to describe
barriers. Marquez Kiyama (2010) conducted case study research focused on English-speaking
Mexican American parents’ knowledge about college preparation that included their perceptions
of barriers but not those of their children. Most of the adolescent barriers literature comes from
quantitative studies by Flores and colleagues (Flores & O'Brien, 2002; Ojeda & Flores, 2008) or
McWhirter and colleagues (Flores & O'Brien, 2002; Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001; McWhirter, 1997;
McWhirter, Hackett, & Bandalos, 1998; McWhirter, Torres, Salgado, & Valdez, 2007; Ojeda &
Flores, 2008). None of these studies were focused on Latina/o participants who were recent
immigrants. Ojeda and Flores provided confirmation that perception of barriers (a summed
score) is a significant negative predictor of educational aspirations in Mexican American high
school students in Texas. Flores and O’Brien focused on career development in Mexican
American females, concluding from their path analysis that “the presence of support and few
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perceived barriers has a positive effect on career goals” (p. 24). McWhirter verified that Mexican
American participants perceived more barriers to education and career than did their White
peers, and subsequently created a structural equation model incorporating barriers with
multiple other influences on educational expectations (McWhirter et al., 1998). McWhirter and
her colleagues (2007) distinguished between internal and external barriers in a later study and
used principal components analysis to group findings from a barriers measure according to
theme (e.g., financial, relational, motivation). Financial barriers had the highest means for both
Mexican American and White students, but there were differences in how the two groups
assessed the likelihood of encountering other types of barriers (e.g., relational, ability,
preparation/motivation, separation from family). These contributions are important, but have
relied upon quantitative measures that have been implemented in varying ways (Luzzo &
McWhirter, 2001; McWhirter, 1997). In addition, they have not been able to list or describe
barriers independently generated by the participants or the relationship of barriers to supports
or future goals, as a qualitative study could.
Finally, recent immigrants have not been fully addressed in the literature. Whereas traditional
settlement areas like California or Texas often have well-established social and educational
support programs, more recently emerging immigrant communities may lack those structural
supports (Bohon, Macpherson, & Atiles, 2005). Thus, immigrant adolescents may be struggling
with educational or developmental tasks without access to needed resources. One published
qualitative study examined the socioemotional challenges of migration in an emerging Latino
community from an adolescent point of view, describing social isolation, economic strain,
barriers due to English fluency, racism, and legal status (Ko & Perreira, 2010). To date, no
studies have examined barriers to future goals in an emerging immigrant community by
listening the voices of the students themselves. Thus, our main research goal was to attend to
the voices of students from immigrant families as they reflected on their futures, given the
disparity between educational aspirations and actual outcomes reflected in the literature. We
wanted to provide insights for counseling professionals who are working with Latina/o
immigrant youth regarding their career, academic, and personal concerns in any setting. We
also sought to inform the work of advocates seeking to reduce the impact of barriers and
improve educational access, as described in the social justice counseling literature (HolcombMcCoy, 2007; Toporek, Lewis, & Crethar, 2009).
Method
Consensual qualitative research (CQR) was chosen as an appropriate methodology due to the
discovery-based nature of the research question (How would children of immigrant Latina/o
families in an emerging community describe their goals for the future and their supports or
barriers for reaching them?), the limited state of the current literature, and the interest in
attending to the students’ experiences (Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997). This approach falls
within the qualitative traditions that view reality as a social construction; participants can hold
multiple perspectives on the “truth” of their lives, which emerges from the interviews and is
subjective (Hill, 2012). The research team valued the opportunity to learn from the participants
and actively tried to stay within their interpretive framework when reading and describing the
interviews. However, CQR also includes a post-positivistic approach to coding, where several
researchers try to reach consensus on the most representative way to depict that subjective
truth across the cases (Hill et al., 1997). In particular, the use of a research team and
consensus meetings bring multiple perspectives to bear on the data and allow team members to
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share decision and meaning making power (Hays & Wood, 2011). Typically, findings are also
shared with participants as a way to co-create knowledge. In this case, member checks were
not possible, because participants were involved in a longitudinal quantitative study regarding
peer influence on risk behaviors in the school context. Efforts to share qualitative findings could
have biased the ongoing data collection by altering the way the participants thought or felt
about supports and barriers in their school environment.
Participants
The research team received IRB approval to recruit 10th grade Latina/o participants from an
existing longitudinal school-based study initiated by one of the current authors. The sites
included three high schools in one rural county in the southeastern US, one of which was a dual
enrollment school situated on a community college campus. Efforts were made to balance
representation of Latina/o 10th graders among the three participating schools and to complete a
minimum of 15 interviews. During the recruitment phase, multiple phone numbers were
disconnected or had no answer and no voice mail, however, 26 Latina/o families answered the
recruitment calls and 23 parents consented to their students’ participation in the study.
Nineteen 10th grade students also assented to participate and 17 completed the interview.
Phone recruitment stopped at that point. Of the participating group, 8 were female and 9 were
male, 5 were students in the dual enrollment program and 12 attended traditional high schools,
the average age was 16.4, and 11 of the 17 were born in the US. Thus, the participant group
included immigrants and first generation American adolescents. All of the parents were foreign
born and the majority had completed a high school diploma or less, as reported by the
students. Representative parental occupations included cleaning houses or working in a factory
for mothers and construction or landscaping for fathers. Most families were of Mexican origin
(n = 13), with others from Central American countries (e.g., Honduras, El Salvador).
