To have a better comparison in the use of quantitative and qualitative research, I compared two studies on sexuality. One is the article on “Femininity and Sexual Agency Among Young Unmarried Women in Hanoi” by Quach (2008) and the other is on “Young Women's Degree of Control Over First Intercourse: An Exploratory Analysis” by Abma et al. (1998). There are quite a few citations from the articles that I have included to establish and clearly recognize the difference between the methods used by the authors.
The first article used qualitative method in the study on sexuality of young professional women of Hanoi. Purposive sampling was applied to identify the participants of the study. It was mentioned in the article that ‘a snowball method’ was used, but ‘attention was paid to the diversity of sexual experiences and social background of the key person’ (Quach 2008: 152) to avoid a ‘single social network’. Along with it, the participants were chosen according to a set of criteria as follows: (1) they were not legally married before the time of interview but had had boyfriend(s)/girlfriend(s); (2) their ages ranged from 25-34 years; (3) they were educated women, who had completed undergraduate study at least; (4) they were working and financially independent. The author used narrative analysis in ‘examining processes of negotiation and re-negotiation in the construction of sexual identities and subjectivities’ (Quach 2008: 152).
Quach (2008) mentioned that the 13 respondents were interviewed several times to have an in-depth understanding of sexual experiences and meanings. Quotes from them were included in the article. The incorporation of ‘voices’ established the participants’ perspectives on their experiences adding richness to the study.
Abma et al. (1998), on the other hand, employed quantitative technique in their study. A survey is made periodically by the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) of the US and this is where the data was obtained. It was mentioned that the ‘probability sample is 10,847 non-institutionalized women aged 15-44 in the civilian population’. A rating scale of 1-10 was used to rate the wantedness of the participants’ first premarital intercourse. A Statistical procedure was used to explain the results. In the study, a ‘Logistic regression analysis of data for women aged 15-24 was performed to test the effect of background factors and wantedness scores on contraceptive use at voluntary first intercourse. Analysis, however, was restricted to the 2,933 women aged 15-24 at the time of the survey.’
There was an attempt to delve into the relativity of first time intercourse experience with Black women and Hispanic women as the authors oversampled to, according to them, ‘facilitate the analysis of many phenomena within these racial and ethnic groups’ (Abma et. Al (1998). Yet, such inclusion, including the large number of respondents from the teenager and young adult groups, was not sufficient to have an in-depth relative analysis of the groups because of the limitations of a structured survey questionnaire that the interviewers used to gather the data. In the analysis portion, percentages and correlation of variables were used. This, in effect, is a generalization of the results. Interpretation of responses using the rating scale of wantedness did not give a space for individual analysis of perceptions and meanings of the responses, although the authors recognized such limitations in the end.
References:
Abma, J., Driscoll, A., & Moore, K. (1998, January/February). Family Planning Perspectives Volume 30, Number 1. Retrieved July 17, 2008 from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3001298.pdf
Aggleton, P (2008) Culture, Health and Sexuality. An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care, Volume 10, Supplement ISSN: 1369-1058. London, Routledge, June 2008, pp 151-161.
No comments:
Post a Comment