From Academic Leadership
CONDUCTING EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN SOUTH AFRICA: CHALLENGES IN THE DATA COLLECTION PROCESS
By Yegan Pillay
Feb 13, 2007 - 4:38:38 PM
CONDUCTING EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN SOUTH AFRICA: CHALLENGES IN THE DATA COLLECTION PROCESS
Yegan Pillay Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health
University of Cape Town
Athens, OH-45701
Alan J. Flisher Ph.D., F.C. Psych (S.A.)
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health
University of Cape Town
Crick Lund , M.A.
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health
University of Cape Town
Abstract
This article addresses the challenges faced by research
supervisors and research assistants while collecting data to explore
the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among children and adolescents
in South Africa. The article focuses on budgetary constraints,
interviewee expectations, moral issues, limited confidentiality,
fatigue factors and racial issues that threatened the completion of the
project. These challenges are examined from the emic-etic theoretical
paradigm and the interactions between the research supervisors, the
research assistants and the research participants are analyzed. The
authors propose recommendations that can serve to prepare researchers
who embark on conducting research in similar socio-cultural
environments.
KEY WORDS: Epidemiological, challenges, Xhosa, emic, etic
Introduction
The use of structured diagnostic interview schedules is
rapidly becoming a popular methodological strategy to explore the
prevalence of similar psychiatric disorders across dissimilar cultures
(Bird, 1996; Bravo, Canino, Ribio-Stipec, & Woodbury-Farina, 1991;
Canino & Rubio-Stipec, 1993; Robins, Heltzer, et.al., 1981).
Researchers using various versions of the diagnostic interview
schedules report that the instrument is potentially useful for
conducting epidemiological research especially in settings such as
Africa where resources and the availability of skilled clinicians are
limited (Robertson et al, 1999).
However, the majority of the research material
documenting the use of the structured diagnostic interview schedules do
not focus on the ?behind the scenes? activities that facilitate the
data collection process. The primary focus of this paper is to present
a narrative of the unforeseen challenges faced by the researchers and
research assistants during a study to explore the prevalence of
psychiatric disorders among the youth in Khayelitsha, South Africa.
Culturally sensitive researchers have to continually
adapt the methodological designs so that the process of inquiry is
synthesized with the cultural characteristics of the group that is
being studied. Jahoda (1995) asserts that cross-cultural studies focus
on the theoretical and methodological aspects of research and tend to
ignore the influence of emic and etic factors on the outcome of
research. This anomaly prevails despite the introduction of the
emic-etic dichotomy into the discipline of psychology as early as the
1960?s. With this assertion in mind, the emic-etic theoretical paradigm
will be used as a point of departure to describe the research process
and to facilitate an understanding of some of the challenges that
plagued the project.
Emic and Etic Model
The emic-etic distinction emerged in the late 1940?s,
and has become part anthropological and cross cultural literature as a
result of linguist Kenneth Pike?s search for a syntactical counterpart
to the phonological and morphological terms ?phoneme? and ?morpheme?
(Edwards, 1997). Pike (1954) introduced the term ?emic? extracted from
?phonemic? and ?etic? from ?phonetic? to characterize linguistically
based cultural phenomena.
The emic approach can be defined as a structural one
whereby the investigator assumes that human behavior is patterned even
though the members of the society being studied may not be aware of
many units of the structuring (French, 1963). In other words emic
constructs are an insider?s perspective that defines conceptual schemes
and categories that are considered to be meaningful and appropriate for
individuals operating within a given cultural paradigm.
Etic constructs on the other hand are conceptual
schemes and categories that are expressed and defined by that which is
considered to be meaningful and appropriate to the observer. In other
words items of behavior are not examined in the systems that they occur
in but by the criteria imposed on the system by the observer (French,
1963).
The role players in this research project can be divided
into three distinct sub-systems. They are depicted in Figure 1 as three
concentric circles. The core represents the research participants, the
second layer represents the research assistants and the outer layer
represents the research supervisors. The researcher supervisors exert
influence on the research assistants, who in turn influence the
research participants. There is also the reciprocal influence of the
research participants on the research assistants who influence the
research supervisors. It was evident that a synergistic cyclical
interaction occurred in the various sub-group permutations during this
study.
