Lessons in Bioecological Research Design from Flint, MI: Get to Know the Participants!
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Sarah Lawrence College DigitalCommons@SarahLawrence Child Development Theses Child Development Graduate Program 5-2017 Lessons in Bioecological Research Design from Flint, MI: Get to know the participants! Khushboo Shah Sarah Lawrence College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.slc.edu/child_development_etd Part of the Early Childhood Education Commons, and the Psychiatry and Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Shah, Khushboo, "Lessons in Bioecological Research Design from Flint, MI: Get to know the participants!" (2017). Child Development Theses. 16. https://digitalcommons.slc.edu/child_development_etd/16 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Child Development Graduate Program at DigitalCommons@SarahLawrence. It has been accepted for inclusion in Child Development Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@SarahLawrence. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Running Head: DESIGNING BIOECOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN FLINT, MI LESSONS IN BIOECOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGN FROM FLINT, MI: Get to know the participants! by Khushboo Shah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Program of Child Development at Sarah Lawrence College May, 2017 ABSTRACT The historic events of the Flint Water Crisis (FWC) have led to a variety of intertwined mental and physical health, developmental and sociological outcomes in Flint, MI. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model of Human Development provides a suitable model for considering the full complexity of these factors. This model allows researchers to conceptualize within complex systems the nuanced sites and relationships in which development occurs. However, designing research based on this model is widely considered to be excessively challenging. This thesis outlines the process of designing Bioecological research in Flint, MI and presents examples from a pilot study which suggest that a process of ‘getting to know’ participants may be key in overcoming some of the challenges of bioecological research design. Keywords: Research Design, Flint Water Crisis, Bioecological Model DESIGNING RESEARCH IN FLINT, MI !2 CONTENTS TITLE 1 ABSTRACT 2 CONTENTS 3 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1.1 A personal note and some acknowledgements 4 1.2 A water crisis in Flint, MI 4 1.3 Rationale and objective 17 IDEOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL ORIENTATION 2.1 Urie Bronfenbrenner 26 2.2 The Bioecological Model 31 2.3 Building Bioecological Research 39 2.4 Past Bioecological Research 41 2.5 Perspectives from Community Based Work 46 2.5(a) The Delphi Method 48 2.5(b) Grounded Theory 49 2.5(c) Mapping Community Capacities 51 THE RESEARCH PROCESS 3.1 Pilot Study Design and Methods 3.1(a) Conception of study and access to the sample 52 3.1(b) Evolution, Intentional Flexibility and Purpose of Pilot Study 53 3.1(c) Ethical Compliance, Confidentiality and Consent Procedures 55 3.1(d) Sample Selection and Recruitment Procedures 58 3.1(e) Semi-Structured Pilot Phone Interview Design and Procedures 59 3.1(f) Data Analysis Procedures and Grounded Theory 61 PARTICIPANTS AND FINDINGS 4.1 Focus on Initial Participants 68 4.2 Participants 69 4.3 Collaboration and Relationship Building 69 4.4 Mapping Community Capacities 72 4.5 Summary of Findings 75 4.5(a) Miscellaneous Data Events 79 4.5(b) Perceived Burden 79 4.5(c) Health and Mental Health 82 4.5(d) Education 87 4.5(e) Accessibility, Stratification and Financial Resources Needed 89 4.5(f) Hardship, Perspectives, Resilience and Other Experiences 90 FURTHER DISCUSSION 5.1 Methodological Implications for Continuing Study Design 92 5.2 Applicability of Sub-Study Findings 95 5.3 Limitations 103 CONCLUDING REMARKS 105 REFERENCES 108 APPENDICES A. Parent Scripts/Interview Questions 128 B. Community Scripts/Interview Questions 129 DESIGNING RESEARCH IN FLINT, MI !3 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1.1 A personal note and some acknowledgements Early last year, I was provided an opportunity to work at a law firm representing children affected by the Flint Water Crisis, and they graciously allowed me to pursue my education in psychology alongside the job. It was a unique opportunity to do everything I had started to see as important to me during my college career—child development, public health, advocacy and community based work —all at once, addressing an urgent social-justice issue. I am very grateful to the deeply humanitarian team at work that supported my endeavors in this regard, and for my family, friends, teachers and college administrators, who have inspired, encouraged and supported me throughout this journey. 1.2 A Water Crisis in Flint, MI I. In the early 20th Century, after William Durant headquartered General Motors (“GM”) in Flint, MI, already home to major Chevrolet and Buick operations, it became America’s “Vehicle City” (McClelland, 2013, p.3), a prosperous and politically significant metropolis. GM had built one of America’s greatest cities. Within four decades, the city’s people had catapulted the vehicle- maker to a whopping 54% control of the American auto industry. 