Jaj28 Report post Posted June 6, 2007 Hello everyone, My names Jennifer Jackson and I am a postgraduate student at the University of Leicester (UK). I am undertaking a doctorate in clinical psychology and as part of the course I have to submit a final year research project. Through my work and other research projects I have come into contact with online-forums and have learnt so much from peoples experiences and how individuals and families lives are touched by ASD. It has given me greater insight as a clinician, which I believe makes me a better practitioner and allows me to suggest this type of support to other families I work with. How people are choosing to use on-line forums is of particular interest and I believe understanding this could lead to greater understanding of the emotional and practical support that individuals and families need. Also being able to ?talk? to other people who are experiencing what you are is a unique opportunity to be validated and get hints and tips that health care professionals may not be able to give. I also feel that on-line forums are a 24 hour 7 day a week resource for individuals that services are unable to match and that health care professionals could sign post families to if we were able to support their efficacy through research. With these things in mind I was wondering if I could have your permission to analysis archived message threads to firstly, see how the forum is being utilised and secondly look for ?helping mechanisms? identified in the mutual aid and social support literature. What I propose to do is download message threads from the general discussion room from mid November to mid December 2006 (a time I think may be busy as Christmas is approaching) and use a technique called Template Analysis to look for overarching themes running through the data (such as ?information sharing? or ?giving support?). This technique allows me to talk about the data in fairly general terms but I would need to put a few quotes in to support my findings. Anonymity would however be absolutely assured. I would not use the name of the forum anywhere in write up; I would change usernames and the date of the posting. I would also run any quotes I wanted to use through search engines such as ?google? or ?yahoo? to make sure it doesn?t lead back to the forum and change the quote if necessary. I guarantee peoples messages, thoughts and feelings would be treated with dignity and respect. I would be very grateful if you could all let me know firstly, if I could use the archived material and secondly, if you would mind me using messages that you have written as quotes. If you do mind please let me know and I promise none of your posts will be used either in the general analysis or for quotes to support the findings. I would be happy to answer any questions about the research that you have, either through the site or via email (jj55@le.ac.uk) and I would also be happy to send the forum a copy of my paper once I have submitted it to the university so you can see what I found. Thank you for reading this and I look forward to hearing from you, Best Wishes Jennifer Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tally Report post Posted June 6, 2007 Hi Jennifer, In the first instance, you should probably contact Lufty, who runs the forum. You can contact him through his profile, which you will find here: http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php?showuser=1138 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaj28 Report post Posted June 6, 2007 Hi Jennifer, In the first instance, you should probably contact Lufty, who runs the forum. You can contact him through his profile, which you will find here: http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php?showuser=1138 Thanks for letting me know that. I've spoken to the moderators and they are happy for me to do the research if the members of the forum support it, and I'm really hoping you guys do. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smiley Report post Posted June 6, 2007 Arn't we good - waiting for a 'yes' of 'no' from Da Managment! I don't mind Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted June 6, 2007 Arn't we good - waiting for a 'yes' of 'no' from Da Managment! I don't mind Um... aren't we naughty management - please see below! L&P BD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted June 6, 2007 Hi jennifer/everyone else! Jennifer has, in fact, asked the mod/admin team, and we are completely happy with her using the forum for her project. Unfortunately, co-ordinating all of the mod/admin team meant that the PM we drafted last night wasn't quite ready for sending (sorry J!) The 'template analysis' Jennifer mentions doesn't actually use or reference individual posts or their content (it only sorts them into 'type'), so we are happy for that to go ahead on the basis that any member who advises they do not want their posts included can advise her/us accordingly. With regard to posts that Jennifer plans to quote directly, we have agreed that she can do so on condition that the member concerned has given permission, and that this is done in line with the anonymity guidelines she has outlined. Hope that makes sense! Bit of a rushed post so if it's it'll be me, not Jaj28! L&P&happy analysing BD (on behalf of the mod/admin team) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mumble Report post Posted June 6, 2007 Hi Jennifer, I'm also a PhD student and I have AS. I'd rather you didn't use my posts in this project simply because the university/AS environment is quite knowledgeable of everyone else - as I'm in 'discussion' with my uni at the moment in terms of support, I'd rather avoid anything that might make me un-anonymous/provoke my uni. Hope this is ok. I'd actually be very interested to know how you've got this sampling strategy past your university ethics committee; I've been discussing only tonight how what appears to be annonymous can become anything but in knowledgeable circles and the (sometimes devestating) implications of this. I have an opt-out clause (as this is) for part of my study but I've had to defend this and seek special permission from my committee chair. I hope the study goes well - I certainly find this forum a wonderful source of support Mumble. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hev Report post Posted June 6, 2007 you can quote me,i dont mind,just hope you can make sense of my posts Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tally Report post Posted June 7, 2007 I didn't realise you had already sought permission. In that case, this sounds like a really interesting research project. I am happy for my posts to be involved, because it looks as though you have covered everything in terms of anonymity. Are you looking at any other forums, as a comparison? This one is particularly well run, in my opinion. But some forums are not well moderated and it just ends up in a great big slanging match, which is not terribly supportive to anyone. It's easy to set up a forum, and it needn't cost anything, so you often get inexperienced people starting one up. I'll be very interested to see what you find. Good luck with the project! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaj28 Report post Posted June 7, 2007 Thank you all for getting back to me so quickly and for being interested in this project. Baddad (and the other mods) - sorry for jumping the gun a little, I'm to keen for my own good, but thanks for your thoughts and support. Mumble - Of course I understand your wishes and thanks for letting me know. If you want to chat about uni ethics I'll be happy to as it's not been an easy ride for me either, but I think it will be worth it. As this is a relatively small poject (compaired to research Phd's) I particularly wanted to look at what appears to be a very successful forum that is well run and supportive, in a hope of demonstrating their efficacy. I to have stumbled across some that don't appear to be as helpful and feel that this is an area that also needs exploration (but maybe later on). I'll let you know how its going a send you the paper when its done. Thanks again, Jen x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted June 7, 2007 (edited) As this is a relatively small poject (compaired to research Phd's) I particularly wanted to look at what appears to be a very successful forum that is well run and supportive, in a hope of demonstrating their efficacy. I to have stumbled across some that don't appear to be as helpful and feel that this is an area that also needs exploration (but maybe later on). Are you looking at any other forums, as a comparison? This one is particularly well run, in my opinion Well aint we feeling smug!! L&P Smuggy Smuggerson (OK, so now you can all qualify it with 'except for baddad's bits' ) Edited June 7, 2007 by baddad Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smiley Report post Posted June 7, 2007 Well aint we feeling smug!! L&P Smuggy Smuggerson (OK, so now you can all qualify it with 'except for baddad's bits' ) No-one likes a smartar*e.................... This place is wonderfully well run and supportive full of fantastic information each and every mod/admin is gorgeous beyond belief funny and talented wise and wonderful (except for Baddad.............. ) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
