Research Methods with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations

William Meezan, James I. Martin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781136570193
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: LGBT Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Take an in-depth look at what worksand what doesn'tin research with GLBT populations!

This essential book examines the usefulness of current frameworks for research with GLBT populations and highlights the necessity for greater complexity in the conceptualization and design of research with these populations. It will help you understand the need for more inclusive and representative samples and the need to protect the privacy of GLBT research participants-and ways to accomplish these goals. In addition, Research Methods with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations considers the advantages and limitations of having an inside perspective when conducting research with these populations. It also explores the myriad ways in which this research can be used to better understand issues facing GLBT communities.

Specifically, Research Methods with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations discusses:

• eight strategies that outsiders can use to overcome barriers to doing their work
• the challenges of finding and studying older members of gay and lesbian communities
• the special challenges that studying gay drug users pose to the researcher
• factors affecting research with urban Black and African-American GLBT populations
• sampling issues, including ways to overcome the challenges of conducting research with sexual minority adolescents, issues related to dealing with institutional review boards, and lessons derived from empirical articles in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services
• unique features of AIDS service organizations to consider when developing an evaluation strategy
• ethical standards for research and evaluation with GLBT populations
• and a great deal more!

From the Foreword, by Anthony R. D'Augelli: In social science research, the effort to extract durable principles of social causality from the apparent randomness of everyday life requires the construction of reliable, if tentative, knowledge that is significantly more informative than mere speculation. With our ever-increasing knowledge base, increasingly sophisticated and powerful quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and with an ever-expanding cadre of researchers, our ability to discern patterns of development of GLBT people from birth to death, the unique qualities of their relationships, and the impact of communities and cultures on the ways in which their sexualities are manifested, will come into sharper focus. In this way, research becomes a tool by which GLBT people transcend invisibility and marginalization. As new research accumulates, the unique contributions that GLBT lives make to our understanding of the nature of human development will be documented in ways never before thought possible.

Within the larger context of social science research on GLBT populations, this book describes the current status of social service researchers in their quest for methodological sophistication and conceptual complexity. The work of the contributors to this volume exemplifies the progress that has been made since the first research reports on this topic were published.

Exploring Current Themes in Research on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Populations

William Meezan and James I. Martin

SUMMARY. This introductory essay briefly describes each of the manuscripts in this volume. It then delineates and describes themes that cut across these works. These themes include: the usefulness of the ecological framework for research with GLBT populations; the necessity for greater complexity in the conceptualization of research with these populations; the need for more inclusive and representative samples; the need to protect GLBT research participants and ways in which this can be accomplished; the usefulness and importance of using inclusive research methods; the advantages and limitations of the insider perspective when conducting research on GLBT populations; and ways in which research with these populations can be used. It concludes with a call for research that addresses the difficult and potentially controversial issues facing GLBT populations. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Research, GLBT populations, ecological framework, sampling, protection of subjects, participatory research, insider perspective

When we decided to edit a volume addressing the current research that social workers were conducting with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender populations (GLBT), and the issues faced in executing these studies, we decided to cast our net widely. We were not interested in a single type of article, but rather wanted to attract creative scholars who could share their work in a variety of ways. Toward that end, our call for papers, which was circulated widely both through personal invitations and on listserves, stated that we were looking for three types of papers: (1) those concerned primarily with research methods, including topics such as population definition, problem formulation, sampling, research design, measurement, data collection and analysis (including the appropriate uses of quantitative and qualitative data), and the ethical conduct of research; (2) those in which experiences in applying specific research strategies to GLBT populations were described, including the issues that the authors encountered in these applications and the strategies they employed to overcome them; and (3) those in which ways of conceptualizing research with these populations were described, including the specific paradigms and research approaches that were thought to be appropriate.

As we read over the abstracts that were submitted to us, we decided to choose papers that were diverse in terms of type, approach, subject, and population. With no particular conceptual scheme in mind, we decided that we would “make sense” of the papers after they were received, and order the contributions in the book only after the manuscripts were written and edited. The variety of papers we received was astounding!