20-odd years later, GM thanked them by beginning to move tens of thousands of jobs away from Flint to cheaper places, in the middle of some of its biggest profit years. (See CNBC, 2010; Dillon, 1998; McClelland, 2013; Pulido, 2016 and Rosner, 2016 for more information on the history of GM in Flint.) Ever since, between recessions and increasing competition in the worldwide auto-industry, GM has steadily declined, but never quite hit rock-bottom. The City of Flint, on the other hand, has rapidly plummeted into significant disrepair. De-industrialized, Flint’s population decreased steadily from 196,940 at its peak in the 1960s to just a little over 98,310 in 2015, with a substantial chunk of the depopulation occurring in a sharp drop of 17.4% between 1970 and 1980— the DESIGNING RESEARCH IN FLINT, MI !4 same decade during which GM had begun to move jobs away from Flint. Notably, ‘White-Flight’ had caused a disproportionate increase within the Black population in Flint during the same period of general depopulation. But even as the wealthy (and often white) tax-payers of the city boarded up their houses and packed their bags, a sprawling, expensive “corporate landscape” (Moyo, 2017, p.244) of leisure and consumerism was left behind for the least mobile of Flints citizens to maintain. (See CNBC, 2010; Darden et al., 1998; Moyo, 2017 and Pulido, 2016 for more information regarding racial stratification and depopulation of Flint, and Edsforth, 1987 for more information regarding the corporate creation of a consumerist culture in Flint.) No one could have imagined that the city, built carefully over a century, would be broken so swiftly and completely. After all, Flint was made to believe that it was America’s city, and not GM’s. II. Today, walking through downtown Flint, you are likely to be gripped by two senses: one of vigilance, and one of mournful awe. The storied past of the factory town is loudly evident in the grandiosity of the exterior of the old Northbank building; but you cannot miss Flint’s reputation as one of America’s most dangerous cities as you watch a woman lock her colleague inside their downtown office as she leaves it to show you around the disquietingly empty historic building that it is nested within. (See Engel, 2016 for more information regarding violent crime and danger in Flint.) Venture away from downtown, towards the riverbed, and along your cautious walk you’ll agree with Edward McCelland’s (2013) observation that Flint, “in mid-summer is one of the lushest cities in America… oaks and elms in the sky, yarrow, chicory and goldenrod on the ground… Grass grows along lightning patterns in cracked sidewalks… Weeds rise to full tide in empty lots” (p.1). DESIGNING RESEARCH IN FLINT, MI !5 Yes, Flint is a mixture of verdure, nostalgia and desolation. Your thoughts easily wander to poetry that mirrors this landscape: shuffle Down the weed-split sidewalks Past the boarded-up display windows Of The Fair, United Shirt, Nobil Shoes, While at the curb monstrous green Buicks Idle and rust. The day is overcast, Threatening drizzle, feinting autumn, And further calamity. (Rendleman, 1995, p.225) Even as this foreshadowing verse from Danny Rendleman’s (1995) poem, Cheese Lines, Flint, Michigan, echoes deep in your wandering thoughts, you notice that the stench of the river has gracefully ridden a zephyr to hit you straight in your face. The rumination is short-lived. Flint has woken you up. You reluctantly realize that residents of Flint have been drinking the water you cannot even stand to smell since 2014, after a state-appointed emergency manager, Ed Kurtz, approved the city’s water supply to be switched from Lake Huron to Flint River in 2013 as a potentially cost- saving, but ultimately disastrous, austerity measure (see El-Sayed, 2016; Finnegan, 2016; Giroux, 2016; Hammer, 2016; Mann, 2016; Ranganathan, 2016; Pulido, 2016; and Salinsky, 2016 for more information regarding the role of Kurtz, financial austerity and other economic factors leading up to the switch between water sources). Months after this switch, amidst vocal complaints from community members regarding the appearance, odor and taste of the water (see Bosman, Davey & Smith 2016 and Davidson, 2016 for more information regarding citizens’ complaints and the official responses to them), the city negligently issued boil warnings misleading citizens by stating that E-coli was the worst they had to fear (see Atkinson, 2016 and Hammer, 2016 for more information regarding the various announcements made regarding Flint water). Boiling the water actually ended up increasing the concentration of lead in residents’ water (see Atkinson, 2016; Abernathy et al., 2016; Davidson, 2016; Hammer, 2016; Katner et al., 2016; Lieberman, 2016; Masten et al., 2016; Moyo, 2017; DESIGNING RESEARCH IN FLINT, MI !6 Pieper, Tang & Edwards, 2016; Stillman, 2017 and Yang, 2016 for more information regarding Flint water infrastructure and regulations as well as the discovery of lead in the water).