Researchers
The primary research and coding team consisted of two female faculty members (one White,
one Latina, both bilingual English and Spanish) and one female doctoral research assistant
(White, monolingual English). An undergraduate research associate (Latina, bilingual) obtained
consent from the parents, obtained assent from the students, and scheduled the interviews. An
external auditor (White female faculty member with previous experience in the chosen
methodology) was identified. The three coding team members read materials regarding
consensual qualitative research (CQR; Hill et al., 1997; Hill et al., 2005) and discussed the steps
of coding during several meetings. The doctoral research assistant completed the participant
interviews. She had prior experience collecting qualitative data and also received training and
completed practice interviews prior to implementing the protocol. One interviewer was used to
increase consistency of data collection. The co-investigators reviewed the transcripts after the
first 2-3 interviews to provide constructive feedback to the interviewer in order to maximize the
opportunity to collect quality data (e.g., remind her to allow ample space for open-ended
responses before moving to the follow-up prompts).
Interview Protocol
The primary researchers developed the semi-structured interview protocol (available by request
from first author) by reviewing the literature related to future aspirations and outcomes for
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Latina/o adolescents in combination with our guiding research question, which was “How would
these children of immigrant families in an emerging community describe their goals for the
future and their supports or barriers for reaching them?” The following topics of inquiry were
identified: (a) hopes for the future in terms of family life, school, and job or career (Fuligni &
Pedersen, 2002; Kao & Tienda, 1998; McWhirter & McWhirter, 2008); (b) realistic expectations
and worries for the future in those three areas (Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry, 2006; Yowell,
2000); (c) impact of family, friend, and counselor/teacher relationships on those goals (Hill &
Torres, 2010); (d) identification and perception of barriers to achieving those goals (McWhirter
et al., 2007); (e) information or behavior needed to make progress toward those goals (Calaff,
2007; Tseng, 2006); and (f) perspectives on the futures of average Latina/o girls and boys
(Kao, 2000). The interview protocol reflected a combination of open-ended questions designed
to elicit unbiased responses and more structured prompts designed to provide cognitive support
to adolescent participants. For example, after identifying their goals for the future, students
were asked, “What could get in the way of meeting that goal?” After encouragement to
elaborate independently, students might be prompted with specific barriers from the literature
(e.g., “Some other students have said that needing to help their family could get in the way – is
that true for you?”). Two test interviews were done with Latina/o adolescents to evaluate
length and appropriateness of language, and feedback on the structure and contents of the
interview was gathered from a Latina faculty peer; the revised interview was implemented.
Procedure
Latina/o students with parental consent were offered the opportunity to participate in a 45-60
minute recorded telephone interview in their preferred language for a small gift card incentive.
One interview was conducted in Spanish with one of the principal investigators and the rest
were conducted in English per student request. Both the sample size and the telephone
interview methodology fall within normal practices for in-depth qualitative research (Hill et al.,
1997). Participant names were separated from the case numbers, and the de-identified
recordings were transcribed and double-checked by undergraduate researchers supervised by
the principal investigators.
Before reading any transcripts, the three person coding team bracketed their preconceived
notions about the study and participants in separate journal entries. Themes that emerged were
discussed among team members at the first coding meeting in order to limit the impact of our
assumptions on the coding process. Research team members expected students to mention
challenges of being in low-income and/or undocumented families, aspects of their cultural
adjustment, high aspirations for education and career, and centrality of family. Some members
expected the students to have moderate levels of knowledge of college preparation and English
literacy, and others expected lower levels. Research team members referred to the bracketing
exercise throughout the coding process when debating the themes in the transcripts and
constructing our shared meaning (e.g., deciding whether statements had an underlying cultural
perspective or whether that was our own bias in approaching the transcripts).
Without having pre-arranged domains, each team member read the first six transcripts
independently and developed language to describe the major themes (or domains). Consensus
meetings followed for each transcript; the team rotated roles so that one person would present
a case, initiate the dialogue, and record the consensus version. A list of initial domains was
created, debated, and revised, resulting in a codebook of five final domains: goals for future,
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roles of other individuals, barriers to future, responsibility, and culture related issues. The
coding team then abstracted the core ideas that made up each domain and came to consensus
around those. Some of the final domains are similar in structure to the core interview questions,
but the contents of the domain were organically derived from the participants’ words. We
created a brief summary for each case and forwarded it to the external auditor along with
copies of the first six transcripts. After receiving constructive feedback on the first six cases
from the auditor, the team completed coding domains, abstracting core ideas, and coming to
consensus for the remaining 11 cases. The remaining cases did not alter the original domain
structure, so the data were deemed to be stable. Finally, cross-analysis was completed by
examining domain contents across all 17 cases to look for similarities in the abstracts or
connections among the thematic areas. The auditor reviewed the cross-analysis for all cases.
The validation strategy included having a coding team to review and discuss the interview data
from various perspectives, creating a codebook after achieving initial consensus to guide further
analysis, having an external auditor to review and critique the coding, and comparing interview
data with quantitative data gathered as part of the longitudinal study (after coding, so as not to
bias analysis). As recommended in CQR, the core ideas that were general (present in 90% of
cases), typical (present in 50% or more of the cases), or variant (present in less than 50% of
cases) are shown in Table 1 (Hill et al., 2005).
