CHAPTER 3

DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the procedures and processes employed in the conduct of this study.

It includes the research design, the respondents, instruments used with their construction,

validation, administration and retrieval, tools and techniques in gathering the information and

process of presenting, analyzing and interpreting the data.

Overall Approach and Rationale

This study is an effort to identify the damaging effects of emotional abuse to the

psychological development of adolescents. This issue becomes even more important in analyzing

the situation of one’s adolescents who experience being emotionally abuse where there is already

lack of documentary as well as recognition of damaging psychological development of

adolescents.

This was a qualitative, case study. This design was the most suitable because it allowed

exploration of the specific experience of the adolescents, generate an in-depth, multi-faceted

understanding of a complex issue in its real-life context and selected in order to capture

emerging themes in the work with participants who experience emotional abuse that affect their

psychological development. Using the primary data to collect by myself in interpretive and

exploratory nature of the data sought, qualitative methods such as informational interviewing

would not have captured the depth, breadth or nuance of information and experience possible

with intensive interviewing.

 Childhood emotional abuse is a widely occurring but often ignored issue in today’s

society. This section explores the definitions of emotional abuse, its scope and prevalence.

Site or Population Selection and Sampling Strategies

My study strategies are purposive that can provide in-depth and detailed information about

the case study under investigation. As a qualitative researcher, I use to recruit participants using

the non-probability, sample that is not representative of the population but provides specialized

knowledge on the issue at hand, in order to complete the research study. Around in Butuan City,

I randomly recruit participants including my classmates, friends and acquaintances were 10 key

informants. Each individual has met the following three (3) criteria in order to participate.

 Had experience being emotionally abuse

 Affect their psychological development as an adolescent

 Has a symptoms of the negative impact of being emotionally maltreated/abuse

Access, Role, Reciprocity, Trust, Rapport

For this study, the priority was not finding a large number of participants but rather the

right participants. As key informants, the participants had to possess specialized knowledge and

experiences in order for the study to have significant data. I sought a maximum of 10 participants

with each of the three categories (mental health, maltreatment and experiences) capped at no

more than 5 participants. I interviewed 4 student, 4 friends and 2 acquaintances. I compiled a list

of individuals in the Butuan City that I used as a pool for recruitment. These names were

collected from personal referrals. I avoided a conflict of interest by excluding possible

participants. For all three categories, I used emails and messenger in order to make contact.

During this first contact, I introduced myself as a researcher and explained that I was performing
a qualitative study exploring the negative impact of emotional abuse to the psychological

development working with adolescents who experiencing emotional abuse. I shared where I

obtained their information (the name of the person). When they expressed an interest, I

performed the interview, insuring that the individual meets all the criteria listed above. Once it

was certain that all the criteria were met and if the individual wanted to participate, I sent them a

formal letter regarding the study along with a consent form and scheduled an interview time.

Ethical and Political Considerations

All research data including recordings, transcriptions and analyses will be stored in a secure

documentary. In the event that materials are needed beyond this period, it will be kept secured

until no longer needed. Each participant got a unique identifier which was used to label

interviews and data. All identifying information such as names was not included in the data it is

only an alias name. In the formal consent letter, participants were told what kind of information

would trigger a mandatory report on the part of the research.

Data Collection Methods

Data was gathered through semi-structured, online intensive interviews that explored the

participant’s subjective experience of emotional abuse that occurs in psychological development

of adolescents and the obstacles they encountered in their experiences. Meeting trough online

platform like Gmail and messenger allowed me to know their struggles in life for that one I

interviewed. The interviews lasted anywhere from 15-55 minutes depending on the participant

and were audio-recorded. The data collection instrument was an interview guide created by me

based on my review of literature. It consisted of a series of unstructured questions that also

allowed space for other concerns relevant to the conversation.

Here are some of the questions used:

 How do you define emotional abuse based on your experiences?

 What is your understanding of the negative impact of emotional abuse to your psychological

development?

 What’s your experiences in being emotionally abused?

 Did it affect your psychological development?

I also collected demographic data on the participants so that I could analyze the sample

composition. This information was collected before the formal interview and served as a

questionnaire. I included questions on obstacles, caused, and years of experience.

Data Analysis Procedures

I used thematic analysis to analyze the results I obtained. After I completed the

transcription of the interviews, I used to organize the data into three different categories. These

categories were mental health victim and maltreated. In each category, I examined the responses

of the adolescent question by question following the interview guide. I looked for key words and

common themes in the data. The analysis focused primarily on looking at key words and themes

that arose in each youth group present in the sample.

Procedures to Address Trustworthiness and Credibility

The procedure analysis examined the subjective experience of the adolescents to learn more

about the obstacles to preventing and intervening in the issue of emotional abuse. The interview

process allowed me to become very familiar with the data. For each participants group, I

compiled the responses to each question into a document and examined each question’s
responses for common themes or responses of note. Then for each section of the interview guide,

I created a narrative using the information from the previous guide. I will present these findings

in the following chapter. All research materials including recordings, transcriptions, analyses

documents will be stored in a secure location for confidentiality. In the event that materials are

needed beyond this period, they will be kept secured until no longer needed, and then destroyed.

All identifying information such as participants real names was not included in the data analysis.

In the formal consent letter, participants were told what kind of information would trigger a

mandatory report on the part of the researcher.