The crux of this research project was to find out how South Asian male survivors of child sexual abuse make sense of their experiences, and semi-structured interviews were judged as the most suitable method for generating rich, qualitative data that would do justice to the research question. Below are the details of how survivors were recruited, who they are and how the interview process was conducted.
3.6.1 Recruitment and sampling
Individuals of South Asian descent consist of those who fall within the ethnic
categories of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi (British Sociological Society, 2005). Adult males, over the age of 18 years old (as this is usually the minimum age for clients of counselling organisations), who have encountered child sexual abuse were the desired sample to carry out semi-structured interviews with. The justification for interviewing adult survivors rather than children is due to two reasons: firstly, there are significant ethical considerations to be taken into account when working
alongside children in matters as sensitive and controversial as child sexual abuse (Sadoff, 2011). Leadbeater (2006) points out that disclosure of abuse from children needs to be met with caution, and a duty to report a revelation of on-going abuse to authorities may occur. The second reason for interviewing adult survivors of abuse is due to the age at which survivors tend to disclose abuse, and the symptoms which arise in adulthood as a consequence of the abuse. Many studies concur that the majority of survivors confide in people about abuse during adulthood (Deb and
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Mukherjee, 2009). McClean et al (2014) refer to post-traumatic stress disorder along with other psychological problems that adult survivors can manifest as a direct result of childhood sexual abuse, including suicidal tendencies, depression, anxiety and drug and alcohol abuse. The importance of these symptoms to the research is that they can contribute to the confrontation of abuse by the survivor, their survival strategies, and their relationship with service providers.
Purposive sampling was adopted to recruit participants. In this phase of the study, participants had to identify as male, South Asian and have experienced childhood sexual abuse to take part in the research.
Two strategies were adopted to recruit participants:
1. Placing an A4 sized advert (see appendix 1) in locations such as doctors’ surgeries, colleges and University campuses (after permission was sought and granted). An online advert was also placed on the Survivors UK website online.
2. Numerous counselling organisations were approached in order to recruit participants. The researcher previously volunteered in one of these organisations.
The decision to use two strategies was to recruit survivors who were engaged in counselling or had received counselling, and survivors who had never engaged with counselling services. Research has indicated that around two thirds of people who are abused never disclose their experiences to family or authorities (Allnock and Miller, 2013). This means that the majority of abuse survivors remain invisible and are therefore not adequately represented in research. The researcher attempted to address this through advertising the research publicly as well as contacting services
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with a wide client base of survivors. One survivor came forward and made contact via email after seeing the online advert on Survivors UK. However, this survivor decided not to pursue any further and the eight participants who took part all came from one of the counselling organisations.
The counselling organisation was initially contacted via email where the researcher attached a participant information sheet detailing the study. The services manager then arranged an interview to meet face to face, and it was agreed that she would distribute the participant information sheets and consent forms to counsellors within the organisation. The counsellors with Asian male clients then gave the information sheets and consent forms to these clients and participants who wished to take part in the study informed their counsellors, who reported back to the services manager. Arrangements were then made to carry out the interviews and participants were told to bring with them their signed informed consent sheets.
3.6.2 Demographics of the sample
A total of eight male, South Asian survivors volunteered to take part in the study, the youngest of whom was 20 years old and the oldest aged 41 years old. The details of the participants are presented in the table below.
Name of survivor* Age Ethnic background
Nathan 20 South Indian (Tamil)
Gurdeep 26 Indian Punjabi
Mahmud 34 Pakistani
Ayaan 24 Bengali
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Suleman 29 Bengali
Sanjay 31 Indian
Aman 33 Indian Punjabi
*All names are pseudonyms
3.6.3 Conducting the interviews
Preparation for the interviews was a vital step to ensure that the tools for data collection would serve their purpose, which is to generate data. These tools were the interview schedule and the interview itself; the process of constructing the interview schedule and carrying out the interviews are detailed below.
