Suchergebnisse

Using a qualitative research method, this study investigates the ways in which homophobia and heterosexism constitute barriers to treatment for lesbian and gay youth in need of addictions services. Seventeen lesbian and gay youth were interviewed regarding their experiences in addictions services. The major barriers that they report include marginalization, avoidance of gay and lesbian issues, ignoring sexual orientation as an issue, deflection and contradiction, outing, harassment, early discharge, and misinformed staff. Recommendations are made for making addictions services more appropriate and accessible for lesbian and gay youth.

As novice researchers, Community Psychology doctoral students encounter fresh challenges when they attempt to facilitate participation by members of the community in their dissertation projects. This article presents the merit in adopting fundamental researcher attributes, which have been described in published academic literature as personal characteristics that facilitate participation by members of the community in research studies. The value of these researcher attributes is exemplified in the discussion of one of the author's experiences in the early stages of his dissertation research process. This article also presents new researcher attributes for facilitating participation by community members that the author recognised after critical reflection on his experiences during the same research process. Cultural humility, shared vulnerability, reflexivity, methodological flexibility, academic assiduity and creative resourcefulness are researcher attributes doctoral students should consider adopting and developing if they intend to facilitate participation by members of the community in their dissertation projects.Keywords: researcher attributes, graduate students, doctoral dissertation, participatory research, participation continuum

Social media has become increasingly integrated into the lives of students for the past decade; however, the public health restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a sharp increase in social media use in a short period of time. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of social media use on university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen students from a mid-sized Canadian city were interviewed to share their experiences with social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Purposive sampling was conducted to gather a diverse sample of participants, including individuals of various ages, gender and sexual identities, and ethnicities. Thematic analysis on the 15 interviews was completed using NVivo (version 12). Participants experienced both advantages and disadvantages associated with social media use. Ease of communication and stress relief were acknowledged as the strongest benefits. Social comparison, loneliness, development of bad habits, and lack of focus were cited as major disadvantages to social media use during the pandemic. Cost–benefit analysis of social media was common, and participants expressed the importance of using social media with moderation, balance, and awareness. Our study indicates that the focus on health with respect to the pandemic should not be solely based on physical health, rather the potential mental health risks associated with social media use during the pandemic should be recognized and addressed by healthcare providers.

Photovoice is increasingly lauded as one of a number of emergent research methodologies designed to be empowering for participants. In this paper, we explore the findings from a photovoice study with 15 queer and trans youth in a small urban centre in Ontario, Canada and some of the challenges faced in navigating photovoice ethics when working with a marginalized community that must grapple with dilemmas of visibility and representation in their daily lives. This paper identifies some practical considerations in confronting issues of representation in photovoice research, and reflects on the interaction of the research study with participants' ongoing negotiation of power imbalances in their daily lives.

National and international codes of research conduct have been established in most industrialized nations to ensure greater adherence to ethical research practices. Despite these safeguards, however, traditional research approaches often continue to stigmatize marginalized and vulnerable communities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has evolved as an effective new research paradigm that attempts to make research a more inclusive and democratic process by fostering the development of partnerships between communities and academics to address community-relevant research priorities. As such, it attempts to redress ethical concerns that have emerged out of more traditional paradigms. Nevertheless, new and emerging ethical dilemmas are commonly associated with CBPR and are rarely addressed in traditional ethical reviews. We conducted a content analysis of forms and guidelines commonly used by institutional review boards (IRBs) in the USA and research ethics boards (REBs) in Canada. Our intent was to see if the forms used by boards reflected common CBPR experience. We drew our sample from affiliated members of the US-based Association of Schools of Public Health and from Canadian universities that offered graduate public health training. This convenience sample (n = 30) was garnered from programs where application forms were available online for download between July and August, 2004. Results show that ethical review forms and guidelines overwhelmingly operate within a biomedical framework that rarely takes into account common CBPR experience. They are primarily focused on the principle of assessing risk to individuals and not to communities and continue to perpetuate the notion that the domain of "knowledge production" is the sole right of academic researchers. Consequently, IRBs and REBs may be unintentionally placing communities at risk by continuing to use procedures inappropriate or unsuitable for CBPR. IRB/REB procedures require a new framework more suitable for CBPR, and we propose alternative ...

Newer forms of community-based participatory research (CBPR) prioritize community control over community engagement, and articles that outline some of the challenges inherent in this approach to CBPR are imperative in terms of advancing knowledge and practice. This article outlines the community control strategy utilized by Trans PULSE, an Ontario-wide research initiative devoted to understanding the ways in which social exclusion, cisnormativity (the belief that transgender (trans) identities or bodies are less authentic or 'normal'), and transphobia shape the provision of services and affect health outcomes for trans people in Ontario, Canada. While we have been successful in building and supporting a solid model of community control in research, challenges have emerged related to: power differentials between community and academic partners, unintentional disempowerment of community members through the research process, the impact of community-level trauma on team dynamics, and differing visions about the importance and place of anti-racism work. Challenges are detailed as 'lessons learned' and a series of key questions for CBPR teams to consider are offered.

Access barriers to effective ethics review continue to be a significant challenge for researchers and community-based organizations undertaking community-based participatory research (CBPR). This article reports on findings from a content analysis of select (Behavioural, Biomedical, Social Sciences, Humanities) research ethics boards (REBs) in the Canadian research context (n = 86). Existing ethics review documentation was evaluated using 30 CBPR related criteria for their sensitivity to relevant approaches, processes, and outcomes. A linear regression was conducted to determine whether specific organizational characteristics have an impact on the CBPR sensitivity: (1) region of Canada, (2) type of institution (university or a healthcare organization), (3) primary institutional language (English or French) and (4) national ranking with respect to research intensiveness. While only research intensiveness proved statistically significant (p = .001), we recognize REB protocol forms may not actually reflect how CBPR is reviewed. Despite using a single guiding ethical framework, REBs across Canada employ a variety of techniques to review research studies. We report on these differences and varying levels of sensitivity to CBPR. Finally, we highlight best practices and make recommendations for integrating CBPR principles into existing ethics review.

Sexual health education in schools is a controversial topic. In 2015 an updated version of the sex education program was introduced to schools in the Province of Ontario, Canada. The curriculum received strong criticism from some parents and lobby groups. Similar objections led to the Ontario Liberal government withdrawing the previous sex education program update in 2010. Public debates about the appropriateness of the new curriculum are primarily concerned with the extent to which parents were consulted. Absent from these discussions are the opinions of the curriculum's target group: students. What do young people have to say about their sexual health education, and how can this information be used to provide more effective programs in schools? In this article we draw on the findings of the Toronto Teen Survey (TTS) (N = 1,216) to discuss youth responses to questions about their experience with sexual health education and the relevance of this information for school-based sexual health education (SBSE). Considering that TTS youth identified schools as their primary source of sexual health education, the survey findings have value for SBSE. In discussing the TTS data in the context of the updated Ontario sexual health curriculum, we provide a youth perspective on the revised sexual health education program that was implemented in the fall of 2015.