Michael LaSala’s paper describes the strengths and potential weaknesses of having an “inside” perspective when conducting qualitative research with gay men and lesbians. He notes that lesbian and gay investigators who study lesbians and gay men may bring special knowledge and understanding to their research, which can facilitate sample identification, data collection, and data analysis. He warns, however, that “inside” investigators might wrongfully assume common cultural understandings or fail to explore their respondents’ unique perceptions, and that social desirability effects may influence responses under these circumstances. Such conditions can compromise the reliability and validity of data, and lead to the improper interpretation of findings. Throughout his article, LaSala offers a number of important suggestions to “inside” researchers that can maximize the advantages of their position while avoiding the potential biases that may occur because of it.

Joan McClennen’s article provides a wonderful counterpoint to LaSala’s. In her article, she describes her journey as a heterosexual woman conducting research on partner violence within a GLBT community. She presents eight strategies through which “outsiders” can overcome barriers to doing their work, the most important of which is immersion in the culture. She also presents her perceptions of the costs and benefits of conducting research with a stigmatized population to which she did not belong. Her work is clear evidence that an “outsider” can produce research that is important to GLBT populations, even when it addresses a topic as sensitive as domestic violence.

The probing of sensitive topics, with hidden and sometimes stigmatized sub-populations in GLBT communities, is the subject of a number of the articles in this volume. Kristina Hash and Elizabeth Cramer discuss the challenges of finding and studying older members of gay and lesbian communities. Their paper describes a study they conducted on the caregiving behaviors and experiences of this population. They advocate for the use of qualitative methods to uncover the unique experiences of those involved in this and other understudied populations.

Darrell Wheeler’s manuscript examines factors affecting research with urban Black and African American GLBT populations, another difficult-to-reach group. He notes that this is a particularly timely topic, since reducing and eliminating racial disparities in health care has become a major national priority, and since there are no data on health outcomes or social service utilization by Black and African American GLBT persons. His article presents a case study to demonstrate the viability of the recommended research approaches described in the paper, and discusses the possible negative consequences of deviating from these methodological suggestions.

In his contribution, E. Michael Gorman discusses the special challenges that studying gay drug users pose to the researcher. He describes the methodological issues related to initiating and conducting research on this population, and discusses how such research can guide more effective prevention, treatment, and policy initiatives. He underscores the importance of conducting such research, since drug use is associated with high-risk behavior that leads to the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

While all of these articles use examples from their authors’ research to illustrate the points being made, other articles in this volume address the traditional stages of the research process in a more direct way. In their paper, Marian Swindell and Jo Pryce contend that research on lesbian populations has often been simplistically conceptualized, lacking complex models with mediating and moderating variables that might help to explain the occurrence of behavioral problems that some lesbians experience. They persuasively argue that more complex conceptualizations of behavior can further our understanding of lesbians’ experiences, and assert that trauma is an important intervening variable to explore when trying to understand responses to the coming out process. This conceptual article demonstrates the ways in which theory development and modeling can lead to the formulation of important research questions that deserve empirical attention.

Stephanie Swann and Jeane Anastas call for greater precision in the conceptualization and measurement of key issues explored in research. Their study examines dimensions of the construct of sexual identity among young women who identify as lesbian or questioning. Their empirical findings illustrate that more simplistic conceptualizations and measurements of this construct may not hold up under scrutiny; that the individual and social dimensions of identity development among lesbians may not be as distinct as had been previously hypothesized; and that other dimensions that were lacking in earlier models may be important to a fuller understanding of identity formation in this population.

Two articles in this volume discuss sampling issues with GLBT populations. Diane Elze discusses the major challenges of conducting research with sexual minority adolescents, and the ways in which she overcame these challenges. Her article centers upon the difficulties in finding a large sample of youth under 18 who were diverse in their stage of coming out and who were not associated with organized groups. She also discusses the issues present in dealing with Institutional Review Boards when attempting to include underage youth for whom parental consent cannot be obtained safely in research, and ethical ways to address this situation.

