Queering Data Collection: Using the Life History Calendar Method With Sexual-Minority Youth

ABSTRACT

A challenge for research with sexual-minority youth is to capture their unique stories in a way that heightens understanding of lived experience and promotes the development of culturally relevant programs and policies tailored for this population. One data collection approach that may be particularly useful for research with sexual-minority youth is the life history calendar (LHC) method. The LHC provides a visual, calendar-based assessment of life events and behaviors anchored by contextual cues to enhance retrospective recall. The purpose of this article is to examine the utility of the LHC method with sexual-minority youth and its potential to address three methodological and conceptual challenges: developmental complexity, shifting and evolving identities, and timing. The LHC method is illustrated using three studies conducted by the author as case examples. Findings suggest that the LHC offers several potential benefits for research with sexual-minority youth including its adaptable and flexible structure, capacity to assess event timing and sequence, mixed-methods capability, and its ability to engage and empower youth to co-create the interview process. Strengths and limitations of the LHC method and implications for research and practice with sexual-minority youth in a range of social service settings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual minority
• GLBTQ
• adolescent
• life history calendar
• assessment

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author gratefully acknowledges Michael Lee for his editorial comments on a preliminary draft of this article.

Notes

1. Consistent with Elze (2005), the term “sexual minority” is used here to refer to “self-identified gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender ˙ ˙ ˙ adolescents, and youths who are gender-variant and/or experience same-sex attractions, relationships, and/or behaviors without necessarily labeling themselves” (p. 76).

2. Having a gender identity that aligns with one's gender assigned at birth and physical body (Schilt & Westbrook, 2009).

3. The acronym “GLBT” refers to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. Use of the acronym “LBGTQ” is also common, with “Q” referring to either “queer” or “questioning” depending on the research purpose and language preferences of youth.

4. The more comprehensive acronym “LBGTQQI2-S” refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, and 2-spirit.

5. Two study samples included only LGBTQ youth, while one included a subsample of sexual-minority youth in the larger sample of sexually-active adolescents.

6. Because the study was conducted in a public health clinic in a state that has become increasingly conservative politically, we were not able to assess youths’ sexual orientation.