Qualitative data in demography

Qualitative methods and insights from other disciplines are increasingly integrated into demography’s traditionally quantitative toolkit. Whereas this is not problematic for multi-disciplinary research projects difficulties may arise when quantitatively trained demographers diversify to use less familiar data collection tools. We review the scale of this recent trend and the choice of qualitative methods typically employed by demographic researchers. Using insights from a comparative qualitative study undertaken in Zimbabwe and Senegal, we discuss some problems inherent in qualitative data collection and analysis and propose ways in which such data should and should not be used. Focussing in particular on semi-structured in-depth interviews, we discuss issues of representativity, investigate respondents’ silence on specific topics, and the role of interviewer characteristics in influencing the interview subject matter.data collection, in-depth interviews, interviewers, qualitative data, research methods, Senegal, Zimbabwe

The commodity chain of the household: from survey design to policy and practice

Data collection and analysis and policy formulation all require a social unit to be defined, generally called the household. Multidisciplinary evidence shows that households as defined by survey practitioners often bear little resemblance to lived socio-economic units. This study examines how a shared language, the 'household', can generate misunderstandings because different groups with distinctive understandings of the term 'household' are often unaware that others may be using ‘household’ differently. Results from 4 interlinked and iterative methods are presented: review of household survey documentation (1950s-present); ethnographic ground-truthing fieldwork; in-depth key informant interviews; and modelling. Results show that whereas data collectors have a clear idea of what a `household` is, data users are often unaware of the nuances of the constraints imposed by data collection. This has implications for policy planning and practice. What interviewees consider when they think of their household can differ systematically from data collectors' definitions

Mapping intergenerational care across households in the UK: analysing proximity, propinquity and resources in the "tacit intergenerational contract"

Intergenerational exchanges of care form the backbone of informal care arrangements in the UK. Against a background of cuts in public spending and an increasingly ageing population, the centrality of familial or kinship care, in the provision of everyday or practical intergenerational care (including providing housing, personal care, doing the shopping, providing childcare etc) is an ever more pressing question for policy-makers and ageing professionals. At present, flows of intergenerational care are difficult to capture precisely in surveys enumerated at the household level. In 2011 in the UK, the household was defined as‘one person living alone or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address, who share cooking facilities and share a living room or a sitting room or a dining area’. Within this definition of the household, recognition of transfers of care which transcend the household are lacking. This has implications for recognising the financial, residential and temporal (amongst others) obligations which might tie households together and impact in a very real way on the day-to-day well-being of people at a societal level. Drawing on data gathered from interviews with policy makers and ageing specialists as well as from 36 purposively-sampled household interviews, this paper examines how proximity – the spatial closeness between people – and propinquity – the emotional closeness between people – and access to financial resources - intersect to influence normative familial expectations (e.g.children will contribute to their elderly parents’ care, grandparents can be relied upon to look after grandchildren) intertwine to create a network of intergenerational care that transcends both familial kinship ties and the household itself. Diagrammatically reproducing these relationships with genographs, we outline the heterogeneity of these relationships and suggest how the complexity of day-to-day household arrangements of intergenerational care can better be accounted for at policy level

Disciplining anthropological demography

This study furthers the epistemological development of anthropological demography, and its role in understanding the demography of Europe. Firstly we situate anthropological demography against the context of an evolving world of research in which boundaries between academic disciplines have become much more permeable. This is achieved via an overview of recent theoretical debates about the role and nature of disciplinarity, including interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Secondly, in order to understand the current state of the art, we sketch out the evolution of anthropological demography, paying particular attention to the different knowledge claims of anthropology and demography. Finally, we flesh out some of the epistemological and theoretical debates about anthropological demography by sketching out the formative research process of our own work on low fertility in the UK.anthropological demography, anthropology, demography, disciplinarity, epistemology, Europe, interdisciplinarity, low fertility, multidisciplinarity, reproductive decisions

The power of the interviewer

African censuses and surveys remain dependent on interviewers for data collection with data quality assured through training and supervision. Many survey concepts and definitions are difficult to translate into African languages and some, such as the household, may have multiple criteria (sleeping, eating together and recognising an authority) which may not be fulfilled by everyone leading interviewers to prioritise different criteria. Some questions introduce unfamiliar ideas which may require considerable explanation by interviewers in order to obtain acceptable answers. Using published definitions, enumerator manuals and qualitative interview data with interviewers, supervisors, trainers, survey organisers and analysts in Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal and Burkina, we identify key areas where interviewer judgement plays a significant role in determining who is included or excluded from household surveys, or in shaping responses to certain questions. Interviewers take their responsibilities seriously but their preconceptions and interpretations have consequences for data reliability and harmonisation goals