Table 1
Selected Domains and Core Ideas Across All Participant Interviews
Domain title
Goals for future
Role of other
individuals
Barriers to
future
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Core ideas
Family: Married with children, close to parents
Career: Hope to enter skilled profession
Education: Hope to finish “college”
“Good life:” Nice house, good job, carefree life
Career: Worried about “dead-end” jobs
Education: Concerns about achieving goals
Teachers/Counselors: School personnel are helpful,
could give advice or help if I needed it
Family: Provides emotional encouragement
Peers: Can be positive or negative influences
Teachers/Counselors: College role models
Family: Help with problems or decisions
Teachers/Counselors: Specific advising functions
Early pregnancy
Cases (Frequency)
17 (general)
17 (general)
13 (typical)
13 (typical)
11 (typical)
7 (variant)
16 (general)
16 (general)
11
in
each
direction (typical)
9 (typical)
5 (variant)
3 (variant)
16 (general)
Non-endorsed barriers: being Latina/o, lack of 13-14 (typical)
ability in school, friends interfering with plans
Circumstances beyond control
9 (typical)
Finances: open-ended and prompted responses
9-12 (typical)
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Table 1, continued
Domain title
Responsibility
Culture related
Core ideas
Responsibility: “It’s all up to me”
Knowledge: Vague on how to go to college
Motivation: Related to family
Motivation: Want to “be somebody”
Less hopeful view of future for “typical” Latina/o
than for themselves
Nothing coded under culture
Both positive and negative aspects of being Latina/o
Cases (frequency)
17 (general)
16 (general)
11 (typical)
11 (typical)
12 (typical)
7 (variant)
6 (variant)
Findings
Goals for the Future
This domain is defined by the participants’ reflections on goals for family, education, and career.
In terms of family, all students expressed a desire to have a spouse and children in the future,
and to maintain a close relationship with their parents (general core idea). In terms of
education, a typical core idea was the aspiration to finish “college,” with some specifying a 4year degree and others leaving the level unstated. A variant core idea addressed worries about
achieving that goal (not making it out of high school, being ineligible for college, not being able
to pay for college or pass college-level classes). For example, a young man who wanted to
graduate from college indicated he was not worried about completing high school, “because I
know I can if I put my mind to it,” but admitted to some worries about college. He stated,
“Because sometimes I have classes I don’t understand and everything. And sometimes worry
about not passing and that might bring me down in the future.”
A general core idea related to careers was interest in skilled or professional careers (see Table
2). Most students expected to be able to reach those goals. However, when asked about
worries, a typical response included worries about not finding any work at all or being stuck in a
job they didn’t like (with fast food being mentioned several times). When discussing job
worries, one student said, “You know, most people don’t like their jobs, be like getting up and
not wanting to go.” Another mentioned, “I don’t want to have like a low paying job, I don’t
want to have to be stressed all the time because I don’t have enough money to pay bills and
stuff like that.” A few students specifically made the connection to the work their parents did,
with reflections such as, “My mom didn’t go to college and she’s all struggling and I want a
better life than that,” or “If I see Hispanic people, I see them working at factories and stuff like
that and then you know, in my viewpoint, I will be like my parents working in a factory. Like
that.” Often, the same student would mention educational and career aspirations (e.g., “laser
and photonic technology”) at one moment and anxieties or concerns in the next moment (e.g.,
“want to avoid a dead-end job”). One student seemed to voice his concerns about a “deadend” job when he said, “A dead-end job is a job where you go every day, you are bored, you
don’t want to go, it tires you out and you are doing physical work and not mental work.”
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Table 2
Participants’ Career Goals and Perspectives on “Typical” Latina/o Student
Participant
gender
Male 1
Male 2
Female 1
Male 3
Female 2
Male 4
Male 5
Female 3
Male 6
Female 4
Male 7
Female 5
Female 6
Male 8
Female 7
Female 8
Male 9
Career goal
Career for “typical” Latina/o
Air Force pilot
Business owner or crime scene
investigator (CSI)
Emergency technician, CSI
Architect, car designer
He will work, unsure where
McDonalds, construction, poultry
processing
Nurse or store owner
Will finish high school, might work in an
office
Work in a tienda, Latina/o-oriented store
Massage therapist, own a hair
salon, designer
Psychologist, laser/photon engineer
Military, law enforcement
Actress, movie star
Electrical engineer, car engineer
Teacher or work in a store
Mechanic, chef, fireman
Cosmetology, business owner,
teacher
Something medical, like a vet or
psychiatrist
Musician
Registered nurse
Peace corps, military nurse
Graphic designer
Factory worker, not a manager
Construction or electrician
Lawyer
Mechanic or other minimum wage job
Teacher
Construction
If she finishes HS and college, can get a
good paying job
Office worker or social worker
Fast food job, unless he goes to college
Secretary or paralegal
Factory work
Job depends on what he likes to do and if
he tries to go to college
Another typical core idea that emerged was the “good life,” reminiscent of the American Dream
in its idealized view of success, material possessions, and contentment. Sample statements
included, “I hope to just be happy and someday own our house so we don’t have to just like
pay rent all the time,” and “become successful, I guess, really. Like have a good family, good
house, good job.”
Roles of Other Individuals
Participants were asked directly how family members could help them reach their future goals,
and were also given open-ended opportunities to identify other influential individuals who could
provide support. Family played a major role in emotional support of the students’ educational
goals, with a general core idea encompassing statements like “my family gives me hope, they
tell me to work hard and never give up, they will feel proud of me if I finish school, they give
me encouragement no matter what.” One student expressed the importance of education in
immigrant families when he stated, “They want me to be a big person with a career, a college
graduate.” A variant core idea regarding family was that they could offer some assistance with
problem solving and decisions, based on their life experience. Peers were also mentioned, but
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with a distinct split between those who perceived friends as supports and those who perceived
them as negative influences who could inhibit progress toward goals.
