Life Story Methodology Research Articles

An Exploratory Typology for Understanding Family-Relationship Issues in Kinship-Care Placements

Family relationships are a distinctive feature of kinship-care placements, but very few studies have examined how the dynamics of these relationships affect the placement experience. This article does explore these dynamics and identifies some possible patterns, as experienced and reported by parents of children placed in kinship care. The findings presented here come from a qualitative study employing a life-story methodology, in which nine parents were interviewed on two occasions each. All of them had experienced the permanent placement of at least one of their children with a member of their extended family, under the direction of a government child-protection agency. Drawing from significant themes in parental narratives, particularly that of relationships, we analyzed and delineated three distinct profiles. In the first profile, a family solidarity was present between the parents and the kinship caregivers before the placement and was maintained during the placement. In the second, the parents struggled to keep their place in their children’s lives, thus experiencing conflicts both with the kinship caregivers and with the child-protection agency. In the third profile, the dynamics of the current relationship between both biological parents influenced the other family relationships of the parent who was interviewed.

NARRATIVAS SOBRE DEPRESSÃO, MASCULINIDADE E TRABALHO. UM ESTUDO COM RELATOS BIOGRÁFICOS DE HOMENS CHILENOS

Abstract: Each year in Chile, one in ten men have demonstrated signs or symptoms of depression. (MINSAL, 2018; Center for Conflict and Social Cohesion Studies, 2018). However, both in the country and in the rest of Latin America, there are few studies that address male depression from its qualitative and narrative aspects. The aim of this study was to analyze reports of depression in men and their references to concepts of hegemonic masculinity. A qualitative study was carried out with interviews with five Chilean men who experienced a depressive process. With a life story methodology, the depressive processes in each biography were explored. The results show that men report depression and malaise from a crisis or main drama, and according to aspects that challenge the values of hegemonic masculinity.

Women's entrepreneurial narrative: making sense of the partner's role

The present research explores the role the partner plays in women's motivation for entrepreneurship and how spousal support influences the female entrepreneurship process. A qualitative study, using life-story methodology, was conducted with 29 French women entrepreneurs. It was found that women perceived the partner's support as explicit, implicit, or absent. Women who perceive significant and visible support from their partners are clearly grateful to their partners, without whom their entrepreneurial journey might not have commenced. A majority of respondents perceived the tacit approval of the partner and sometimes his income as implicit support. Finally, a certain proportion of female entrepreneurs experienced no support, which they considered mostly as a hindrance or a challenge.

Women's entrepreneurial narrative: making sense of the partner's role

The present research explores the role the partner plays in women's motivation for entrepreneurship and how spousal support influences the female entrepreneurship process. A qualitative study, using life-story methodology, was conducted with 29 French women entrepreneurs. It was found that women perceived the partner's support as explicit, implicit, or absent. Women who perceive significant and visible support from their partners are clearly grateful to their partners, without whom their entrepreneurial journey might not have commenced. A majority of respondents perceived the tacit approval of the partner and sometimes his income as implicit support. Finally, a certain proportion of female entrepreneurs experienced no support, which they considered mostly as a hindrance or a challenge.

Familial relational experiences of a child born into the midst of parental drug misuse and its longevity impact

AbstractThis paper details a study that listened and empowered an adult (Beth, a pseudonym), through the use of a life story methodology, to reflect on her childhood experiences of parental drug misuse. Voice Relational Analysis was applied to Beth's life story to assist the researcher to unravel and cipher, through the complexities and nuances of her voice, Beth's familial relational experiences and the lengthy lineage these have had on her ability to relate with others. This paper highlights the somewhat complex composition of her interpersonal relationships and reveals how she related both positively and negatively within them.

Blessing’s (Life) Story: An Adolescent in Residential Care Living with HIV

The lifespan of perinatally HIV-infected children in South Africa has increased owing to the availability of antiretroviral treatment, allowing growth into adolescence and beyond. There is limited knowledge of the lived realities of adolescents with HIV. This paper, using life story methodology and based on Blessing’s narrative, provides an intersectional, complex view of the experience of one such teenager who is perinatally HIV-positive, was abandoned by his family and is living in a residential care facility. His story powerfully illuminates the specific construction of adolescence in this context, focusing on identity formation and the need for connection. The narrative also points to service providers’ practice when engaged with such youths.

Contested ‘respectability’: gender and labour in the life stories of Tanzanian women and men in the hospitality industry

ABSTRACTAlthough ‘disrespectability’ has been discerned as an important discourse that accompanies Tanzanian women’s engagement in hospitality jobs, it remains unclear how they counter this devaluation and whether their male co-workers are affected as well. Using a life-story methodology with a sample of 20 male and female employees, this study shows how men and women are unevenly hit by the assignment of ‘shame’ and how they resist. Better pay and more professional training could improve workers’ standing, but might also trigger new processes of closure detrimental to gender equity.

