Christine Barter

'I wanna tell you a story': Exploring the application of vignettes in qualitative research with children and young people

Few methodological papers exist which examine the use of vignettes within qualitative research and more specifically, with children and young people. The paper will briefly discuss the application of vignettes within quantitative and qualitative research traditions derived from the available literature before outlining the major theoretical and methodological issues relating to the use of this technique in social research. Using empirical examples of young peoples responses to a selected vignette, we then go on to explore the various benefits of vignettes that can ensue when employing this technique in isolation or as part of a multi-method approach. This discussion concludes with an exploration of how vignettes can be harnessed to engage young people, particularly in the discussion of sensitive topics, whilst enabling them to retain a high level of control over the research process.

Evaluating Working Practices

We now turn to consider young people’s and staff’s experiences and evaluations of responses to violence. Accounts of the level of intervention associated with each of the main forms of violence will be explored, including consistency within teams, problems of identification and mechanisms for information-sharing. Building on this, the different forms of intervention employed within homes, both informal and formal, will be discussed. Perceptions surrounding the appropriateness of these measures, evaluations of their success and young people’s opinions about staff actions will all be examined. The final section of this chapter considers working methods for anticipating and reducing peer violence within residential settings. However, before focusing on intervention, we initially explore young people’s own help-seeking strategies, first in relation to peers and then to staff.

Mapping Peer Violence in Children’s Homes

This chapter describes in more detail the framework used to map and categorise young people’s and staff’s accounts of peer violence. As explained earlier, no pre-definition of violence was given, but broadly worded questions and vignettes were used to explore definitions and explanations for different forms of threat or attack. Kelly’s (1987) conceptualisation of a continuum of violence involving the abuse of power, and insights from the literature outlined in Chapter 1 were used to inform the shaping of questions and choice of incidents used in the vignettes.

Childhood, Peer Relationships and Peer Violence

The need to listen to children and young people’s voices has been recognised in a number of recent major policy developments and consultations by central and local government, affecting education, care services, youth justice, leisure and environmental services (Children and Young People’s Unit 2001). Specific departments and programmes have been set up addressing the needs of children and young people and the problems of social exclusion affecting the young (e.g. Children’s Fund 2001). Much of this activity has been linked to concerns about youth violence and involvement in social disorder, but there are also concerns about the safety and protection of children, in the community and when they enter public care, following a number of recent tragedies and scandals which revealed inadequacies in the services intended to protect and care for children (Laming 2003).

Institutional and Organisational Factors Associated with Violence

Meeting the needs of children and young people in residential children’s homes is widely acknowledged to be both a complex and demanding process (Department of Health 1998a). This challenging role can be further exacerbated by both institutional and organisational factors that are often out of the direct control of individual homes. In this chapter we consider how these factors were seen to influence the climates of violence and verbal attacks within the residential settings. First, the formal residential policy and practice guidelines relating to peer violence are examined, including the manner in which these are presented to young people, and young people’s own awareness and assessments of their appropriateness. Leading on from this, the issue of children’s rights in residential homes is considered in relation to institutional policy and practice developments surrounding violence. Following this, the organisational factors associated with issues of violence are documented. These are largely restricted to workers’ own assessments, although young people did provide opinions on three areas: physical structure of buildings, function of homes and staffing. Last, the organisational and structural factors identified by participants are considered in relation to the position of homes on the violence continuum, originally presented in Chapter 2.

Staff Perspectives on Violence

In this chapter we examine staff perspectives on violence. We decided to present staff accounts separately from young people’s for a range of reasons. Foremost was the importance of ensuring that both young people’s and staff’s explanations should be viewed within their particular child and professional understandings and explanations. Consequently, at certain points in the following chapter readers may have a sense of deja vu, as in some instances, young people and professionals identified similar micro- and macro-processes for the development of violence. However, the definitions and understandings that were attributed to these processes differed markedly, both between groups and between homes. Both the similarities and the differences are of central importance if we wish to understand how meanings impact on young people’s experiences of violence and verbal attacks, and how professional cultures and practices interact with these complex processes.

Young People’s Perspectives on Violence

Chapter 2 went some way to map and categorise the frequency and impact of different forms of peer violence, as well as their interrelationship. Conceptualising violence in this way is helpful in enabling an analysis which can capture the diversity of young people’s own accounts and experiences, particularly given the multifaceted and complex status of ‘Violent’ behaviours. By adapting Kelly’s (1987) concept of violence as a continuum, and using our categorisations of physical contact violence, physical non-contact violence, verbal attacks and sexual violence, and grounding our conceptualisation in young people’s own accounts, certain patterns and relationships could be identified. These applied particularly to the meanings, definitions, evaluations and justifications of various forms of violence. Chapter 2 identified the following themes: Normalisation of violence: Findings suggest that the same type of violence (e.g. verbal insult) could impact upon young people in qualitatively different ways depending upon their previous experiences, the culture of violence in the home and their gender, age or peer group status. Participants’ own concepts of violence varied considerably. Peer group dynamics: Much of young people’s accounts of high impact violence was embedded in wider peer group dynamics and power relations. Gendered nature of violence: Particular types of violence were gender-specific. High-level verbal attacks for boys took the form of mother-cussing, and for girls derogatory sexualised attacks. Property attacks were reported to have a greater impact for girls. Sexual violence was experienced mainly as a female phenomenon and physical violence was more severe for boys. Justification: According to young people, all forms of violence usually had some form of justification and rationale.

Shared and Different Understandings of Violence

Chapter 1 outlined the design and use of vignettes to explore young people’s and staff’s understanding of violence. In qualitative research vignettes have been increasingly employed to explore cultural norms derived from participants’ attitudes to, and beliefs about, a specific situation. They also highlight ethical frameworks and moral codes. The most obvious criticism of this technique concerns the difference between belief and action; what people believe they would do in a given situation is not necessarily how they would actually behave. However, some writers have argued for a different theoretical perspective (see Douglas 1971, Finch 1989). Finch, for example, suggests that it is not always necessary to be concerned about the inconsistency between beliefs and actions. Thus it is perfectly possible for an individual to agree to a particular social norm, but at the same time believe that it is not relevant in particular circumstances, or that it does not apply for particular reasons. Therefore, it is not the action that the individual says s/he would take in a particular situation that is of interest, for this will always be situationally specific, but the process of meanings and interpretations used in reaching the outcome that is of central concern. Vignettes provide a very useful tool to illuminate and tap into these complex processes.

Responding to Violence — Methods of Intervention

Building on from the previous chapter we now turn our attention to look in more depth at the range of methods used by staff to respond to peer violence. Initially we concentrate on exploring the range of interventions found within homes including; sanctions, physical restraint, meetings and formal child protection procedures. Following this we look at proactive working methods aimed at reducing the presence of violence and finally consider staff’s wider perspectives on how peer violence within residential settings could be prevented.