In their study, Gerard Sullivan and Warren Losberg examine the various types of sampling techniques used to study GLBT populations in the empirical articles that appeared in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services between 1997 and 2000. They describe the sample characteristics, sample sizes, response rates, and methods of obtaining samples in these studies. Using these data, they discuss sampling issues that characterize the field, and make suggestions for improving sampling and reporting practices in social service research with GLBT populations.

Sarah-Jane Dodd and William Meezan discuss the importance of the fit between the organizational characteristics and the research methodologies and approaches used in evaluation research. Their paper describes the unique features of AIDS service organizations (ASOs) that should be considered when developing an evaluation strategy, and discusses why the dominant paradigms of evaluation research are incongruent with the service delivery philosophies of these organizations. They describe an alternative, participatory evaluation approach that better matches the philosophy and service delivery approaches of ASOs to the evaluation process.

Studying stigmatized populations like members of GLBT communities, whether “out,” members of “hidden” groups who are difficult to locate and engage in the research enterprise (including those who participate in illegal activities), or youth who present a host of issues not present when studying adults, can raise ethical questions and dilemmas in the conduct of research. The final manuscript in this volume, by James I. Martin and William Meezan, examines the application of ethical standards to research and evaluation on GLBT populations. They use social work’s Code of Ethics and psychology’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct as their organizing framework, and note that researchers may need to take additional measures to protect GLBT research participants from harm. Also, they examine heterosexist and genderist biases in the conceptualization and execution of research as additional ethical issues.

Recurring Themes

While the above description might make it seem that this volume is made up of disparate articles that have little to do with one another, the reality is quite different. As one reads the entire manuscript, certain themes emerge that bind these works together in a mosaic that tells a story of the current efforts of social work researchers studying GLBT populations. Of course, all of these themes do not appear in all of the manuscripts. But the congruence of thought apparent in a number of articles suggests issues that are important to the field as it pursues future research endeavors with these populations.

In reading this volume, one caveat should be kept in mind. Social science research on GLBT populations is in its infancy, with the first important studies appearing less than 50 years ago (D’Augelli).¹ The social sciences, particularly psychology, produced important information about gay (and to a lesser degree, lesbian) populations during the 1980s, and the AIDS epidemic led to a burgeoning literature on a variety of issues related to it in the late 1980s. However, descriptive articles and research aimed at the social service needs of GLBT populations found a home less than ten years ago with the publication of the first issue of the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services in 1993. The first issue of that Journal dedicated specifically to research issues appeared in 1995, and focused solely on lesbians (Tully, 1995). And the first major summary of methodological and ethical issues in research with lesbians and gay men appeared in the social work literature only very recently (Martin & Knox, 2000). Thus, social work has lagged behind the social sciences in the development of a unique knowledge base about these populations, and the research issues faced by other social scientists in past decades are only now being identified and addressed by human service professionals. What are these issues?

The Importance of the Ecological Perspective

Social workers have long recognized the ecological perspective as a comprehensive way of understanding human behavior. It is therefore not surprising that numerous authors in this volume note the importance of looking beyond individual factors, to the ways in which individuals interact with others and with their environments, in order to gain a fuller understanding of the phenomena under study. Swindell and Pryce note that personal contexts shape lesbians’ understanding of and reactions to their sexual identities, and that factors both within and outside the person influence their reaction to coming out. Gorman states that we must not only understand why gay men use drugs, but also “the people with whom they … [are] using, and the circumstances under which they … [are] using” if we are to design interventions that decrease the incidence of unprotected sex. And Wheeler notes that this perspective is particularly important when studying Black and African American GLBT persons, for it demands that researchers “examine individual and environmental forces in the process of scientific inquiry” and “incorporate sociocultural, structural, and behavioral variables into [their] research.”

Swann and Anastas make an even more cogent argument for incorporating the ecological perspective into research with GLBT populations. Not only do they state that “social, political, and cultural contexts shape individuals’ understandings of their sexual identities,” but they add that cohort effects may be highly salient in research with lesbian (and by extension GBT) populations. These authors acknowledge the “significant political changes made within the past 20 years,” and note that “lesbians coming out today … are more likely to have access to positive role models … [and] social service and community-based agencies … [that] affirm young lesbian identities.” Because of these changes in the environment, “existing models need to be empirically tested… as societal attitudes and beliefs … impact the identity development process.”