Figure 1 Research Sub-system (Figure not included)
Background
The study described in this paper was conducted by the
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape
Town in South Africa. The primary objective of the study was to
translate and adapt the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children
Version Four (DISC-IV) to make it suitable for use among Xhosa speaking
South Africans. Moreover the DISC-IV was examined for its validity and
its test-retest reliability. The DISC-IV is a structured psychiatric
interview for use in clinical and epidemiological studies and is
organized into six diagnostic sections: Anxiety Disorders, Mood
Disorders, Disruptive Disorders, Substance Use Disorders, Schizophrenia
and Miscellaneous Disorders. Furthermore there are parallel parent
(DISC-P) and child (DISC-Y) components of the instrument.
The respondents in this study comprised 105 parent/care
giver and child pairs who resided in Khayelitsha, South Africa.
Khayelitsha is an informal settlement that lies on the outskirts of
Cape Town with a population of approximately 300,000. Khayelitsha,
similar to other South African informal settlements, is characterized
by high levels of crime, over-crowding, poor transportation, limited
infrastructure and a dire shortage of funding and skilled clinicians
for much needed mental health services. Approximately 50% of the
participants were recruited randomly from the community and the
remainder were patients receiving services at the Empilweni project.
This project is based in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health
at the University of Cape Town and provides community based mental
health services for children and adolescents in Khayelitsha.
Data Collection
Six research assistants were responsible for obtaining
data from interviews with parents/caregivers and children. They were
recruited through advertisements in the local media. Selection was
conducted through interviews and the successful candidates were exposed
to a short but intensive training course. A major consideration for
selection was fluency in both English and Xhosa. Xhosa is the home
language of almost all Khayelitsha residents. The final data collection
team comprised 2 males and 4 females. Four of the recruits were
undergraduate students and two were unemployed post-graduates. The
research assistants worked in pairs, one interviewed the parent and the
other interviewed the child. The same researchers returned after
approximately two weeks to conduct the second interviews.
Challenges with the Data Collection
Interviewee Expectations
Many participants in this study perceived the research
assistants to be representatives from the Western Cape social support
services, despite being informed that they were part of a research
project. Patients who were referred by the Empilweni Clinic proved to
be a greater challenge than the community sample. Their willingness to
participate in the study was motivated primarily by the misperception
that that the research assistants were providing follow up to an
initial consultation at the clinic. The research assistants were
oblivious to the dynamics of the participant?s previous interaction
with the clinic staff and were ill prepared to answer questions such as
?when will my social assistance come through?? ?Does my child qualify
for state assistance?? ?Do you have my medication?? ?Which school will
my child attend??
Parents were also inquisitive about the diagnoses of
their children and specifically their prognoses. This was motivated by
the misperceived ?expert? status of the research assistants. Since the
research assistants were not mental health practitioners, they became
frustrated because they felt out of their depth when these questions
were posed. Parents also questioned the objective of the interviews
because no tangible benefits were immediately discernable to them.
Research assistants reported that they would sometimes ?embellish?
responses to encourage continued participation in the project. This
?underhanded? strategy was used because research assistants were
compensated per interview, and since it was a logistical challenge to
access compliant participants, every effort was engaged in to reduce
attrition for the follow up interview. Some of the research
participants were promised that they would be receiving individualized
reports of the findings of the study to avoid attempting to answer some
of the pertinent questions. Provision of individualized reports was not
part of the research design and no such reports were in fact provided.
Participants defined the interaction with the research
assistants differently to the expectations of research assistants as
well as the research supervisors. From the emic-etic theoretical
framework, the insider/outsider dichotomy became clearly evident. The
main challenge faced by the research assistants (observers) was the
assumption by the research participants (observed) that the
interviewers were social workers or government officials who could
provide the much needed resources. It was important for the respondents
to attend to their priorities such as taking care of their children,
preparing dinner, or watching television while the priorities of the
research assistant remained centered on the data collection. This
insidious dissonance manifested as frustration on the part of the
research assistants as well as the research participants because what
was considered meaningful and appropriate for one sub-system (Figure 1)
took on a different dimension for the other subsystem.
Research Assistant Issues
Interpersonal and intrapersonal factors played a
significant role in the dynamics within the research team. It became
obvious as the data collection progressed that the financial incentive
was the driving force behind research assistant participation in this
study. The relatively competitive remuneration rate in a province with
high unemployment, attracted a variety of applicants with differing
levels of expertise and backgrounds. This diversity among the research
assistants contributed significantly to their varying experiences in
the field.