Students were positive in describing their experiences with school personnel (general core
idea). They mentioned that teachers and counselors were usually friendly and ready to help,
but some also admitted they had not yet had a conversation with those individuals regarding
college planning. Some sample statements included, “You can talk to the teachers if you have
questions”; “Teachers talk about college and say its important, but I haven’t talked to them
about that”; and “Teachers and counselors can give good advice, they are nice and easy to talk
to.” Most students did not provide specific examples of advice they had received or
conversations they had with school personnel, leading to the hypothesis that this resource was
relatively untapped. There was a typical core idea that teachers/counselors could be college
role models or informants, having completed degrees themselves. Students wanted to hear
about what college is like and what to do when applying, given that most of them had few
college role models. Finally, a variant core idea included specific functions of teachers and
counselors, such as telling students about scholarships, helping with homework or studying, and
general advising. One student said teachers and counselors could “Like give references and
give good details, good things about me.” Very few students mentioned strategic ways to
utilize counselors or teachers as supports, such as researching future options or helping with
SAT preparations.
Barriers to the Future
When given an open-ended opportunity to identify things that might get in the way of
accomplishing their goals, getting pregnant too early was the only general core idea to emerge.
The second most frequently mentioned barrier was financial (a typical core idea), discussed in
terms of family debt, low-paying jobs, or having to direct money towards meeting basic needs
rather than education. Participants indicated that family might help them pay for college to the
extent possible, even amidst financial difficulty. One young man who thought that “the
economy is all whack and my parents might need me to get a job for money” also said that his
parents could provide him financial support only if he went to college, “but if I dropped out I
would have to start working because they won’t support that.” Lack of money was associated
with problems in finishing high school and deciding whether entering and completing college
was feasible or not. Finances also were endorsed by 12 students in the prompted section of the
interview as “the main concern” or “the only thing that could get in my way.” One student said,
“If I didn’t attend college, it would be because my dad didn’t have enough money, but it’s going
to be OK, we understand they don’t have it, but then I’ll have to find a scholarship.”
Several students also identified a typical core idea of circumstances beyond their control, such
as “If classes are too hard, might not be able to complete school … if economy is bad, may not
find good job – things beyond our control,” and the sense that “life could happen,” anything
could get in the way. Another student indicated, “Something could happen, like I could break
my arm or someone in my family could get sick.” Others addressed competition for jobs, being
unjustly accused of breaking a rule at work, or becoming depressed. This typical sense of
unspecified disaster was striking in that these may not be the most likely barriers, but these
worries were mentioned with some frequency. In contrast, only four students mentioned
barriers having to do with academic eligibility.
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When prompted with a list of barriers drawn from the literature, participants were optimistic
about having the academic ability to complete their educational goals, being able to overcome
any negative peer influences, and finding sufficient support despite being Latina/o in a state
that has an emerging immigrant community and few established structural supports. When
asked if they would need to change their educational plans to help family members, most
respondents said no, but usually qualified it by mentioning that if a specific request for help
came from family members, they would not hesitate to respond. Thus, the students were more
likely to deny than to endorse the pre-identified barriers presented in the interview.
Responsibility
There was a strong general theme about personal responsibility for bringing educational and
career dreams to fruition, identifiable in all students at varying levels of emphasis. The first
level was present in five cases, and it described a sense of disappointment if goals were not
met, mostly attributed to behavior. Some examples were, “It’s up to me if I don’t meet my
goal, maybe I didn’t study enough”; “I would be disappointed, but I would try again later”; and
“It all depends on what I do, but if I don’t meet my goals, at least I tried.” The second level
was present in six cases, and it included more emphatic language regarding responsibility.
Those statements were, “I must be responsible, study, get good grades, and work to make it
happen. [Who can help you?] Myself”; “If I didn’t meet my goals, I would say I screwed up”;
and “It is my own fault because I can be anything I want to be.” The third level was also noted
in six cases, and was characterized by catastrophizing or blaming self in strong language.
These students stated, “I would wake up every day thinking I was a failure”; “I would blame
myself as a bad person, that I didn’t try hard enough, life would suck”; “My life would be
ruined, I would be mad and think what a waste of time and money”; and “I will feel really
miserable, always dreaming about this other career, I would feel like a failure and ashamed to
see my Mom.”
Motivation to succeed was another theme under the responsibility domain. A typical motivation
core idea linked the desire for a better future to family-related variables, such as wanting to
make parents proud, wanting to be the first in the family to graduate from college, wanting to
be in a position to provide for future offspring in a way that their parents could not, not wanting
to disappoint family, and hearing messages at home such as “don’t be like me.” There was also
a core idea of personal motivation, sometimes overlapping in the same individual case with
family-related motivation. One student stated, “I want to reach my goals and dreams and I
want to succeed in life – I don’t want to struggle. I want to be the first one out of my whole
family that actually goes to a university.” Personal motivation also revolved around wanting to
make career dreams come true, wanting to feel like “somebody” or to have accomplishments,
and wanting a better life than their present circumstances. One student reflected on family
members who had dropped out of school for various reasons, and said, “I decided I would be
different, I would actually go to school.” Some students described particular aspects of their
context, such as seeing a bad economy and realizing how a high school diploma would be
necessary, or living in the US with “a whole bunch of possibilities, so what can’t I do?”
The final general core idea in the responsibility domain related to knowledge or strategies of
how to reach one’s goals. Some sample quotes were to “get good grades”; “study for and pass
the end of year test”; “pay attention in classes and not fail any”; and “take the right classes.”
