Pilot Testing Heaven

While I came here for the history, the politics, and of course, the "Craic" (pronounced 'crack,' and meaning 'fun' - so if an Irishman asks you if you're looking for 'crack,' know that he's not offering you drugs!), I also came here to conduct a research project with the twin aims of collecting and preserving oral histories of gay men during the Troubles, and to see if there is any indication that exposure to sectarian conflict causes problematic sexual identity formation. So, it's only fitting that some of this blogging be used to familiarize you with my research methodology. Transparency and control is the name of the game here and critical to minimizing potential bias in research methodology.

I have begun the pilot testing of the interview questions to be used for the study, which will comprise 4 members of the staff of The Rainbow Project. Two of these staff members (PP.1 & PP.2) will serve as developers for the actual questions. They will undergo a mock interview at the end of which they will describe their reactions to the questions and how they felt. I will then analyze the responses each gave to determine if I'm getting the types of responses desired (not creating leading/biased questions mind you, but to ensure that I'm getting data that is useable). These questions will then be revamped for the other two pilot interviews (PP.3 & PP.4) whose participation will be to develop my own skills and confidence as an interviewer, and be familiar with the paperwork and recording device.

Methodology and Protocols of the interviews:
5 initial test questions were determined prior to review by peers. Three additional questions were added. Q.3 was added upon the suggestion and consultation of Dean Lee (One of The Rainbow Project's counseling staff and member of the British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy, and leading expert in LGB&T counseling in Northern Ireland). Q.7 by myself after feeling there needed to be a context for the participant's current life. Q.8 was recommended by Dr. Kathryn MacKay, Mentor, member and Chair of my Capstone Project committee.

The goal of the interviews is to determine 4 variables, addressed by questions 2,4,5,6, and 7. Question 1 is to make the participant feel relaxed and begin building a foundation of trust to facilitate the rest of the interview.

QUESTIONS
Question 1: Introduction, Background info
1.Tell me about yourself? Would you tell me a bit about your childhood?
(AIMS – Introductory, getting comfortable with the participant, building a relationship of trust with the participant)

Question 2: Independent Variable - Sectarian Conflict
2. Would you tell me a bit about “The Troubles” and your personal experiences of it? What was the extent of your involvement? What was the extent of involvement of your family and friends?
(Aims – Involvement & Attitude toward Troubles)

Question 3: Setting up Question 4 - Sexual Identity development
3. What does the concept of "coming out about your sexuality" mean to you? Have you "come out?"

Question 4: Dependent Variable - Sexual Identity development -
4. Can you tell me when you first noticed your attraction to the same gender? What were your experiences of coming out?
(Aims – Development of Sexual Identity – Healthy vs. Problematic) Healthy vs. Problematic

Question 5: 3rd Variable - External Support Factors
5. Would you tell me about how your family and friends regarded being gay before you “came out?” What were their reactions when you were “coming out?” Did you find that their thoughts on being gay changed after you “came out?”
(Aims - External Environment – Support Factors)

Question 6: 4th Variable - Internal Resiliency Factors
6. What do you believe are your personal strengths? What do you believe are your personal weaknesses? How have these influenced your life as a gay man?
(Aims – Internal Resilience – Resiliency Factors)

Question 7: Current context for Dependent Variable - Sexual Identity Formation
7. Tell me a bit about your life today and the important people with which you share it?

Question 8: Wrapping up interview and maintaining the participant's ownership of their story.
8. What have I not asked you that you think important to tell me?

These will hopefully provide enough information for an informative oral history, as well as provide enough insight to actually be able to see if Sectarian conflict does effect Sexual Identity formation.

CONTROL GROUP
A small control group will be included of 8 gay mormons from Utah, 2 corresponding to each of the age brackets used in the actual research. My reasoning for using this demographic as a control group is that like Northern Ireland, Gay Mormons in Utah come from a very conservative and religious society. The only thing that should be different between the groups is that one endured sectarian conflict, and the other did not. This should be enough of a sampling to enable the groups to be compared and see if the coming out stories dramatically differ. I anticipate that resiliency factors might also be different, especially in the NI group, and show up different results according to age brackets (late troubles vs pre-troubles).

ANTICIPATED TIMELINE
- Pilot Interviews - Pilot interviews will commence through Friday Feb 7.
- Validating Interviews - Validating interviews, the 48 to be included in the final data will begin Monday Feb 10 and end on Monday March 31. This may seem like a brief period, however Rainbow Project has been quite proactive in suggesting individuals they feel would be of interest. At latest count there is a pool of 70 individuals to draw from. While some of these are Rainbow Project staff and volunteers, others are community activists who have been on the scene for many years. I will be looking outside of this pool for about 25% of the total to give us a sense of those who are not advocates and don't come from the club/bar/LGBT inner city scene. Some of these have already been located by attending sexual health clinic testing (gay men often come out for their health screenings from the more quieter demographics to these settings where there is less scrutiny and more privacy), and snowball sampling will be used for the remainder of these.