During the weekly supervision meetings it was noted
that the research assistants spent an inordinate amount of time
addressing the social plight of the study participants. It was evident
that this had a profound impact on the data collection. The social
situation of the interviewees influenced the research assistants to the
extent that some, especially the social science majors, addressed the
immediate needs of the community members rather than collected data. A
research pair reported that they arrived one evening with the intention
of beginning with the interview only to realize that the children in
the family had not eaten all day because there was no money to buy
food. Despite being unemployed herself one member of the team went out
to buy food for the family before proceeding with the interview. On the
other hand some research assistants were able to divorce themselves
from the social conditions and focus on the mechanical task of
collecting data. This group attained higher productivity with the
accompanying higher monetary reward than their colleagues. This
resulted in discord between different members of the research team as
some felt that they were working harder but were not being compensated
for their extra effort.
Since the research assistants had to work in pairs and
the research team comprised both students and unemployed individuals,
scheduling interviews posed a problem. The unemployed research
assistants were available during the day whereas the students were
available in the afternoons and early evenings. The situation was
exacerbated further when a male member entered into romantic
relationships with two female members. This love triangle created
tension in the team and limited the pairing permutations of the
research assistants. The research supervisors were challenged to
diffuse the volatile atmosphere that permeated the weekly supervisory
sessions. The meetings became an opportunity for emotional catharsis
rather than to take care of administrative matters for which it was
initially intended. It was fortuitous that the research supervisors
were psychologists and used the ?administrative? sessions to process
the experiences of the research assistants.
Etic and emic principles could be applied to the
research supervisors/research assistant dyad. The research assistants
accused the research supervisors of being aloof and not emphatic to
experiences that were appropriate and meaningful to them. Moreover the
research assistants inferred that the research supervisors were
oblivious to the interaction that they had with the research
participants, eg. compensating research participants or purchasing food
to motivate participation. This perceived insensitivity challenged the
efficacy of the data collection and threatened to jeopardize the
project.
Financial Issues
Remuneration of research assistants was an issue that
frequently plagued the project. The research supervisor had decided at
the outset that research assistants would be paid in advance for the
data collected. This strategy was employed because the cash strapped
students and the unemployed post?graduates did not have funds at the
beginning of the project to pay for their travel and other incidental
expenses to conduct the interviews. This meant that the research
supervisor had to estimate the number of interviews that would be
conducted for the month for individual assistants. This posed a
challenge especially since this was a seminal study and the diversity
among the research team made accurate projections difficult. Initially
all research assistants started with the same target of completed
interviews. During the next month the actual number of questionnaires
completed was compared with the projected estimate. The necessary
adjustments were then made by either compensating the research
assistants for questionnaires completed that were not accounted for in
the previous projection or adjusting their remuneration to account for
shortfalls in the actual versus the projected figures. The constant
fluctuation in the output for each research assistant proved to be not
only an administrative challenge but also fueled the discord that
prevailed in the group because remuneration was based on productivity.
During the latter phase of the project, some research
assistant salaries were relatively low when compared to their
colleagues due to overestimation or reduced productivity. At one stage,
two of the research assistants owed money to the Department of
Psychiatry and Mental Health for the advances received that did not
match their productivity in the following pay period. The financial
situation and other contributory factors addressed later in this paper
had a cumulative effect on the group morale to the extent that the
completion of the data collection was placed in jeopardy. The research
assistants contested the accuracy of the computation and challenged the
formula used to calculate their remuneration. Most felt that the
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health and the University of Cape
Town were using underhanded tactics to deny them fair compensation for
their work.
The perceived underhandedness was exacerbated when
income tax was levied on their salaries. An assumption was made by the
research manager that the research assistants understood that income
tax would be deducted from the salaries as it done for any employee of
the university. This matter was not addressed during the orientation
session and the research assistants assumed that they would receive
ninety South African rands (approximately 11 US dollars) for each
completed questionnaire. Research assistants with higher levels of
productivity were adversely affected because a larger proportion was
appropriated from their salaries in taxes than their colleagues who
completed fewer interviews. These individuals in particular questioned
the need for increased productivity and whether it was of any value to
continue to collect data. It was the intervention of the project
supervisors who promised that they would be contacting the personnel
office to see what can be done about the taxes that preempted a
possible stoppage in the data collection.