In a related way, students discussed how they needed to “work better, straighten up, always
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try”; or “forget about parties and focus on studying, pay attention, put in effort and not get
messed up.” These fairly brief comments had a positive tone, but also an overly general
quality. There was almost no mention of the sequential tasks that are part of planning for
future education or career.
The interviewer then prompted the students regarding some standard tasks for college
preparation, such as the need for taking the SATs, places to look for college information, people
to talk with during the process, grades or classes that might be required, and steps currently
being taken by the student. Some sample responses included, “I think I have to take the SATs,
but I’m not really sure how”; “I don’t know who I would talk to – maybe my aunt who
graduated from college?”; “would need math and English, at least with a high B”; and “I think I
could look for information on the internet.”
Culture
This domain was utilized whenever the participants directly addressed being Latina/o as part of
their responses, such as stating “some people think Latinos don’t belong here, that we are not
welcome.” In one section of the interview, students were asked as a follow up, “Is it hard to be
Latino in a state like this one?” Culture was also addressed directly in the section of the
interview where participants were asked their view of the future for a typical Latina/o student.
Thus, the researchers activated the notion of culture and then probed for family, education, and
career outcomes for other Latinas/os. A typical core idea was that the average Latina/o student
would achieve less education or a less prosperous career than the respondent. As seen in
Table 2, participants had high aspirations for themselves but were more stereotypical in their
list of likely careers for other Latinas/os.
Variant core ideas related to culture included no spontaneous mentions of culture during the
interview and mixed mentions of the positive and negative aspects of culture. One example of
the latter was, “Money problems – that’s like our main thing, being Latinos. But, on the good
side, some people want to hire us because of being bilingual.” Another student said, “Being an
immigrant here is hard. People don’t have driver’s licenses so if you miss the bus to school,
they can’t take you. But in school, there are ESL classes and teachers to help us, so that part is
good.”
In terms of comparing these qualitative findings with the longitudinal quantitative survey, both
sets of data reflected the students’ interest in college. In the survey, 47% of participants stated
their chances of attending college as “high to very high” and 47% selected “about 50%
chance”. Participants also believed that their lives would be better than their parents’ (with
88% endorsing “high to very high” chances). In terms of barriers, the quantitative data
showed that students were not concerned with issues related to being an immigrant (with 65%
selecting not at all) or worried about getting poor grades (with 59% selecting not at all).
Discussion
The researchers sought to augment the existing literature on future educational or career
aspirations by attending to the voices of Latina/o adolescents in emerging immigrant
communities. The findings in the current study parallel the literature about Latina/o immigrant
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families in that parental encouragement and student aspirations/motivation for the future are
strong, educational legacy or specific knowledge of steps and strategies are at low levels, and
finances are a concern (Marquez Kiyama, 2010). This study makes a contribution to the
existing literature in the following way: (a) a qualitative approach to supports and barriers to
future goals; (b) a focus on the unique sense of responsibility for success or failure held by the
students; (c) a comparison between outcomes for self and for an “average” Latina/o; and (d)
the addition of an emerging immigrant community as context. The discussion utilizes a social
justice counseling perspective, which includes an examination of the interplay between
individual aspirations and the social power dynamics that make progress toward those goals
more difficult for some groups.
Perception of Barriers
Whereas the quantitative literature would lead one to anticipate many barriers for ethnic
minority students in these life circumstances (Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001), the participants
reported relatively few. Of the barriers presented on the Perceptions of Barriers and
Perceptions of Educational Barriers measures in prior studies (Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001;
McWhirter, 1997), only pregnancy and financial concerns were echoed by the current
participants. The students added a sense of “circumstances beyond one’s control” as a potential
barrier, which could be consonant with a cultural attitude of fatalism or a reflection of the
precarious circumstances of a recently immigrated family. The participants declined to endorse
suggestions of barriers related to academic preparation, lack of support, not being smart
enough, family obligations, or experiencing negative attitudes from others due to their ethnicity.
In addition, the qualitative coding process illuminated some potential barriers that were not
directly identified as such by the students. Even though most of them would be the first in their
families to enter college, they did not mention a lack of role models as a limiting factor. Other
themes that were described by the participants but not directly identified as barriers included
relatively low levels of knowledge of the educational system or few strategies for college
planning, missed opportunities for obtaining support from teachers and counselors, and fears
regarding “dead-end” jobs and poor educational outcomes for Latina/o immigrants. Possible
explanations for the low perception of barriers include the age of the participants, who perhaps
still saw college and career planning as distant tasks, a lack of critical consciousness of the
power structures that might disadvantage them, a lack of connection with knowledgeable
mentors or guides, or the immigrant optimism that regards the US as a land of opportunity for
those who work hard and thus may obscure systemic barriers (Yowell, 2000).
Emotional Support and Instrumental Support
There could be benefits as well as drawbacks to the lack of perceived barriers. A positive view
of the resiliency and cultural capital of immigrant families may provide an explanation for the
paucity of identified barriers (Ceja, 2004; Shetgiri et al., 2009). Even in a context with few
culturally-relevant role models or structural supports, students had high aspirations in terms of
both education and career. They believed that hard work would be enough to achieve their
goals and knew their families supported them. The protective influence provided by families’
emotional encouragement and reminders of the reasons for emigrating to the US could increase
students’ coping efficacy and positive outcome expectations (Lent et al., 1994).
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Unfortunately, most students had very little specific knowledge or useful strategies about how
to fortify their path into college, which parallels findings from previous studies (Yowell, 2000).
Although their motivation was undeniable, they did not identify the instrumental supports that
would aid them in translating their vision into a reality of college access and professional work.
