Qualitative Research Network at UMass-Lowell: Brown Bag on "Giving Birth to Theory in Qualitative Research: Adolescents and the Sexting Continuum"

Image by Sally L. Smith via FlickrThe UMass-Lowell Qualitative Research Network sponsored its third brown bag for the Fall 2011 semester (November 8, 2011: 12:30-1:30).  We (the Sexting Project) were the featured project.

The Sexting Project is a three-state, interdisciplinary study of teens views of sexting (and the parents and educators who work with them).  It was funded by the Department of Criminal Justice.  We are about 2/3's through our data collection activities (surveys and focus groups).  We have collected data from 20 youth focus groups (123 individuals); 4 parent focus groups (5 more to go); and we still have 3 groups of educators and criminal justice professionals to interview. 

Our focus for the brown bag discussion was "Giving Birth to Theory in Qualitative Research:  Adolescents and the Sexting Continuum".  The topic was an answer to the hardball question musicologist Alan Williams lobbed at me at the end of the last brown bag--"How do you create a theory from your qualitative research data?" 

To explore the question, our group decided to trace the evolution of our notion of the sexting continuum.  The sexting continuum is our understanding of teens' responses to why sext?  We were surprised to learn that many had positive or unagressive reasons that they thought one might sext (you don't get pregnant or std's, for example).  On the opposite end, there was limited discussion from teens about overtly agressive behavior in regard to sexting.  The teens we talked to were not at all interested in relationships with strangers on the Internet...their connections were about people they knew.

What was very interesting is that the largest category was the squishy stuff in the middle--that wasn't quite one or the other--it implied agression or coercion, but teens were reluctant to label it that way.  Instead, they talked about joking with each other, trying to attract someone. 

So, the continuum is our theory that is growing as we delve more deeply into the data and talk with others about the meaning of what we are finding. 

Those who attended raised some very interesting questions that included:

• thinking about the narratives in which sexing is embedded (discourse formations)
• thinking about the technological literacy that is required of teens
• the notion of sexting as a rite of passage
• the aesthetics of sexting (how do people chose how to present themselves in these situations)

What was very exciting for me was to hear our two Emergent Scholars on the project, talk about the work they have been doing.  They did a great job describing how they were working with the project in NVivo and what they were learning about research in the process.  Nice job Mary Ann and Lindsay.

 Thanks also to Shanna, our fantastic graduate assistant, and the special insight she brings to the work.

We have two great talks coming up in the second part of the semester...more on that next!  

Qualitative Research Brown Bags on the UMass Lowell Campus

The Qualitative Research Network (QRN) on the UML campus is going to sponsor a series of brown bags across this year. For the Fall 2011 semester we are meeting the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month. For the first few sessions we are in Rm 513 O'Leary Library from 12:30-1:30 pm.

These are meant to be informal, not polished, opportunities to discuss research in the rough.

Our first presenter was Alan Williams from the music department. In addition to being a skilled musician and sound recording expert, he is also a darn good ethnomusicologist. We had a fascinating discussion with him about work he is doing to build an international group that will examine the dynamics of sound recording (something he looked at for his dissertation). It's so much fun to hear about qualitative research in other realms.

Coming up next week Tuesday 10/25/2011, Ellen O'Brien from the Graduate School of Education will be talking about how to use qualitative computing software (NVivo) to support undergraduate honor's students to learn to conduct a literature review and write academic papers based on that review.

On Tuesday November 8, I am going to be talking about the Sexting project I am working on and showing what an NVivo project can look like in a mature stage. I hope to be joined by some of my colleagues on the project...and our Emerging Scholars who have been working in the NVivo Data base.

We have two dates for the end of the semester 11/22/11 and 12/13/11 that I am looking to find presenters for.

Every time I attend one of these I get goosebumps again, to think of how many good and innovative qualitative researchers we have on campus. If you are in the area, come join us!