Requesting participants for research

sheff_ie

Hi,

I apologise because there is nothing I can do to glam this up it's a survey. I understand for some people it's not the most exciting way to spend 20 minutes and no, it won't change the world. The aim, however, is to add a little more knowledge to this very understudied area.

I'm a student at UCC and am conducting research for my final year project. The study looks at the relationship between factors relevant to sexual orientation (such as how out someone is) and mental health outcomes in women. The research is about a process of trying to identify protective factors, or factors that might help to counter negative outcomes like depression or substance misuse.

It is an on-line survey that is completely anonymous. It is created using a series of scales, some of which, when read as individual questions sound a bit daft but the point is that taken together they provide a measure that can then help to tell a story.

I am asking for respondents who might be interested in taking part as the larger the sample, the more relevant the results will be. The link to the survey is https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/sexualminoritywomen. My contact email can be found on the survey if you have any questions or if you would like a copy of the results when completed, should be the summer sometime, I will gladly forward them on.

I appreciate your time in reading this. I do hope you will be interested in completing it but if it's not for you, I do understand.

Kind regards,
Sharon

Annasopra

The op has permission to post this.

baby and crumble

Just to let everyone know, the OP has cleared this survey with the mods before posting.

baby and crumble

D'oh, double post is a classic case of the mods being too on top of things!:p

Moon Indigo

Done hope you get enough the responses. As I commented (not half giving myself away now:o might be an idea to make the 'what community you belong to' question a bit clearer to understand and may result in you getting clearer results and less void surveys best of luck with it

baby and crumble

Yeah, I'm just sitting here wracking my brains for what 'community' I feel linked to. TBH all I can think of is "women", but I don't know if that'd suffice...

Moon Indigo

maybe its just me but felt a bit like a leading question was I supposed to say the gay community? It's a hard one umm....

ene

done, that took a while!!

jaffacakesyum

Done

sheff_ie

Hi, if the community question feels leading, it's not really trying to be, so it's open ended rather than forcing a choice using a predetermined list. If 'women' works, thats great, other possiblities could be sporting clubs, spiritual groups, or the local village, not that I'm trying to be leading now. Maybe if it feels leading it's because the link was directly from the forum, which is interesting.

Yeah, sorry it's not shorter but the chance to do this kind of research doesn't come around too often and I was trying to make the most of the opportunity.

Really do appreciate all the help with it and will be trying to get the results published officially, if all goes well.

Blikes

Completed!

KDII

Done! Would really appreciate if you could forward me the results when completed? Really interesting topic, doing something slightly related ATM research wise myself.

sheff_ie

Thanks for completing it and no problem about getting a copy. If you want to pm me your email address, I can send it on when complete, getting a list together of people who are interested in looking a the results. If the sample is large enough to power meaningful results, will aim to put it forward for publishing in a journal.

It is interesting and hoping to continue researching in the area if I move up the student food chain. Be interested in hearing about your research as well. I haven't heard of a great deal of work in the area in Ireland on a student level at least. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

Blikes

sheff_ie wrote: »

I can send it on when complete, getting a list together of people who are interested in looking a the results.

Registering my Interest

KDII

PM sent.

I'm looking at challenges to screening lesbian women for reproductive cancers. Still in the early stages but I am finding it difficult to evaluate Irish information about these women's health behaviours.

I've found majority of HSE documents focus on the fact that we have less contact with health providers due to higher rates of nullparity, less use of contraceptives etc, but I can't really seem to find a proposed solution.

Most DOHC plans seem to just state the fact that lesbian women have higher rates of depression and as a result drink more, smoke more and engage in high risk behaviour. I guess your research caught my eye as it kind is steps before the diagnosis of depression if that makes sense?

Ambersky

All went well for me untill I got to the last bit that asked for how best to describe your relationship status.
Single (never married), Married, Divorced,Seperated, Civil partnered, co- habiting,
Not sure what else but I didnt feel I could tick any of the boxes given.
Ticking, Single (never married) just dosent feel right.
If it had just said Single I would have been fine with that,
but Single(never married) sounds like that just writes off all the kinds of relationships I have been in.
It seems like relationship status is still all about whether you are married or not.
It seems to limit the variety of ways it is possible to have relationships or relate.
In particular "single" people often get left out of this conversation.
One of my favourites is,"and do you have no family of your own?"
First you have to translate what you think they mean, then are they trying to make you feel left out and miseable offering some kind of pity, then there is a kind of WTF how are you suppose to answer that one.

Leaving that disapointing issue behind some of the earlier questions did deal with the reality of relationships without having to label them against the bar of marriage.
My memory of it was that it simply asked questions about the presence of a particular person or friend/s, and emotional and practical supports.
That part I felt included in and found the questions thought provoking and intelligent.

sheff_ie

Ambersky wrote: »

All went well for me untill I got to the last bit that asked for how best to describe your relationship status.
Single (never married), Married, Divorced,Seperated, Civil partnered, co- habiting,
QUOTE]

I do understand your feelings on that question and get where you're coming from. I'll bear that in mind if I get to this again. Thanks for getting that far in the survey too, I appreciate your time on it.

sheff_ie

Blikes wrote: »

Registering my Interest

Hi,
If you wanted to pm me an email address I can forward it on when finished. Thanks for your interest too.

sheff_ie

Hi,

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who glanced, read, looked at, started, finished, hated or liked the survey. I have been feverishly working on the results over the past couple of weeks and am currently writing it up for hand in. I appreciate your time and interest and look forward to being able to share the results in the future.