[Air-L] Pro-ana websites research

[CJ Pascoe]

Hi Antonio,

My colleague, Natalie Boero, and I are putting the finishing touches  
on a book manuscript examining 14 (U.S. based) pro-ana mia discussion  
groups over a course of 2 years.

We actually skirted the age issue by only interviewing participants  
who were 18 or older (or who reported to us they were 18 or older).  
Many of them had participated on the sites for a number of years, so  
they shared their memories of being high school students (or even  
middle school students) participating in pro-ana communities.

  I know that other researchers when dealing with topics that could  
render a child vulnerable sometimes make their consent forms more  
general and less specific.  For instance when researching queer youth  
some researchers write about "identity development in adolescence"  
rather than "coming out."  That of course opens a set of different  
ethical issues.  But it is a course of action some people take.   
Others have made the argument, to U.S. IRBs at least, that having  
parental consent would put the child too at risk and thus received  
waivers for said consent.

If you have other questions or ideas I'm happy to chat off list.  I'm  
excited to see what you are writing about!

Warm regards,
CJ Pascoe

___________________________________________
C.J. Pascoe
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
Colorado College

Phone:				719-389-6735
Web: 				http://faculty1.coloradocollege.edu/~cpascoe
Dude You're a Fag:	http://ucpress.edu/books/pages/10671.html
Hanging Out,
Messing Around
and Geeking Out:  	http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11889


On Mar 2, 2010, at 12:33 AM, Antonio A. Casilli wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> As part of a research project at the EHESS (School for Advanced  
> Studies in
> Social Sciences, Paris), my team and I are running a study on users of
> pro-ana / pro-mia websites in France and UK. The approach mainly  
> brings
> together social network analysis and qualitative fieldworks.
>
> We would love to hear from people working on pro-ana blogs, forums  
> and SNS
> targeting teenagers and young adults. Ethical implications are
> particularly challenging at this stage of our project, as they  
> overcome
> the domain of ED-related online communities. Parental consent for  
> younger
> respondents, for instance, seems to represent a major setback given  
> the
> biases it might introduce in sample recruitment. Potential  
> consequences
> for participants (being rushed to out their pro-ED identity to their
> parents if they want to take part in the study) should also be  
> addressed.
>
> If, in the course of your own resarch, you have faced the same  
> issues, how
> did you deal with them?
>
> Cheers for now,
> Antonio
>
> -- 
> Antonio A. Casilli
> (ANAMIA ANR Project)
> Centre Edgar-Morin
> Institut Interdisciplinaire d'Anthropologie du Contemporain
> (UMR8177 CNRS/EHESS)
> 22, rue d'Athènes
> 75009 - Paris
> France
> email: antonio.casilli at ehess.fr
> webpage: http://www.iiac.cnrs.fr/cetsah/spip.php?article26
> blog: http://www.bodyspacesociety.eu/
>
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