School counselors and teachers would be appropriate sources for this missing strategic
information; however, students seemed to be underutilizing these resources. The reason for
these missed opportunities did not seem to be overt discrimination or unhelpful attitudes on the
part of school personnel, as most students had a positive perception of teachers and
counselors. Possible reasons for not seeking help for college preparation could include lack of
developmental readiness to undertake college planning tasks, lack of awareness of the
complexity of the college planning and admissions process, difficulty in accessing support
services, or cultural preference to receive advice from trusted members of one’s social network
(Kimura-Walsh et al., 2009; O'Connor, 2009). This barrier could be described as lack of
understanding of how to engage with an unfamiliar system, which is logical to expect from
immigrant families. This suggests that social justice advocates could empower students and
families simply by making the educational system less opaque and thus more truly accessible.
Missed opportunities for engagement could also be viewed from the counselors’ and educators’
side. Under-represented populations with few college role models who do not know the
questions to ask or the appropriate timeline for planning may require proactive outreach efforts
(National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, 2007). School counselors can be influential in
providing college information and planning support to students; however, this input may be
absent in situations such as high poverty high schools, where inexperienced counselors may
have many other duties or may hold low college expectations for some students based on
stereotypes (Bryan, Holcomb-McCoy, Moore-Thomas, & Day-Vines, 2009; Cabrera & LaNasa,
2000; Gandara & Bial, 1999). It is clear that participants in this study benefited from counselors
and teachers who initiated conversation about the importance of college or their personal
experiences in higher education. Proactive and strengths-based interventions are key from a
social justice counseling point of view with vulnerable populations (Holcomb-McCoy, 2007).
Barriers and Responsibility
In the relative absence of identified barriers, students seemed to blame themselves for not
working hard enough if they could not achieve their dreams. Perceived external barriers to
college (such as lack of money, policies and laws, or school and community demographic
context) would allow students to make attributions that did not place primary responsibility with
themselves (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2000). However, participants in this study did not blame
schools with few resources or anti-immigrant laws when asked what could prevent them from
reaching their goals. Instead, these students named internal barriers such as not working hard
enough, giving up, or not following through. They were laudable in their sense of effort and
responsibility, but also unaware other circumstances might become a barrier. A social justiceminded counselor might consider whether internalized oppression was influencing student
perceptions of their own role in actualizing their futures. This could lead to strategies for
building critical consciousness of the structural barriers that impede progress, relieving students
of the self-blaming attitudes that could harm them psychologically (Holcomb-McCoy, 2007).
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Stereotypes as Barriers
Finally, the contrast between what students hoped was possible in their futures and what they
feared would occur or believed was likely for a typical Latina/o student is noteworthy. As
individuals, they were motivated about fulfilling the American dream and accessing “the good
life.” They believed they could create a future that would defy the stereotypes. However, when
reflecting on their group as represented by a “typical” Latina/o, they became increasingly
doubtful that educational and career attainment were likely and instead mentioned the types of
work they observed others performing in their community (as seen in Table 2). When culture
was activated in their minds by the phrasing of the question, they were no longer as optimistic
about “typical” Latinas/os achieving the things they themselves were hoping to complete.
Particularly in a new immigrant community with fewer visible examples of high career and
educational attainment and the presence of anti-immigrant rhetoric, it is plausible that the
participants had absorbed negative stereotypes about their own group. It is also possible that
their lack of familiarity with the mechanisms for moving into college and career left them with
no other explanation; if I can’t do it, it must be my fault, and if typical Latinas/os can’t do it, it
must be their fault. These themes strongly suggest the presence of internalized oppression
paired with a lack of perspective on pervasive systems of social advantage and disadvantage,
which leaves individuals with an inaccurate understanding of their position in the power
structure.
Emerging Immigrant Communities
The juxtaposition of high aspirations, few identified barriers, strong fears, and self-blame in
these findings is striking. Compared with the risk and resilience model described by Ko and
Perreira (2010) in a similar emerging immigrant community, the current study also underscores
the mixed experience of adjusting to a culture that is not fully prepared to support newcomers.
In a new context, immigrant families may not understand fully the systems with which they
must interact (e.g., schools, work places, laws). However, in the scope of these interviews,
students did not report members of those systems reaching out to engage them. This lack of
information or social isolation can limit opportunity, even among motivated and capable
individuals (Bohon et al., 2005; Ko & Perriera, 2010). The contrasts present in these qualitative
interviews may illustrate the mixed influences the students were trying to process from their
families, their schools, their peers, and the local community, or their lack of perspective on how
one moves from the abstract world of aspirations to the concrete world of planning and
preparation.
Implications for Counselors: Intervention and Advocacy
One implication of our findings is that students from immigrant families have strengths and
resources, but also have some unmet needs in terms of engaging with the college preparation
process. Although this study cannot confirm whether supplying missing information would be
sufficient to address those needs, providing knowledge and empowerment for applying that
knowledge could be one starting place (Borders, Hines, Gonzalez, Villalba, & Henderson, 2011).
Counselors and educators can help immigrant families see into the black box of educational
planning, so that the path from aspirations to attainment is no longer hidden from their view.
Rather than maintaining the status quo of educational access for privileged families alone, such
an intervention represents counselor advocacy for students who have been ignored or left
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behind (Holcomb-McCoy, 2007). To be done in a culturally effective way, this could include
Spanish-speaking parents and students as role models (Auerbach, 2004). These inequities in
access can be addressed with individual students and families, but it is even more powerful for
counselors to examine how future planning is addressed in the school as a whole or the way
information is shared with families who speak a language other than English. In this way, even
students who identify few barriers to their future plans begin to understand the planning
timeline and are included in educational planning conversations.
