Framework for the Analysis of Teenagers' Agency and Self-Disclosure and Methodological Reflections on Knowledge Production During Qualitative Research

Abstract

The development of participant driven methodologies, especially those involving research with teenagers about potentially stigmatizing and sensitive topics, can benefit from methodological reflections on participants' agency and disclosure in many ways. Not only will these reflections provide important insights about systems of power operating during data collection process, but they also will assist researchers in making stronger claims about participants' speaking positions, knowledge production, representativeness of participants' experiences, and trustworthiness of research findings. From a constructionist perspective, our purpose is twofold: 1) to develop a literature-based framework and methodological foci on how to analyze agency and disclosure in qualitative research projects, and 2) to share our methodological reflections of applying the framework to the context of two different qualitative data collection methods (experience sampling method and focus groups). We conclude that the participants' different forms of agency and self-disclosure can be useful indicators of active engagement and participant driven knowledge production.

Keywords:

• ADHD
• agency
• framework
• knowledge production
• self-disclosure
• teenagers

Notes

¹The italicized words represent theoretical concepts that we adapted and included in our analytical foci (see Table 1).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mirka Koro-Ljungberg

Mirka Koro-Ljungberg is an associate professor of qualitative research methodology at the University of Florida, in the School of Human Development and Organizational Studies in Education. She received her doctorate from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Florida she was a visiting scholar at the University of Georgia. Her research interests focus on the conceptual aspects and empirical applications of qualitative, experimental methods, and participant driven methodologies.

Regina Bussing

Dr. Regina Bussing is Professor of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Florida, with joint appointments in Clinical and Health Psychology, and Pediatrics. Board certified in general psychiatry and in child and adolescent psychiatry, Dr. Bussing completed her residency and fellowship training at the University of Florida and obtained a Masters degree at the UCLA School of Public Health. Her research includes a longitudinal mixed methods study that studies help-seeking processes for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a study that seeks to develop an activation syndrome measurement tool to confirm the occurrence and timing of activation syndrome during treatment with antidepressants. Dr. Bussing also collaborates in an early childhood intervention study comparing group and individual applications of parent-child interaction therapy for preschool ADHD, and in a study that focuses on the quality of care received by children in managed care Medi-Cal programs in Los Angeles County.

Leah Cornwell

Leah Cornwell graduated from William Smith College in 2002 with a B. A. She majored in psychology and minored in women's studies. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in psychology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where she also works as a firefighter.