Qualitative Research on Adolescent Risk Using E-Mail: A Methodological Assessment

Abstract

This article focuses on respondent reactions to the use of e-mail as the main data gathering tool in a qualitative study of adolescent risk behavior. Thirty adolescents from around the state of Missouri sent daily diary entries to the researchers over the Internet using various e-mail servers. Confidentiality issues arose and several methods for protecting the respondents' privacy were devised, including informed consent forms that read like the contraindication paragraphs on potent prescription medications. Privacy issues complicated entry to respondents and this is discussed as well. The authors concluded that e-mail diaries worked well to produce rich and extensive narratives of everyday life as seen through adolescent eyes, but the methodological and ethical issues were significant. Based in part on the adolescents' reactions to their participation, the authors caution against the temptation to become, as Redfield once wrote, “a priest to the people.”