The hopes, fears, and sense of responsibility expressed by students in this study suggest that
interventions may need to address an individual’s emotions as well. The theme of personal
responsibility for future outcomes has implications for counselors or helping professionals
working as advocates. While the cultural implications of these statements by Latina/o
immigrant adolescents need to be further unpacked, a critical consciousness may help these
youth understand that they are not solely to blame if they fall short of their goals (HolcombMcCoy, 2007). In general terms, an overwhelming sense of responsibility could be paralyzing,
so that high aspirations are not acted upon due to fears, stereotypes, and concerns not to be “a
failure.” Mental health professionals should consider depressive symptoms arising from
perceptions of having sole responsibility for future outcomes, and advocates should continue to
challenge external structural barriers (e.g., inequitable policies and practices).
Alternately, responsibility can be motivating, and if students can be encouraged to focus on
their own sense of agency in combination with responsibility and an understanding of the social
power structure, they might be able to see places where they can move forward. From a social
justice counseling perspective, a more adaptive message might include the benefits of
persistence and hard work, but also an exploration of social systems that confer advantage on
some and constraints on others (Holcomb-McCoy, 2007). Increasing a student’s sense of
agency is one of the final steps in building critical consciousness.
Broader social transformation is important as well. Toporek et al (2009) helped counselors
categorize types of advocacy activities they could undertake on behalf of clients and families,
from individual to community to large-scale public efforts. To apply those scales of effort
toward working for educational and career access with students in emerging immigrant
communities, counselors and counselor educators can: (a) empower individual students to keep
their high aspirations, encourage them to respond to the stereotypes and/or barriers they
perceive, and help them understand power structures they might not initially perceive; (b)
advocate for families to receive needed information and resources for future planning in
Spanish; (c) collaborate with Latina/o immigrant students and others who experience
oppression to deconstruct the blaming sense of responsibility for future outcomes; (d) prepare
current and future school counselors to provide more intentional outreach around strategic
planning, such that immigrant students are proactively provided opportunities to discuss their
future plans; and (e) work in partnership with the immigrant community and the media to bring
attention to policies like the DREAM Act. These suggestions are relevant to the themes
uncovered in this study because they help to build critical consciousness and human agency
amongst students who are confronting barriers, both seen and unseen. Although options for
college admission and financial aid are few for the undocumented portion of the community, a
few sources do exist. Interested readers are referred to the Mexican American Legal Defense
and Education Fund at www.maldef.org or the Hispanic Scholarship Fund at www.hsf.net/.
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Limitations and Implications for Research
A methodological limitation to the current study is lack of member checks, for reasons described
earlier. However, if member checks had been possible, researchers would have been interested
in soliciting feedback about the perceived accuracy of the domain titles and core ideas,
collaborating on the interpretive validity of the discussion, and gathering any post-interview
reflections the participants had about their future goals and plans. In addition, the
developmental level of the adolescent participants, their level of comfort with English
vocabulary, or the tendency to provide socially desirable answers may have limited responses to
the interview prompts. Finally, the follow-up prompts about barriers drawn from the literature
could have biased students’ responses, even though they were offered in a non-directive
manner. Nevertheless, this study can stimulate future research and practice regarding: (a) low
levels of knowledge or awareness of steps in college planning; (b) limited use of teachers and
counselors to fill in identified gaps in instrumental support; (c) potential interference from
stereotypes; (d) the qualitatively constructed relationship between supports, barriers, and
goals; and (e) internalization of responsibility for falling short of goals. The CQR methodology
can also be a tool for social justice researchers, as a form of learning from and collaborating
with participants rather than objectifying them or replicating social biases about the deficits of
immigrant communities.
Conclusions
In summary, attending to the first person perspectives of these students from Mexican and
Central American immigrant families provides a more nuanced understanding of what barriers
to college and career may be perceived as salient, how unidentified barriers may be operating
to limit opportunity, and how perceptions of personal responsibility and culture factor in. From
a social justice counseling point of view, educational and career planning is an important area
for advocacy as it can bring a greater sense of agency and progress to a disempowered
community. This study includes the strengths and optimism of these families, and encourages
counselors and advocates to work collaboratively with Latina/o immigrant students to identify
and address systemic barriers to progress.
Author Note: The authors wish to thank L. DiAnne Borders for her thoughtful assistance with
this study.
Contact information:
Laura M. Gonzalez
Department of Counseling and Educational Development,
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
PO Box 26170, Greensboro, NC 27402
Email: lmgonza2@uncg.edu
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Qualitative Methods: An Example
Qualitative Methods: An Example
Program Transcript
NARRATOR: Dr. Sreeroopa Sarkar's research study is an example of qualitative
research. Its design was made particularly interesting because of cultural
questions and decisions that guided the design process. Listen as she explains.
SREEROOPA SARKAR: Today, I'm going to describe two research studies that
myself and Dr. Bonnie Nastasi of Walden University have carried out for
promoting mental health among the schoolchildren in the South Asian countries
of Sri Lanka and India. These two studies were formative in nature and it aimed
at assisting the mental health needs of the adolescent school students in these
two countries and resources available to them to deal with any kind of mental
health issues.
The first study was initiated in Sri Lanka. We wanted to test the model in a similar
culture. So as a native of India, I wanted to extend this study on the model that
we developed in Sri Lanka and wanted to test it in a similar culture in the
neighboring country of India. We expected that India and Sri Lanka has many
similarities in cultures.
