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

“…involvement’ agenda challenges researchers to consider ways of actively and meaningfully involving children in all aspects of the research process (Barter and Renold, 2000; Curtis et al., 2004; Devine, 2002; Lightfoot and Sloper, 2002; Mulvihill et al., 2000; Shemmings, 2000; Sloper and…”

“share their feelings using their own words rather than those of researchers [44], as well as vignettes to eliminate interview processes [45].”

“Other qualitative researchers have found that vignettes, which are similar to our situational questions, have numerous benefits, including allowing for multiple interpretations of a prompt or situation and aiding respondents in discussing sensitive issues (Barter & Renold 2000).”

“With wellconstructed vignettes, researchers aim to provide sufficient context to resonate with participants but remain ambiguous enough to prompt judgments, decision making, and descriptions of the views or experiences that influence participants (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“As prior research has shown (Barter & Renold, 2000; Calarco, 2014), vignettes are a useful interview tool for clarifying differences in how individuals might interpret and respond to similar challenges.”

“Vignettes have been developed using young people’s accounts of real experiences from earlier pilot interviews or data from previous research (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“That is to say that there was no confusion in relation to shifts in focus from the fictitious to the ‘real world’ (O’Dell, 2012) and that the use of ‘real life’ vignettes actually served to reduce idealised answers in contrast to fictionalised vignettes which have the potential to produce them (Barter and Renold 2000).”

“There are many examples of research using this method to study potentially sensitive topics, including: research with children and young people (Barter and Reynold, 2000); an ‘insider’ perspective on children’s perspectives on foster care (MacAuley, 1996); health issues for older people (Brondani,…”

“The “distance” provided by vignettes has been found to make an interview experience less threatening (Barter & Renold, 2000; Hughes, 1998) and can result in a creative and enjoyable experience for participants (Hughes, 1998).”

“Various techniques that can be employed when interviewing with children have also been described, such as vignettes (Barter and Renold, 2000) and other stimulus material (O’Kane, 2000; Punch, 2002a).”

“A number of researchers have used vignettes with children and young people in order to access values and beliefs (e.g. Barter and Reynold 2000; Smart, Neale and Wade 1999), but more recently, Frankel (2007) has used this technique in the context of drama discussion groups to explore children’s…”

“Further advantages of using vignettes within this context include: • A method of introducing sensitive topics which respondents might otherwise find difficult to broach (Barter & Renold, 2000; Eskelinen & Caswell, 2006; Gould, 1996).”

“Adolescents often feel uncomfortable talking about personal and sensitive topics (Barter and Renold, 2000) and may experience social pressures in focus groups that can elicit social conformity, inhibition, and acceptance of dominant opinions – especially in mixed-sex groups (Heath et al., 2009;…”

“Vignettes give the researcher an “insider” position on participants’ thoughts and selfbeliefs and have been used successfully with children in past research (Barter & Renold, 2000; MacAuley, 1996; Miller-Perrin, Wurtele, & Kondrick, 1990).”

“Vignettes are versatile and could be used in a wide-range of studies (Finch, 1987; Barter and Renold, 2000; Anast Seguin and Ambrosio, 2002).”

“A few researchers have also noted that engaging youth with facilitative methods that use imagery and stories were most effective when tailored to suit individuals and their environments (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“As with focus groups, the use of vignettes can serve as an aid in the elucidation of sensitive issues (Barter & Renold, 1999, 2000).”

“, [10, 27, 29, 70]) and based them on self-disclosure and support seeking literature.”

“2a,b,c) (Barter and Renold, 2000; Wilks, 2004).”

“Young people are better able to engage in discussion when any examples used reflect their own experiences (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“To further clarify this focus in the forthcoming interviews we developed a vignette [28] covering these aspects.”

“One particular concern is avoiding social desirability bias, that is, the tendency for interviewees to respond in desired ways to appear socially appropriate (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“The use of vignettes for social science research facilitates participation surrounding sensitive topics such as sexual assault (Barter & Renold, 2000), and existing research has identified the degree to which intentions to act have been correlated with actual behavior (Kim & Hunter, 1993).”

“52 53 Because a child’s concept of pain is not always overtly communicated by the child, particularly the ‘hidden’ emotional components which affect communication, 54 using vignettes and drawings in pain science education or assessments may be particularly beneficial in clinical practice.”

“…to their own experience (providing them with greater control), a less threatening way to elicit people’s views about sensitive subject matter, a more varied format making participation more interesting, and an ability to capture beliefs, meanings, judgements and actions (Barter and Renold, 2000).”