The Need for Complexity

In the Foreword of this volume, D’Augelli makes the point that descriptive research in this field has helped to eradicate stereotypes about same-sex couples, GLBT youth, and older adults. Likewise, Swindell and Pryce note that much of what we know about GLBT communities is based on descriptions of behavioral patterns, often focusing on problems such as substance abuse, mental illness, and suicide, and their apparent higher incidence among GLBT people than among heterosexuals.

A number of authors in this volume comment that such simple description, while important, is only a first step in the development of knowledge. For example, D’Augelli states that description should be undertaken only with an eye toward eventual explanation of the phenomena found. Swindell and Pryce echo this sentiment, and call for us to move beyond simple description to the use of complex models, containing mediating and moderating variables, in order to understand the presence of problems experienced by members of these populations. They contend that a fuller understanding of the reasons why self-destructive behaviors occur among members of GLBT communities can lead to preventive and ameliorative interventions that foster resilience.

In a similar vein, Swann and Anastas call for greater complexity in the conceptualization of key concepts. They show how testing a theoretically derived measure of a concept as seemingly linear as identity formation can result in a more complex construct that better explains this process. They state that it is critical to test the ways in which these more complex conceptualizations interface with cultural, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic forces to see how the coming out process varies among people with different characteristics in diverse circumstances.

Within Groups Variations

The need to test conceptualizations and research findings with various subgroups points to the fact that GLBT populations are far from monolithic, an assumption often made by those doing research in the field. Wheeler makes this point when he notes that even within more marginalized subgroups important variations exist; all Black and African American gay men do not experience their sexual orientation or relate to the world in the same way. Similar points are made by Swann and Anastas regarding differences in the way lesbian identities are formed, and by Swindell and Pryce in terms of the coming out process. Sullivan and Losberg sum up the risks of such thinking eloquently when they state “aggregation without awareness of the differences between people included in research samples runs the risk of producing conclusions that are misleading or simplistic.”

The Need for Improved Samples

Many of the authors in this volume discuss the difficulties in sampling members of GLBT populations. According to Sullivan and Losberg, “sampling is fraught with dilemmas, particularly with populations that are difficult to define, hard to reach, or resistant to identification because of potential discrimination, social isolation or other reasons that are relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations.” Such difficulties and dilemmas are exacerbated when one desires to study hard-to-locate subgroups that are not part of mainstream GLBT communities, or to broaden their studies to be more inclusive. Those who are hard to locate and difficult to engage in research include: members of transgender and bisexual populations in general; those who do not identify with a GLBT community; youth who are questioning or who have not disclosed to their parents; older or nonwhite GLBT people; poor and poorly-educated GLBT people; isolated GLBT peo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword: Toward the Future of Research on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Exploring Current Themes in Research on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Populations
• 2. When Interviewing “Family”: Maximizing the Insider Advantage in the Qualitative Study of Lesbians and Gay Men
• 3. Researching Gay and Lesbian Domestic Violence: The Journey of a Non-LGBT Researcher
• 4. Empowering Gay and Lesbian Caregivers and Uncovering Their Unique Experiences Through the Use of Qualitative Methods
• 5. Methodological Issues in Conducting Community-Based Health and Social Services Research Among Urban Black and African American LGBT Populations
• 6. Research with Gay Drug Users and the Interface with HIV: Current Methodological Issues for Social Work Research
• 7. Self-Disclosure Stress: Trauma as an Example of an Intervening Variable in Research with Lesbian Women
• 8. Dimensions of Lesbian Identity During Adolescence and Young Adulthood
• 9. 8,000 Miles and Still Counting … Reaching Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Adolescents for Research
• 10. A Study of Sampling in Research in the Field of Lesbian and Gay Studies
• 11. Matching AIDS Service Organizations’ Philosophy of Service Provision with a Compatible Style of Program Evaluation
• 12. Applying Ethical Standards to Research and Evaluations Involving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations
• Index