Research assistants were compensated on a weekly basis
for telephone and travelling expenses that were incurred during the
data collection process. The accounts department at the university
required the furnishing of receipts prior to reimbursement. This meant
that the research assistants had to initially pay for these expenses
and claim them back at a later date. This placed an added financial
burden on the students and unemployed research assistants. Furthermore
any assistance provided by the research assistants either
altruistically or to motivate participation in the study could not be
compensated from petty cash. This resulted in the inflation of
telephone and travelling costs to offset this expenditure. There was no
provision in the system to detect ?phantom? claims. Since the data
collection had reached a crucial stage and financial matters became a
sensitive issue within the group, the project supervisors would at
times turn a blind eye to obvious exorbitant claims that did not match
the productivity for the week. These unforeseen expenses exerted strain
on the limited budget for the project.
Moreover the real time to complete the interviews
exceeded the projected time frame. This resulted in a huge burden being
placed on the funding for the payment of research assistants and the
project supervisor. Additional funding had to be secured to ensure the
completion of the project.
The issues related to the financial challenges that were
experienced by the research assistants can also be examined from the
emic-etic theoretical perspective. The observers in this instance were
the research supervisors and the observed were the assistants. The
assumption was that the assistants understood the manner in which
remuneration was computed, including the tax deductions. However, from
an emic perspective, the research assistants deduced the actions of the
research supervisors as being underhanded. Moreover, the research
supervisor sub-system focused on the data collection and the budgetary
constraints whereas for the research assistant sub-system the plight of
the assistants as well as the suffering of the respondents in this
study was meaningful.
Moral Dilemma
Several research assistants referred to the
intra-psychic conflict that ensued as a result of their quest to
complete as many questionnaires as possible to enhance their salaries.
The moral issue of completing the demands of the research project and
turning a blind eye to the suffering of people adversely affected some
of the research assistants. In many instances they felt helpless in
addressing the priorities of the people and felt that they were taking
and not putting anything back into the community. Factors that
contributed to this sense of helplessness were an apparent limitation
in the training of the research assistants with regard to their
knowledge of community referral sources as well as a general lack of
expertise in mental health related issues. A sentiment expressed was
that there would have been a lesser degree of guilt if they could
advise the participants as to what channels to follow to alleviate
their strife. Research assistants were uncomfortable about using
?deceitful? strategies such as incorrectly informing participants that
they would receive individualized reports for their children so as to
encourage participation in the first and second interviews, yet felt
that they had no option but to complete the demands of the study.
When applying the emic-etic principles to the moral
dilemma experienced by the research assistants it becomes apparent that
the intra-psychic conflict that affected the research assistants
(insiders) was outside the awareness of the research supervisors
(outsiders). The research assistants had ethical and moral questions
about not attending to the social distress of the respondents in this
study whereas the research supervisors were focused on budgetary issues
and the completion of the data collection. Initially both the research
supervisor and research assistant sub-systems were unified by a common
goal of collecting the data. The research assistants, however, became
transformed and influenced by being immersed in the research
participant sub-system. This resulted in the divergence of motivation
toward what was previously a common goal and the ethics of the data
collection process was challenged. The ensuing dissonance between the
sub-system placed a severe strain on all the role players involved and
threatened to impact the research process.
Fatigue
During the latter stages of the project fatigue
experienced by the research assistant became clearly evident. Second
interviews became a formidable challenge because the interviewees
reflected on the approximately two hours that it took to complete the
first interview and were reluctant to agree to second interviews. In
most cases the potential participants could not see the direct benefit
of participating in the study because no tangible rewards were
immediately discernible, especially after the experiences of the first
interview. However, many seized the opportunity to give vent to their
frustrations about the lack of support services and other social issues
because to them the research assistants were perceived to be social
workers.
Since most interviews were conducted in the late
afternoon or early evening it was not uncommon for participants to
temporarily abort the interview and attend to chores such as cooking
dinner, taking care of the children, or watching their favorite
television soap opera. The misperception that they were social workers
and that interviews were conducted during the peak evening period often
resulted in the research assistants spending more than the allocated
time for which they were compensated to complete each questionnaire.,
Furthermore, informal transportation in the township
added to the hardship faced by the research assistants. Minibus taxis
which carry an average of approximately 10 passengers is the most
popular vehicle used by informal operators. Afternoon travelling was
not only hazardous but was also a period when the minibus taxis were
overloaded. This resulted in extreme levels of exhaustion even before
interviews began. High levels of crime prevalent in Khayelitsha
contributed to the anxiety experienced by the research assistants,
especially when interviews took longer than was anticipated, to the
extent that they would abort interviews and have to return to the same
parent/child pair to complete the interview. These factors not only
contributed significantly to the high degree of frustration and fatigue
experienced but also to the dissatisfaction with the financial reward
for the additional time expended to complete the task.
