Nicole Y. Pitre

Interpreter-facilitated cross-language interviews: a research note

This research note focuses on interpreter-facilitated cross-language qualitative interviews. Although researchers have written about strategies and procedures for working with interpreters, rarely have they offered adequate detail to determine the relative merits of various approaches, and little attention has been paid to the influence that interpreters have on the validity of qualitative data. We advance this body of literature by describing and critically examining the strategies and procedures we used to work with an interpreter to conduct qualitative interviews with Mandarin-speaking grandparents who participated in our study of intergenerational social support during the transition to parenthood. In addition, we examine the influence that our strategies and procedures had on the data generation process and on the validity of the data. Drawing on our experiences, we argue that with adequate preparation, validity checks, and the supplementary strategies that we describe in this article, an interpreter-facilitated interview approach to generating data in cross-language studies can be an effective alternative to more commonly used and more laborious and expensive translation practices.

Critical feminist narrative inquiry: advancing knowledge through double-hermeneutic narrative analysis.

Critical feminist narrative inquiry is informed by the theoretical triangulation of critical, feminist, and symbolic interactionist perspectives. We first locate this approach within narrative research and identify the epistemological underpinnings and assumptions supporting this innovative methodology. The analytic and interpretive objectives and processes involved to achieve a double-hermeneutic narrative analysis are detailed. We conclude by proposing that this novel approach is suitable to advance knowledge about the nature and context of individual experiences, to expose circumstances leading to social injustice and health inequities, and ultimately to contribute to improved health outcomes for traditionally silenced, marginalized, or vulnerable populations.

Anticipating Parenthood: Women's and Men's Meanings, Expectations, and Idea(l)s in Canada

The study purpose was to explicate meanings, expectations, and contexts of parenting as women and men prepared to become parents for the first time. We used a prospective, qualitative study design informed by symbolic interactionist and critical feminist perspectives. In-depth interviews were conducted during pregnancy with 21 expectant mothers and 18 expectant fathers, including 18 couples reflecting socioeconomic and cultural diversity in a western Canadian city. We identified a main theme of life-altering and all-consuming responsibility that conveyed participants’ meanings of being a parent and included subthemes: shared or individual responsibility, status change, partial knowing, and reorienting. Participants initiated the reproduction of gendered sociocultural ideals of parenthood before the birth of their infant. Dominant social discourses and ideals shaped their meanings and expectations, ultimately constraining the alternatives they envisioned for themselves as they prepared to become parents.

Mothering in the wake of childhood violence experiences: reweaving a self and a world at the intersection of history and context.

We examined the stories of 12 women mothering growing children at the intersection of personal history (childhood violence experiences) and symbolic, structural, and ideological forces and conditions. Women revealed their determination to reweave a self and a world, that is, to continually reconstruct and reconfigure their lives to change the story for themselves and their children. Womens ability to reweave, however, was facilitated or challenged through intersections with family, networks, single stories, and prescribed rules and routines. We propose that reweaving work is a significant phenomenon to consider as deeper understandings of the dynamic experience of adult resilience are sought.

Intimate partner violence-related hospitalizations in Appalachia and the non-Appalachian United States

The highly rural region of Appalachia faces considerable socioeconomic disadvantage and health disparities that are recognized risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). The objective of this study was to estimate the rate of IPV-related hospitalizations in Appalachia and the non-Appalachian United States for 2007–2011 and compare hospitalizations in each region by clinical and sociodemographic factors. Data on IPV-related hospitalizations were extracted from the State Inpatient Databases, which are part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. Hospitalization day, year, in-hospital mortality, length of stay, average and total hospital charges, sex, age, payer, urban-rural location, income, diagnoses and procedures were compared between Appalachian and non-Appalachian counties. Poisson regression models were constructed to test differences in the rate of IPV-related hospitalizations between both regions. From 2007–2011, there were 7,385 hospitalizations related to IPV, with one-third (2,645) occurring in Appalachia. After adjusting for age and rurality, Appalachian counties had a 22% higher hospitalization rate than non-Appalachian counties (ARR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.14–1.31). Appalachian residents may be at increased risk for IPV and associated conditions. Exploring disparities in healthcare utilization and costs associated with IPV in Appalachia is critical for the development of programs to effectively target the needs of this population.