“I can’t talk about this with you!”. A reflexive and interdisciplinary mixed methods’ approach to adolescents’ sexuality

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce some features of the methodology used in the doctoral research I conducted from 2008 to 2011. Its goal was to describe gender/sexual identity construction among adolescents. As some other sensitive sociological research fields such as sexuality or education in disadvantaged contexts, my research field brought up some communication and methodological challenges that could be overcome only through an interdisciplinary mixed strategy, based primarily on flexible qualitative research techniques. The research path was based on: a quantitative and qualitative methodological approach; an online and offline research field; a syntagmatic and paradigmatic axis model. In particular, I gathered 20 in-depth interviews, conducted some focus groups and built a web ethnography. In this context, for example, virtual communities’ anonymity allowed adolescents to express themselves freely. Thanks to this research approach, I achieved two results. First of all, I deconstructed and reconstructed both the dynamic process that brings to a gender/sexual identity construction and various aspects of adolescents’ sexuality. Then, I have been able to compare the different techniques used for the research conducting an epistemological reflection on the techniques, on the different kind of collectable data and on the different socio-cultural contexts in which those techniques could be applied.  

Keywords

• Sexuality,Adolescence,Mixed Methods,Gender,Interdisciplinarity

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