“When used primarily as a data collection technique, researchers tend to emphasise the importance of ensuring that the contents of the vignettes provide an internally valid, authentic, plausible or realistic reflection of the social situations that are likely to occur within real-world settings (see, e.g. Finch, 1987;…”

“Vignettes provide participants the “freedom” to respond in less socially desirable ways when describing perceptions of a vignette character as opposed to answering directly about themselves (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“Vignettes also offer the opportunity to manage the complexity of the social world by isolating certain aspects of a given social issue (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“…to the examination of “real-world” decisions, the use of hypothetical scenarios allowed participants to offer and define the factors that would impact their decisions about participation and allowed us to explore a full range of themes related to research decision making (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“Three vignettes were also developed (see Multimedia Appendix 2) following the guidance of Barter and Renold [44] and were used as prompts if the participant had not seen an online feedback review website before.”

“Their value is emphasised in terms of their capacity to ‘ explore participants ’ subjective belief systems by using: … [S]tories [ … ] in the study of perceptions, beliefs and attitudes ’ (Barter and Renold 2000: 308).”

“…the results are mixed, with findings speaking for (Carlson, 1996; Rahman, 1996) and against (Eifler, 2007, 2010; Pager & Quillian, 2005) FSs’ external validity, which thus remains subject to controversial debate and further research (Auspurg & Hinz, 2015; Barter & Renold, 2000; Hughes, 1998).”

“General guidelines on scenario development were followed (Barter & Renold, 2000; Finch, 1987); vignettes were written to be sufficiently detailed yet purposefully vague, to elicit participants’ assumptions and force them to fill in the blanks.”

“Others have documented success using case vignettes and pictures as a prompt for discussion in a research context, especially with younger children (Barter & Reynold, 2000).”

“Vignettes were employed because the research involved sensitive topics many youth find difficult to discuss (Table 1; Barter & Renold, 2000); inquiry focused on motivation for the vignette character’s thoughts or behavior (i.e., ‘‘What would make her . . . ?’’).”

“Cabassa (2007) created vignettes depicting an individual meeting DSM-IV criteria for major depression to elicit Latino immigrants’ perceptions of depression and attitudes toward treatment.”

“Often cited as an ethically sensitive approach, the vignette allows the young person to reflect on their own experiences as well as the character in the story, leaving the participant to decide how much they would like to share (Barter & Renold, 2000; Kandemir & Budd, 2018).”

“Vignettes are recognised as an effective means to stimulate group discussion around sensitive/stigmatised health topics with youth.(44) 45 Each vignette centred on the story of one adolescent female with a specific set of endometriosis symptoms in a social situation common to this age group (see table 1).”

“In contrast, hypothetical conflict scenarios cannot cover the range of possible real-life conflict issues, contexts, and conflict behaviors (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“I limited the textual information by writing the vignette in three short paragraphs; previous research indicates that vignette length varies (Barter & Renold, 2000; Finch, 1987; Hughes & Huby, 2004).”

“First, we examine changes in RSA from a control reading (neutral vignettes) to our experimental conditions (sad and fear vignettes) as an indicator of regulatory effort.”

“This real-life character makes the vignette more effective, because participants are usually enthusiastic and motivated to answer questions that are based on realistic stories (Barter & Renold 2000).”

“The use of introductory scenarios or vignettes can work as a facilitator when opening up a discussion and may be perceived as a non-threatening way of exploring sensitive topics [32,33].”

“In summary, the vignette method is a highly efficient tool compared with other change agents (Barter & Renold, 2000; Jochums & Pershey, 1993; King et al., 2003; Mosquera, Manstead, & Fisher, 2002; Schoenberg & Ravdal, 2000; Shulman, 1992, 1996).”

“In particular, it has been suggested that scenarios may be especially useful for understanding individuals’ responses to rare or controversial events (Barter and Renold 2000; Ulrich and Ratcliffe 2007).”

“The method has been used to explore the influence of social cognitive bias among young investors (Baeckström et al., 2018), in awareness and attitude studies (Schoenberg & Ravdal, 2000), in collecting data on various sensitive topics like mental health (Barter & Renold, 2000).”

“Vignettes are particularly valuable when conducting research on a sensitive topic as participants can choose to talk through a ‘third person’ rather than talk directly about their own lives (Barter and Renold, 2000).”

“The advantages of collecting data with vignettes are that they allow actions in context to be explored which allows for the clarification of people’s judgments and the provision of a less personal and threatening way of exploring sensitive topics (Barter and Renold 2000).”

“Vignettes in qualitative research are a kind of short stories or topic related scenarios inclusive of text or image that provide a context to the study participants to which responses are asked [43] to explore attitudes, beliefs and perceptions regarding sensitive issues [44, 45].”

“In addition, it encourages participation and allows for exploration of actions in context [29].”