3.6.3.1 Developing the interview schedule
The questions that were asked during all of the interviews evolved from the main research question, which was to explore how South Asian male survivors of childhood sexual abuse make sense of their experiences. In order to devise an interview schedule that would capture the richness and detail of the survivors’ stories and answer the main research question, it was crucial that the researcher invested time in reading widely around the subject of childhood sexual abuse and South Asian communities (see chapter 2). After closely analysing the literature, it was apparent that there was a significant gap in the literature concerning sexual abuse within Asian communities. Questions regarding the impact of culture, engagement with support services and the experience of disclosure were therefore included within the schedule to compensate for this gap in knowledge (see appendix 9). Questions that would elicit a fairly descriptive account of an experience were asked at the beginning to make each survivor feel comfortable and at ease more quickly (Smith et al, 2009).
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Caulfield and Hill (2014) recommend piloting the interview schedule beforehand in order to troubleshoot any questions that may prove to be problematic. As this phase of the research was dealing with a vulnerable group, the schedule was piloted with some of the service providers. Questions that were deemed unsuitable were swiftly replaced as the researcher did not want to ask questions that would risk causing distress to participants.
3.6.3.2 The interview process
The interviews took place within the counselling organisation where the clients received, or had previously received counselling. A room which was allocated for counselling was provided for each interview by the services manager, and several measures were put in place to ensure the safety and comfort of the researcher and the participants. A distress protocol was implemented whereby the services
manager was a short distance from the room in case the participants, or the researcher, became distressed at any point. Water and tissues were provided as they usually are for the survivors during their counselling sessions as a way to provide comfort. The interviews took place at a time where there would be little disturbance or noise, so as to allow a free flowing conversation and to enable the researcher to be highly engaged in listening to the participants (Smith et al, 2009).
One of the challenges in conducting an interviewing dealing with sensitive subject matter is to remain a researcher (in the dual role of an interviewer) and not cross into the territory of becoming a counsellor when interviewing the survivor. Sanderson (2006) outlines that the role of a counsellor requires maintaining as high a level of functioning as possible in the client and forming a comprehensive treatment plan. A researcher on the other hand, will enter the interview with the overall aim of the study
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in mind alongside a high level of self-awareness and reflexivity, which encourages them to constantly question their motivations, values and actions (Northway, 2000). There are however, similarities between the role of researcher and counsellor
applicable to the interview situation, one being that the researcher and counsellor should not cross certain boundaries with child abuse survivors, but simultaneously not relinquish empathy with the emotions and helplessness the survivor expresses (Sanderson, 2006). These boundaries include physically touching the survivor, which can often be misconstrued, even when the motivation behind this act is to comfort them (Wosket, 1999). During the survivor interviews, there were questions that elicited a more emotional response than others, such as those around the disclosure process. Nathan for example, had only recently disclosed to his family and endured a court case where the perpetrator was found guilty and sentenced. Nathan’s mother was not supportive during the court process and did not have a positive reaction to the abuse disclosure and he cried while recollecting these experiences. Nathan carried on with the interview after being asked whether he would like to take a break or stop the interview and the direction of the questions veered off the course of the schedule to prioritise Nathan’s wellbeing. These were examples of judgment calls on the part of the researcher to appropriately offer Nathan a break or end the interview, to deviate from the line of questioning, and to not cross the boundary into the role of a counsellor. Smith et al (2009) advise researchers to monitor the effect of the interview on the participant and to look for cues, verbal and non-verbal, which express how participants feel. These cues should guide researchers throughout the interview and determine what direction the interviewer takes with the questions. Most of the interviews during this phase of the study took a similar route and each individual interview situation was met with an
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individualised response where the survivor’s welfare was the primary concern. None of the participants wished to end their interview and demonstrated great courage when narrating their experiences. A debrief was carried out after the interviews had taken place and participants were offered a chance to see their transcripts after the researcher had typed them. All participants provided me with their email address and transcripts were emailed; none of the participants challenged any of the content that had been transcribed so no changes were made.