Data Analysis

4.4.3a Survey

The analysis of survey data was carried out using SPSS to assist with descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate levels of analyses. The survey analysis has presented a snapshot of the ways in which openness is practised in a sample of 101 adoptive parents and their families. In particular, I focussed my analysis on the emerging practice of virtual contact, situating the occurrence of this in the context of wider structural and individual factors. The relationship between factors was statistically tested to highlight significant associations. I developed several measures in the survey (Communicative Openness score, Parental Communicative Technology Score , and the Satisfaction with Adoptive Family Life Scale). The validity of these measures was tested and deemed satisfactory. The analysis highlighted some incomplete data in the survey responses, and therefore missing data was coded appropriately and has been acknowledged in the survey chapters.

4.4.3b Interviews

My approach to qualitative analysis led to an interpretative account of the unique and shared meanings and experiences of adoptive families. I set out to complete a purely Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis due to the fact that this is particularly suited to this research as it is useful for unexplored areas of study with little theoretical basis, to gather idiographic accounts of virtual contact. However, in practice the qualitative analysis includes a mixture of thematic and IPA data. I have explained this in more detail in Chapter 7 (7.1.1 Reflecting on the Analytical process). In essence this was due to the

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higher number of interview participants that were recruited than intended, as the participants who had not experienced virtual contact were not originally sought (as explained on page 72). Therefore, the level of depth required in IPA was not always achieved. I have, however, maintained an element of IPA through the use of family case studies in Chapter 8 to ensure the idiographic family phenomenological meanings are interpreted. Therefore the principles of IPA will now be discussed.

Rigorous and systematic analysis has been carried out to produce distinctions and commonalities, creating key themes supported by verbatim quotations. IPA is now an established methodological technique within the field of psychology that aims to learn about the respondent’s psychological world (Smith & Osborn, 2003). It involves a two- stage approach to analysis: interpretation and phenomenology or as Smith (2004) describes it a ‘double hermeneutic’, uncovering and interpreting meanings (Pringle, Drummond, McLafferty & Hendry, 2011). The characteristic features of IPA are described by Smith (2004) as idiographic, inductive and interrogative. The idiographic nature of this approach highlights the value of a detailed case study, to gather in depth accounts of individual responses to a situation and to also see connections between different aspects of an individual account (Smith, 2004: 42). It further allows for cross comparison between cases. Throughout the thesis, family stories are used as illustrative examples of the way in which virtual contact has been experienced. Further, cases have been used to highlight the analytical themes and to compare family stories and experiences. This ensured that the analysis was grounded in the approaches of ‘practice-based evidence’ by using service- user experiences to highlight areas of ‘best practice’. This is particularly evident in the comparison of two family cases in which one had a positive and one had a negative experience of virtual contact, allowing for factors to be identified that may support the maintenance of positive virtual contact. Care has been taken to protect the anonymity of participants in the production of the family cases, by not associating participants with a specific adoption agency and by disguising any identifying features of family stories. Being an inductive approach, IPA employs flexible techniques to allow for emerging themes through analysis and therefore IPA research starts with broad research questions rather than hypotheses (Smith, 2004: 43). As an interrogative approach to analysis it is important to link analysis with existing research and literature (Smith, 2004). In this case, existing literature was used to frame the research questions and highlight gaps in the knowledge base that this study aims to fill. The literature is also used to contextualise and interrogate the findings in the Argument chapter (Chapter 9).

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In terms of analysis, generally a smaller, concise number of themes points to an in depth analysis and leads to reduction and engagement with data (Smith & Osborn, 2003). In practice, a larger number of themes were produced due to the variety of opinions and experiences surrounding virtual contact. This did create challenges in achieving the required level of depth and interpretation. Analysis is a cyclical process with several stages, including first impressions of the text, preliminary identification of themes, clustering the themes and creating a summary table of master themes (Biggerstaff & Thompson, 2008). This process is repeated for each case and the themes compared to produce subordinate and superordinate (Biggerstaff & Thompson, 2008). Once themes are identified it is necessary to look for connections between them to create a theoretical ordering (Smith & Osborn, 2003: 70) and begin to make interpretative sense of the themes using the three levels of interpretation outlined above by Smith (2004). Through analysis one needs to identify recurring patterns and also new issues that emerge from case to case. Due to the verbatim transcriptions that are created, all aspects of the text are analysed and interpreted. Through this approach, detailed, in depth, interpretative accounts are produced (Smith & Osborn, 2003). As a result of the idiographic nature, and therefore small sample sizes, of this analytical approach, it is argued that generalisability is not the aim. Rather, Smith et al. (2009) argue for ‘theoretical generalisability’ whereby the researcher can assess the applicability of findings with reference to wider knowledge in the area. In order to test the validity of my analysis it would be necessary to cross-validate my findings using further research and additional researcher perspectives. However, I have been able to achieve ‘theoretical generalisability’ by comparing my analysis to existing literature throughout the findings chapters and in depth in the argument chapter.

IPA aims to understand the topic under study from the perspective of participants, but to also critically examine and question participant accounts. Through analysis I have been able to extract the key themes relevant to this area of research and to interpret the meanings behind individual accounts using family case studies. As an emerging topic of interest, there is a lack of knowledge surrounding the experience of virtual contact in adoptive families. Therefore the use of IPA allows for an inductive approach to my research questions. The unique, individual family stories have been maintained to uncover phenomenological accounts alongside common themes to interpret the shared understandings of technology use amongst adoptive family members. The common understandings then lead to a framework of key themes that can be used to direct future

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research and practice recommendations, and leads to a reconceptualisation of openness in the final chapters.