Besides providing an opportunity for catharsis to occur
during the weekly supervision, little could be done by the research
supervisors regarding moral conflicts or factors that contributed to
the exhaustion experienced by the research assistants. This exacerbated
the perception of the research assistants that the research supervisors
remained dissociated from the data collection process and assumed the
role of merely observing and not being empathic to the experiences of
the research assistant sub-group. From the emic-etic paradigm the
experiences of fatigue by the research assistants as a result of the
factors delineated appeared to be outside the realm of the awareness of
the research supervisors. This is likely to have contributed to the
state of aloofness from the research process and contributed
significantly to the discontent of the research assistants.
Racial Dynamic
All the research assistants were Black and the managers
of the project were Indian or White. Some of the research assistants
perceived the plight of the community in Khayelitsha to be replicated
to a certain extent within the research team. The majority of the
research assistants reported that they were unfairly treated especially
with regard to remuneration and were not informed beforehand that the
tax structure applicable to full time and contract staff would be
applicable to them.
According to the research assistants, the manner in
which the payment for completed questionnaires was computed was not
made clear during the orientation. They felt that the research managers
were exploiting them and were not emphatic to their experiences. There
was a perception among some that the managers of the project had a
primary motive of completing the project and engaged in minimizing the
problems faced by the research assistants. A research team member
described the experiences of the research assistants as a microcosm of
experiences of the community in Khayelitsha where the emphasis was on
the data collection with little emphasis on what could be done to
alleviate the distress of the interviewees.
In examining the research supervisor and research
assistant sub-group interaction from the insider/outsider perspective,
it is clear that there was a lack of congruency as to how each
sub-group interpreted the situation. The research supervisors did not
attend to the racial composition of the sub-groups nor did they
consider it to be a significant factor. The research assistants,
however, attributed their negative experiences to the racial
composition and considered this to be a significant factor with regard
to the attitude of the research supervisors toward their experiences.
They attributed the lack of empathy on the part of the research
supervisors to racism. This suggests that the ?apartheid baggage? that
many South Africans carry continues to permeate many facets of the
society to which the research team was not immune. A contributory
factor to the dissonance between the research assistant and research
supervisor sub-groups was that what appeared to be palpable to one
subsystem was not perceptible by the other. This manifested as a
situation of distrust of the research supervisors by the research
assistants and posed a formidable challenge to the research process.
Confidentiality
Overcrowding is a major problem in Khayelitsha because
of the severe housing shortage in the Western Cape. It is not uncommon
for many individuals from the same extended family to occupy one
dwelling. It proved to be a major challenge for the research assistants
to find a suitable location to conduct the interviews. It was
imperative for both parent/caregiver and child to be interviewed and in
most cases these interviews had to be conducted simultaneously for
logistical expediency. Because space was at a premium, interviews with
the parent/care giver and child were often conducted in the same room
or within earshot. The close proximity of the parent/caregiver and the
child hindered the interview process. The parent/caregiver would often
focus on the questions asked of the child and the child?s responses
rather than questions that were asked of them and their responses
despite being advised to the contrary. The main concern of the
parent/caregiver was to provide ?correct? responses so that they will
receive the much needed state assistance. This proved to be very
frustrating for the research assistants and became a time consuming
exercise. The frustration experienced by the research assistants may be
interpreted from the emic-etic perspective as a lack of awareness on
the part of the research assistants as to that which was important and
meaningful to those being interviewed. For the parent/caregivers it was
a priority to ensure that the interviewers were given the ?correct?
answers. Hence the interruptions when the child was asked to respond.
It is evident from the different sub-system permutations
that the research supervisor sub-system exerted influence on the
research assistant sub-system which, in turn, had a significant impact
on the research participants. The respondents influenced the research
assistants. The experiences of the research assistant affected the
supervisor in that exorbitant claims for incidental expenses were not
investigated for fear that the research assistants would abort the data
collection process. The cyclical nature of the experiences of the
various role players and the ensuing activities had an insidious yet
profound impact on the research process and contributed significantly
to the challenges faced by the research team. Although the data
collection for this study was accomplished it is apparent that the
process was challenging. To prepare researchers who intend to conduct
research with similar variables and to avoid the pitfalls that this
research team encountered, the following recommendations are posited.
