Critical Reflections on Individual Collages as a Research Method With Young Women Living With HIV in Zambia

Constance R S Mackworth-Young,Kirsty Sievwright,Mwangala Mwale,Katongo Konayuma,Madalitso Mbewe,Anne L Stangl,Mutale Chonta,Sue Clay,Virginia Bond,Chipo Chiiya,Alison Wringe

doi:10.1177/2167696820916632

Abstract

Art-based research methods can enable young people to generate data that provide insights into their lives. We assessed the feasibility, value, and limitations of collages as a participatory research method to understand the experiences of young women living with HIV. Individual collages were created in participatory workshops, firstly in 2015 and secondly in 2017, by a cohort of young women living with HIV in Lusaka, Zambia. Collages were analyzed visually and thematically and compared to other qualitative methods. Participants engaged readily with making collages and expressed how the collages represented themselves. The collages conveyed aspirations, resilience, optimism, and identities beyond HIV. Other data generation methods focused more on challenges associated with HIV. The second collages demonstrated more complex portrayals of participants’ life and developmental transitions. Collages provided a feasible, effective, and therapeutic method of empowering young women living with HIV to tell their own stories and express their full selves.

Highlights

Over the past decade, heightened global attention on the health and well-being of adolescents and young people (Patton et al, 2016; World Health Organization, 2017) has yielded a burgeoning number of research studies employing a range of methods
This study presents the use of collage methods, alongside indepth interviews (IDIs) and participatory workshops, and, through critique of the collage method, demonstrates its value as a data generation tool
Applying arts-based research methods with young women living with HIV has the potential to support expression of feelings that may be difficult to put into words, including around experiences living with HIV, such as stigma, loss and trauma, and resilience

Summary

Introduction

Over the past decade, heightened global attention on the health and well-being of adolescents and young people (Patton et al, 2016; World Health Organization, 2017) has yielded a burgeoning number of research studies employing a range of methods. Campbell et al describe using “draw-and-write” exercises with school children to understand their representations of HIV-affected peers in Zimbabwe (2015) They demonstrate how these arts-based methods encouraged independent reflection and self-representation by children, despite limited agency due to the constraints and lack of power in their lives (Campbell et al, 2015). Despite a few studies detailing the findings from the use of collages with young people and other marginalized populations, there has been relatively little critical reflection on the method, including the potential challenges and the lessons learnt As they grow up, and transition to adulthood, young people living with HIV face a host of complex challenges. Applying arts-based research methods with young women living with HIV has the potential to support expression of feelings that may be difficult to put into words, including around experiences living with HIV, such as stigma, loss and trauma, and resilience

Methods

Results

Conclusion