I'd like to share with you why we decided to carry out these two studies in two
different cultures. We have been involved in a sexual risk prevention project with
the youth in Sri Lanka. And during our interviews with the young adults, many of
the mental health issues that came up such as suicide, alcohol and drug abuse,
and so on-- for example, suicide rate among the adolescents in Sri Lanka was
very high. That was also the case for adolescents in India.
Sri Lanka has the highest rate of suicide in the world. And the rate of suicide
among the adolescent population, particularly between the age of 15 to 18, is
highest in India. We also found out that drug and alcohol abuse is on the rise in
both cultures and there are also incidents of gang activities or criminal activities,
community violence, that were affecting the adolescents and the young adults in
both countries.
We started looking into the literature and we also found that there is very limited
emphasis on mental health issues in both cultures. There are also very limited
resources available. For example, in Sri Lanka, there are only 19 psychiatrists
available for a population of 20 million. There are also misconceptions as well as
widespread ignorance about mental illnesses and mental disorders. And there
are also cultural stigmas about mental illnesses in both of these cultures.
In this background, we decided to initiate our first study in Sri Lanka. And for
conceptualizing mental health for the purpose of our study, we used three
theoretical frameworks. One was Bronfenbrenner's ecological developmental
framework, which emphasizes on the role of ecology in influencing a person's
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development. We also used personal and environmental factors model, which
emphasizes the importance of personal factors as well as environmental factors
in influencing a person's mental health. And the third framework that we have
used was the primary prevention of mental illnesses through promotion of
personal social competencies.
So based on these theoretical frameworks, we generated six major mental health
constructs or variables that are related to mental health. First was the culturally
valued personal and social competencies. The second construct was social
stressors as viewed by the adolescents in that culture.
Third was what kind of coping strategies that the youth utilized to deal with major
mental health problems and stressors. Fourth was what kind of social resources
that are available to the youth to deal with mental illnesses. Fifth was personal
and family history that makes an individual vulnerable to mental illnesses. And
the last was socialization practices and agents that influences a person's
development.
We realized that using a qualitative research method would be very effective in
this formative research stage. We have decided to use the ethnographic
research tradition because we were trying to understand mental health from the
perspective of the people from two different cultures which are very different from
the cultures that we see in the United States. We wanted to learn about the
culture from the perspective of the people of the culture. We wanted to get a
definition of mental health as the people from that country defined it-- how they
viewed mental health, how they viewed different mental health problems, what
kind of attitudes they have toward mental health. So we felt that ethnographic
research method will enable us to get a very culture specific definition of mental
health.
We conducted focus group interviews with the schoolchildren. We started with
open ended questions and based on what kind of responses we are getting-- for
example if they wanted to discuss a particular topic, we also wanted to focus on
that particular topic and discuss it with the children in detail.
I'll give you an example. When we were conducting interviews with them and we
asked them about social stressors, many of the children were very vocal about
academic pressure. And we wanted to explore that issue in detail and we asked
them more questions about academic pressure. And we found out that there are
several factors such as rigorous examination system in the country, high level of
competition, parental pressure for academic achievement, as well as lack of
opportunity for identity creation were identified as major stressors by the children.
Another example would be when asking females students about social stressors
in India and Sri Lanka, girls talked a lot about sexual harassment and molestation
that they encounter in everyday life. So we were very interested and asked them
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more questions about that and we wanted to discuss it in detail. We found out the
girls are regularly teased by boys on the streets and they're also molested
frequently in the public transportation by men. They identified that problem as a
major social stressor for them. We expected that the findings from these studies
will help us developing a culture specific survey questionnaire and an
intervention tool that we can use with a larger population of adolescent students
in both of these countries.
I'll give you some of the examples of our findings. Some of the characteristics of
personal social competencies as defined by the adolescents in that culture
included honesty, hard work, ability to balance between work or play, and respect
for elders. Social stressors as viewed by the adolescents included poverty,
academic pressure, sexual harassment, family violence, fights between the
parents, and divorce of the parents. Some of the coping strategies that they
described included crying, pouting, isolation, listening to music, or seeking
support from family members, from parents, and from friends. Social resources
available to the adolescents included seeking support from family, friends, or
seeking support from private tutors who particularly helped them in their
academic needs. Interestingly, students never discussed getting any kind of
support from professionals such as psychiatrists or psychologists.
Based on our findings from both of these research studies, there are several
implications. First, the findings from these studies suggested a strong need for
mental health services for the adolescent school students in both of these
countries. Secondly, based on the qualitative data as well as our intervention
data, we expect to recommend to the policymakers of the country several things.
We expect to recommend them that they may explore the opportunity for
integrating personal/social competency promotion or life skill training to the
children in the schools, such as how to deal with stressors. It will teach them
resiliency or it will teach them how to seek support when they are having some
kind of mental health problems.
One of the challenges that I personally had to deal with while carrying out this
research was keeping out my personal biases. I am a native of India and am very
familiar with the culture of India as well as Sri Lanka. So when I went out there
and I was carrying out interviews, I had to make sure that my personal biases
doesn't interfere with data collection or data interpretation. And I think that's
important for any qualitative researchers to remember, that we have to be
careful. We have to be aware of any kind of personal biases that we bring in with
ourselves into the research.
In closing, I would like to say that, as we expected, qualitative research was
found very effective for this particular study. We found a very culture specific
definition of the major mental health constructs that we were looking into. And
based on the definition of this construct, we were successful in developing a
culture specific instrument for collecting data as well as we developed an
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intervention program that we implemented in Sri Lanka. We hope to do the same
in the future in India with the qualitative data that we have collected there.
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