Recommendations
First, the research participants have to be given
explicit information detailing the research process in its entirety. A
major challenge was the obvious breakdown in communication, especially
with the clinic sample. The research team assumed that the potential
participants were briefed by the clinic staff. The clinic staff assumed
that they were only required to provide a list of possible
participants. It is recommended that when conducting research with this
or a similar sample, research assistants conduct an initial screening
interview to ascertain the whether the potential respondent is
appropriate for the study. It is also important to determine the
literacy level of the participants and to use vernacular familiar to
the respondents that is distinct from literary or research language.
This is likely to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the
research process. In this study participants gave consent to
participate. But it became clear that informed consent was not
obtained. Therefore a respondent?s signature is necessary but not a
sufficient requirement. The advantages and risks associated with the
provision of the information have to be clearly delineated at the
outset so that the participant can weigh the pros and cons of
involvement. This strategy will reduce the unrealistic expectations of
the participants, enhance motivation and reduce the level of discontent
experienced by the research assistants as well as the respondents.
Second, the data gatherers are crucial to any study. It is of strategic importance that
research assistants are fully conversant with their
responsibilities, the risks involved and the benefits of being part of
a research team. It was discernible that the varying degrees of
experience, qualifications, maturity and motivation among the research
assistants had a significant impact on the data collection process.
Rather than filling these positions randomly from the pool of job
seekers in a region that is characterized by high levels of
unemployment, it behooves the research supervisors to employ a
homogenous field team to alleviate some of the challenges alluded to in
this paper. It is recommended that research assistants be recruited
from groups that have similar research interests, eg. a class of
research methodology students, and that research activities be linked
to a course curriculum. Monetary reward could be a fringe benefit but
ought not to be the driving force behind involvement in the research.
This strategy will eliminate some of the challenges related to
scheduling appointments and enhance working together because the
research assistants will be motivated primarily by a common academic
goal.
Third, the experience of research assistants highlights
the need for effective orientation. It is imperative that the research
assistants be aware of the exigencies of their respective positions
prior to the onset of data collection. If there is compensation either
in the monetary form or academic credit this must be specified in a
written contract so that both parties have recourse in the event of any
queries. All deductions must be discussed prior to the finalization of
the contract. The system of advanced payment has inherent flaws and is
strongly discouraged.
A concern that was common to all research assistants in
this study was the state of being helpless when interviewees asked
questions related to their psychological as well as their social
plight. Research assistants reported that if they knew where to refer
these individuals it would have helped reduce some of the intra-psychic
distress that ensued. In light of this assertion, orientation to
community referral sources ought to be an integral part of the training
of research assistants. It will be important for representatives from
the various providers serving the geographical area in which the study
is being conducted to address the research teams so that they can be
apprised of services in the area and be better equipped to make
referrals when necessary.
Finally, issues of confidentiality during the interviews
tested the frustration threshold of the research assistants and may
have affected the validity of the data. Conducting the interviews in
over-crowded dwellings in Khayelitsha minimized the degree of control
that research assistants had over the behavior of the respondents,
especially with parents/caregivers ?assisting? the child with
questions, attending to dinner, and diverting their attention to the
television screen rather than attending to the interviewer. In similar
socio-economic conditions it is recommended that alternative locations
such as caravans or mobile interviewing booths be provided. This will
reduce the incidence of disruptions and give credence to the data
collection process.
Conclusion
It is evident that conducting research in
post?apartheid South Africa presents unique challenges. Since this was
a seminal study, the research team was unprepared for some of the
unforeseen events that unfolded as the data collection progressed. A
major impediment was the manifest dissonance that occurred between the
three sub-groups
(research supervisors, research assistants, and research
participants) and the reciprocal nature of the relationship between the
groups. Majority of the respondents did not fully understand the
rationale for the interviews and what was going to be done with the
data. Moreover, the respondents did not see the relationship between
the interviews and the alleviation of their living conditions. This led
to resistance, non-compliance, and in some instances hostility toward
the research assistants. Research assistants, on the other hand,
attributed their negative experiences to the lack of empathy shown by
the research supervisors to their hardships. This perception led to
mistrust, dissent, frustration and the accompanying lack of motivation.
On several occasions the data collection process was jeopardized.
From the emic-etic theoretical exposition, the
challenges experienced ?behind the scenes? may be interpreted as a lack
of understanding of that which is meaningful and appropriate to each of
the subgroups from the perspective of the ?outsiders?. In other words,
each sub-group focused on their specific agendas which undermined the
essence of the data collection. It is important for researchers
embarking on similar research projects to consider some of the
recommendations posited in this paper so that similar impediments are
minimized and that all the role players can appreciate and be united by
the benefits of community research.
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