McCombie Catherine, Esponda Georgina Miguel, Ouazzane Hannah, Knowles Gemma, Gayer-Anderson Charlotte, Schmidt Ulrike, Lawrence Vanessa
Department of Health Services and Population Research, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, King's College London, UK.
Int J Qual Methods. 2024 Nov 26;23:16094069241296189. doi: 10.1177/16094069241296189. eCollection 2024 Jan.
Qualitative digital diary methods are a promising tool for capturing participants' experiences in their own words and over time. The use of smartphone apps to collect this kind of data provides an accessible and flexible way to participate in research, but to truly benefit from this method, participants needs and preferences must be taken into account. This paper explores participants' experiences of taking part in qualitative digital diary research, and highlights participants' values and priorities for qualitative digital diary mental health research. Participants from two qualitative digital diary studies provided feedback on their experiences, in the form of interviews and focus groups, and data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The two participant groups, people with lived experience of eating disorders, and young people from diverse backgrounds across London schools, allowed exploration of experiences across different contexts and populations. The six resulting themes each reflect a core value that participants identified as an essential component for them in qualitative digital diary research: Self-expression, flexibility, non-judgement, open communication, helpful reflection, and meaningful impact. Themes each highlight aspects of participants' experiences that must be taken into account for future research to ensure that participants can take part in this type of research in ways that are meaningful to them, as well as most beneficial to the research. This paper provides an overview of participant experiences of qualitative digital diary research, and provides a framework for centring participant values and preferences in future qualitative diary research.
定性数字日记法是一种很有前景的工具，能够让参与者用自己的语言并随着时间推移来记录自身经历。利用智能手机应用程序收集这类数据，为参与研究提供了一种便捷且灵活的方式，但要真正从这种方法中受益，必须考虑参与者的需求和偏好。本文探讨了参与者参与定性数字日记研究的经历，并突出了定性数字日记心理健康研究中参与者的价值观和优先事项。来自两项定性数字日记研究的参与者以访谈和焦点小组的形式，就他们的经历提供了反馈，并使用反思性主题分析法对数据进行了分析。这两组参与者，一组是有饮食失调生活经历的人，另一组是来自伦敦各学校不同背景的年轻人，这使得对不同背景和人群的经历进行了探索。得出的六个主题各自反映了参与者在定性数字日记研究中确定为对他们至关重要的一个核心价值观：自我表达、灵活性、无评判、开放沟通、有益反思和有意义的影响。每个主题都突出了参与者经历的一些方面，未来研究必须考虑这些方面，以确保参与者能够以对他们有意义且对研究最有益的方式参与这类研究。本文概述了定性数字日记研究的参与者经历，并为在未来定性日记研究中以参与者价值观和偏好为中心提供了一个框架。
