About your child's participation
By letting your child participate in this study, we want to make sure to inform you about the procedures before we start. But most importantly, we would like you to know how valuable your child's participation is for the overall progress of child research. When discussing children's online interactions and relationships, little is known about the implications of such interactions from children's perspective. It's essential for us to know more about young individuals experiences about their daily interactions and relationships when it comes to their use of online communication tools (OCT:s).
Step 1 - Consent from you and your child
Before the interview, we would like to get your written consent so that we know that you feel okay about letting your child participate. This can be done by you signing in our consent form, either by hand or directly on the document digitally.
Your child could get a consent form if they also would like to sign one before the interview, but this is not mandatory (go under the page "for children and teachers" if you would like to know more about your child's participation or download the consent form for children).
If you sign by hand, please take a picture of your signed consent form and send it to us by email. Remember to write down your child's full name in the email so that we know who the consent belongs to. If you find this part hard, don't hesitate to contact us at: siame054@student.liu.se or sarfr375@student.liu.se
Step 2 - Deciding on groups
We will ask your child if they want to participate with a certain friend or classmate. Your child will then have a teacher, an adult or us as researchers who can help with the groups, but don't hesitate to help your child or ask if they have any uncertainties.
After arranging the groups, we will let your child know who they will participate with. There will be 4 to 8 participants in each group, but they could be made smaller.
Step 3 - Conducting interviews
During the interviews, we will use a semi-structured interview guide. This means that we as researchers will be prepared in advance with main and sub-questions that can be flexibly used throughout the interview discussion, ensuring that the questions will be presented thoughtfully to your child and the other participants. The main topics during the discussion will be:
1) Defining Relationships
2) Offline Social Interactions
3) Online Social Interactions
4) Benefits and drawbacks of online social interaction
5) Perceptions of relational closeness
6) What influences social interactions
Your child's voice will be recorded only by using equipment approved by Linköping university.
We will be clear about your child's rights to withdraw at any time, even during the interview.
If you and your child decide to withdraw shortly after the interview, it's not too late to inform us trough email or to demand information concerning your child.
More information about withdrawing can be found in the consent form.
Step 4 - Researchers writing process
During this stage, we don't expect much from you or your child during the time we continue our writing until June. Just pay attention to your or your child's doubts and uncertainties about this study, as you can always share them to us via email: siame054@student.liu.se or sarfr375@student.liu.se
For the sake of confidentiality, we would also appreciate it if you could keep the interview as secretive as possible, or at least not make detailed descriptions about your child's participation in this study.
Thank you for your engagement!