Research methods for studying teenage sexting among secondary school students

Semi Structured Focus Group Interviews With Students

Online ethnography

Text mapping with students

Individual Interviews with students

Triangulation

Individual interviews with teachers

Ethics

Informed consent

Disclosure

Research Methods and Statistics: Impact of Teenage Sexting on Children and Its Consequences

There have been research designs developed to study various young people's experiences on 'sexting'. Data, collection tools have also been selected for this purpose. A survey design has been adopted and a data collection tool chosen.

Justification of the study design

First, sampling is deeply regarded in conducting surveys, as it is essential in almost all behavioral research. The research also involves questionnaires whose responses being computer-entered, written or oral comprise the primary data. It is possible to epigrammatically summarize the views of all respondents by using the same phrasing and order of questions. The attitudes and other characteristics of a specific population can be deduced from the responses given to similar questions offered to a representative fraction drawn from that population. Moreover, researchers can compare the attitudes of different populations or look for changes in attitudes over time when similar questions are presented to the selected sample (Shaughnessy, Zechmeister & Zechmeister, 2012). Investigative approach for conducting research is immensely important. Methods that make surveys a strategy that is effective for the examination of people's cognition, feelings and opinions are broadly analyzed in the rest of this chapter.

2. Participants

The representatives will include two schools with different kinds of students from diverse social backgrounds and values hence enabling effective study: from North London and South London. The lowest populated ethnic group harbors more than half of students from both schools. Mixed socioeconomic status (SES) populations are considered in the two schools (Ringrose, Gill, Livingstone & Harvey, 2012).

Significant research has deduced that sexting is experienced differently among age groups ranging between ages 11 and 16. The comparatively low rates of sexting reported in recent data among the youngest group (11-12) (Ringrose et al., 2012; Martinez-Prather & Vandiver, 2014) led to distinct selection of students from year 8 (12-13) and year 10 (14-15) in order to spark an investigative sense of the differences expected to be perceived during this inevitable stage of social, psychological and physical growth.

3. Data collection tools

3.1. Semi-Structured Focus Group Interviews with Students

Students of similar gender will be required to participate in groups of between 2 and 5 to share experience of sexual content they have picked up online. Selection targets diverse students between 8-10 ages per group. The participating students' qualification is experience in handling and dealing with mobile technologies.

The interview will be carried out separately based on gender, as recent study shows that there are different perceptions of sexual practices and activities for each gender (Allen, 2004). This format targets individual conceptualization of boys' and girls' and their perception on the topic.

The completion of the interviews will then prompt the researchers to 'befriend' the students on Facebook where only those comfortable should accept. The researchers will then critically explain their reasons for analyzing the students' activity on the site.

3.2. Online Ethnography

The willing participants will then connect with researchers on Facebook as 'friends' thus enabling the researchers to view and evaluate their profile updates. A smaller, representative, case study participants will be selected by the researchers based on the Facebook content and group discussions, for detailed individual interviews involving sexual communication and representation on Facebook.

3.3. Text Mapping with Students

The participants will then fill in the researchers with the information about tasks carried out in WhatsApp, including sharing of obscene photos to groups and individual chats as well as setting their profile photos with explicit photos (Ringrose et al., 2012.

Individual Interviews with Students

McClelland and Fine's (2008) 'intensity sampling' will be the format to be followed where sexting experiences are actualized broadly with the participants drawn from the focus groups and involved in the individual interviews. Classrooms and meeting rooms will be used to conduct the interviews which will run for half an hour.

3.5. Triangulation

The study layout developed enables a follow up that confirms communication from Facebook as it was deduced from the focus group interviews thus executing good triangulation. The use of the research strategy will allow the researchers to make observations of the participants online. They will also have the ability to talk about the participant's interactions that they observed (Ringrose, 2011). The researchers will be able to reflect and clarify the online interactions of the participants.

3.6. Individual Interviews with Teachers

Staff members specializing in e-safety, technology, media studies and one focus group interview will conduct the individual interviews with an ethics team to fathom teachers' and staff opinion on sexting and highlight school policies and practices that are observed for such.

6. Informed Consent

The head-teachers of all the schools where the study will draw some participants is to be informed clearly about the ethical measures to be put in place regarding protection of their students, confidentiality, informed consent and data storage. Formal written permissions will be handed out by the legal guardians of the project participants to the researchers at each stage of the study. Information leaflets detailing the project's participation will be given to the participants and their parents who can get more clarification through face-to-face interviews. Withdrawal from participation will be allowed at any phase as also the participants will be informed before commencing. The participants will be assured of the project's confidentiality and also informed of ground rules that will ensure utmost respect for each other. Anonymity will be profoundly used in writing to cautiously conceal identification of the participants. Where possible, self-chosen pseudonyms will be applied in the study. Pseudonyms for the schools will be given and needless to say, great caution will be taken to hide their identification as well as their neighborhood. Detailed information coupled with consent forms will be processed highlighting all the issues stated above.

6. Disclosure

The management of revelations by participants of criminal activity or abuse bears profound ethnic complexity. Discussions about sexualized conflict, gender and violence could also attract discomfort. However, these issues, if they get out of hand, will be carefully handled by the specialized team including educational psychologists, school counselors or behavioral support staff. Criminal Records Bureau clearance will have been 'enhanced' by members of the study. The collected data will be safely stored in the researchers' places of work and they are the only ones with the ingress to the data. Any data that is computerized will have password protection.

7. References

Allen, L. (2004) Beyond the birds and the bees: constituting a discourse of erotics in sexuality education, Gender and Education, 16 (2), pp.151-167.

Martinez-Prather, K. & Vandiver, D.M. (2014). Sexting among Teenagers in the United States: A Retrospective Analysis of Identifying Motivating Factors, Potential Targets, and the Role of a Capable Guardian, International Journal of Cyber Criminology, Vol 8 Issue 1.

McClelland, S.I. and Fine, M. (2008). 'Writing on cellophane: Studying teen women's sexual desires; Inventing methodological release points.' K. Gallagher (Ed.). The Methodological Dilemma: Critical and Creative Approaches to Qualitative Research. London: Routledge.

Ringrose, J. (2011) 'Are you sexy, flirty or a slut? Exploring "sexualisation" and how teen girls perform / negotiate digital sexual identity on social networking sites'. In R. Gill and C. Scharff (eds.) New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neoliberalism and Identity, London: Palgrave.

Ringrose, J., Gill, R., Livingstone, S. & Harvey, L. (2012). A qualitative study of children, young people and 'sexting'. NSPCC

Shaughnessy, J.J., Zechmeister, E.B. & Zechmeister, J.S. (2012). Research methods in psychology. (9th ed.). New York, NY McGraw Hill.