CONTRASTES DE LUZ Y SOMBRA EN EL CARIBE COSTARRICENSE. RECONSTRUCCIÓN DEL PAISAJE LIMONENSE DESDE LOS RELATOS DE VIDA

<p>Desde una aproximación de la reflexión teórica del paisaje en relación con lo cultural y el<br />turismo y desde la metodología del relato de vida, este artículo profundiza en las miradas<br />que tienen tres relatores sobre las modificaciones y la reconstrucción cultural que ha sucedido<br />en Limón. Se parte de la recomendación de los relatos de vida de rescatar los recuerdos<br />y significados por espacios de vida: niñez, juventud y adultez/vejez. En la niñez se<br />evidencia una añoranza sobre lo colorido de ese pasado recordado. En la juventud se hace<br />una comparación entre la introducción en el mundo laboral y las nuevas relaciones que se<br />empiezan a vivir. En la adultez/vejez, que es donde se encuentran los tres relatores, se da<br />una interpretación desde los cambios que han ocurrido, profundizando en sus miradas del<br />paisaje como énfasis analítico.</p>

Becoming a Coach in Developmental Adaptive Sailing: A Lifelong Learning Perspective

Life-story methodology and innovative methods were used to explore the process of becoming a developmental adaptive sailing coach. Jarvis's (2009) lifelong learning theory framed the thematic analysis. The findings revealed that the coach, Jenny, was exposed from a young age to collaborative environments. Social interactions with others such as mentors, colleagues, and athletes made major contributions to her coaching knowledge. As Jenny was exposed to a mixture of challenges and learning situations, she advanced from recreational para-swimming instructor to developmental adaptive sailing coach. The conclusions inform future research in disability sport coaching, coach education, and applied sport psychology.

Your ghetto, my comfort zone: a life-story analysis of inter-generational housing outcomes and residential geographies in urban south-east England

Based on fieldwork carried out in an urban neighbourhood in south-east England, and using a life-story methodology with a focus on intergenerational change over time, I will analyse the housing outcomes of three ethnic categories – the White British majority population, the British-Italian minority and the British-Pakistani minority. Both minority populations are characterised by early moves into owner-occupancy. But where British-Italians typically have moved ‘up and out’, there has been a British-Pakistani residential consolidation in a ‘comfort zone’ where overlaying spheres of community and neighbourhood, underpinned by localised practices of cultural consumption, eventually have come to constitute a spatial and social habitus. Though policy discourse often perceives such practices as indicative of self-segregation, I will here argue that there are similarities between the British-Pakistani comfort zone and the memories of a neighbourhood-based white working-class community, articulated by White British residents.

Sexual minority youth, social connection and resilience: From personal struggle to collective identity

Sexual minority youth are at increased risk for negative health outcomes including substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and suicide. Researchers suggest that sexual orientation victimization is a predictor of such outcomes. Social connectedness—or the importance of belonging where youth perceive they are cared for and empowered within a given context—has been associated with positive youth outcomes. This qualitative study utilized life story methodology. Life stories are considered to be important expressions of one’s identity and are shaped by personal, social, and cultural contexts. Twenty-two interviews were conducted with 15 young people ranging in age from 14 to 22 years. Two focus groups with youth were also conducted. Youth were recruited from rural and urban communities in Massachusetts. This study contributes to the literature on resilience by including the voices of sexual minority youth and explores the meaning of social connection in their lives. Youth discuss the ways in which individual connection and group affiliation served to affirm one’s identity, and provided a forum for moving personal struggle to collective action. The findings suggest the need to reconceptualize consequences of disconnection (such as depression or suicide) from individual pathology and attend to these consequences as a response to discrimination and stigma. Implications for these findings and areas for future research are discussed.

<b>Costurando histórias: histórias de vida e suas contribuições na educação</b>

Construímos este artigo analisando alguns aspectos do filme Colcha de Retalhos (1995), que é uma produção cinematográfica, que foi proposta para que assistíssemos e, posteriormente, refletíssemos em uma de nossas aulas do Seminário temático da Linha de Pesquisa 1: Memória, Formação e Histórias de vida , disciplina ofertada pelo Programa de Pós-graduação do curso de Mestrado em Educação da Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. O filme enfoca as histórias de vida de um grupo de mulheres, tendo a colcha de retalhos como mediadora de suas relações sociais, bem como um suporte de comunicação para seus sentimentos e emoções, a partir das várias histórias, símbolos, figuras e desenhos que são apresentados nos bordados nesta “colcha de memórias”. Procuramos também fazer uma relação do filme com a metodologia História de Vida, e como esta se mostra rica nas pesquisas no campo educacional, proporcionando processo de autoformação aos sujeitos sociais envolvidos, à medida que o esforço pessoal de explicitação de uma dada trajetória de vida obriga a uma grande implicação e contribui para uma tomada de consciência individual e coletiva. Palavras-chave: História de vida; Formação; Subjetividade.

"I wish he hadn't told me that": methodological and ethical issues in social trauma and conflict research.

Undertaking research on individuals who have experienced social traumas, such as being a victim or perpetrator of genocides and wars, presents difficult decisions for qualitative researchers. Deciding how to deal with these issues becomes more problematic when the researcher is a member of the society in conflict. To do this work, and to work collaboratively with researchers from the other side, sensitive ways to collect data have to be chosen. Interpretations of the materials can be no less difficult: Analyses often lead to information and understandings that may be difficult for the researcher to deal with from ethical, moral, and personal standpoints, especially when he or she is a member of the society and culture under study. In this keynote address, the author explores methodological and ethical issues connected to these topics. She brings examples from her work on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and focuses on use of the life story methodology.

Consultation-Liaison Research: The Use of Differing Perspectives

Slavney and McHugh have discussed the four perspectives in psychiatry in respect to their strengths and weaknesses. Research in consultation-liaison psychiatry is reviewed by considering the various perspectives that such studies utilize. Early studies utilized the life story methodology and the disease model. The life history approach considers each patient as a unique subject whose developmental vicissitudes have meaningful associations. These studies were often viewed through a psychoanalytic theory. The disease model demands syndromal identification so that etiologic factors, whether biological, psychological or social, may eventually be discovered. More contemporary investigations use the dimensional measurement of intersubject differences that allow better designation of personality. The fourth perspective of motivated behavior offers a method of studying goal-directed activity such as substance abuse, eating pathology, and sleep disorders. Consultation-liaison studies using each framework are reviewed.