The quality of demographic data on older Africans

BACKGROUND Developing appropriate and equitable policies for older people in Africa requires accurate and reliable data. It is unclear whether existing data can accurately assess older African population structures, let alone provide the detailed information needed to inform policy decision making. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the quality of nationally representative data on older Africans through examining the accuracy of age data collected from different sources. METHODS To measure the accuracy of age reporting overall we calculate Whipple’s Index, and a modified Whipple’s Index for older adults, using the single year age-sex distributions from (a) the household roster of 17 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) (b) the censuses of 12 of these countries and (c) the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) for Ethiopia and Niger. We compare reported sex ratios by age. RESULTS The quality of age data is very poor for most countries outside Southern Africa, especially for older adults. In some Sahelian countries DHS surveys appear to omit a considerable proportion of older women. Data on population structure of older people by age and sex produced by the DHS and the census are inconsistent and contradictory. CONCLUSIONS Different field methodological approaches generate contradictory data on older Africans. With the exception of Southern Africa, it is impossible to assess accurately the basic demographic structure of the older population. The data available are so problematic that any conclusions about age-related health and welfare and their evolution over time and space are potentially compromised. This has ramifications for policy makers and practitioners who demand, fund and depend on large scale demographic data sources

Poverty in African households: the limits of survey and census representations

African poverty statistics depend on household-level measurements from survey data, making the definition of household of critical importance. Detailed case studies from Tanzania and Burkina Faso explore (1) understandings of household membership and ambiguities, and (2) how well survey definitions capture households as economic units, and the implications for household size and responses to and mitigation of poverty. We develop an analytic framework of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ households. ‘Open’ households cope with poverty using flexibility, movement and extra-household networks, but are poorly represented by survey data. Closed households are likely to be better described by survey data

Exploring the limits of household surveys in Africa

LSE’s Ernestina Coast and UCL’s Sara Randall outline the importance of accuracy of data taken in international surveys to ensure poverty-related data are high quality

Review: Expanding Writing Center Research with Discourse Analysis

Corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) is a growing field of study that provides for holistic understandings of written texts, spoken discourse, rhetorical strategies, and the people who use them. Organized as a discussion of the topics, methods, and their potential applications for writing center research, this essay reviews three edited collections, Corpus Approaches to Discourse: A Critical Review by Charlotte Taylor and Anne Marchi (Routledge, 2018); The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Approaches to Discourse Analysis by Eric Friginal and Jack A. Hardy (Routledge, 2020); and Research Methods for Digital Discourse Analysis by Camilla Vásquez (Bloomsbury, 2022). Each introduces a range of practices, insights, and concerns for combining corpus and discourse analysis, which can be useful for developing writing center research, consultant training, and administrative outcomes

Managing Acute Insomnia in Prison: Evaluation of a ‘one-shot’ Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) intervention

Insomnia is a serious condition that affects over 60% of the prison population and has been associated with aggression, anger, impulsivity, suicidality, and increased prison health care use. Nonpharmacological interventions for prison inmates are scarce despite the high prevalence and significant consequences of insomnia among those incarcerated. The aim of the present study was to examine the preliminary efficacy and effectiveness of a one-shot of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) for prison inmates with acute insomnia in an open trial. The intervention consisted of one 60-70 minute session of CBT-I and a self-management pamphlet. A consecutive series of 30 adult male offenders with acute insomnia from a UK prison completed measures of prospective sleep (daily sleep diary), insomnia symptoms severity (Insomnia Severity Index), and mood symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire and General Anxiety Disorder) one week before and four weeks after receiving the intervention. Pairwise t-tests revealed that a single-shot of CBT-I was effective in reducing the severity of insomnia in adult male offenders (t=(29), 12.65,p<0.001). Further, the results demonstrated high effect sizes for reductions in depressive (dz=1.07) and anxious (dz=1.06) symptoms, as well as insomnia severity (dz=2.25). A single shot session of CBT-I is effective in managing acute insomnia and mood (depression, anxiety) symptoms in adult male prison inmates. Future research should focus on testing if the single shot CBT-I intervention can be implemented and disseminated in other settings and populations (e.g., female and juvenile/youth offenders)