Mixed Methods in the Context of Quasi-Experimental Research Designs
Document Type
Book Section
Publication Date
3-18-2021
Publication Title
The Routledge International Handbook of Domestic Violence and Abuse
Publisher
Routledge
Publisher Location
Abingdon-on-Thames, UK
First page number:
734
Last page number:
748
Abstract
The use of mixed methods is growing in social science research, including research on domestic violence and abuse, largely due to recognition by researchers that while individual methods have their own strengths, combining diverse methods may yield not only more data, but also richer findings that give a fuller picture of a complex phenomenon of interest and more nuanced answers to research questions. In this chapter, we discuss the use of mixed methods in an evaluation of a therapeutic horticulture (TH) programme – the “farm project” – at a battered women’s shelter. The quasi-experimental design of this study incorporated both quantitative and qualitative methods at various points in the data collection process, including surveys of residents, ratings of residents’ behaviour and well-being by shelter staff and farm personnel, participant observation by the project manager in staff meetings, and interviews with TH programme participants. The evaluation was undertaken as a researcher-practitioner partnership in which the researchers and shelter staff collaborated to develop a plan for ongoing evaluation of the TH programme after the current research ended and also collect data that can be used in future funding requests to sustain or expand the TH programme. We discuss various rationales for using mixed methods and our reasons for using them; we describe the evaluation in detail; and we examine some of the challenges posed by conducting a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental programme evaluation at a battered women’s shelter while adhering to the principles of the researcher-practitioner partnership, as well as the ways these challenges were addressed.
Controlled Subject
Research--Statistical methods; Mixed methods research
Disciplines
Design of Experiments and Sample Surveys | Statistical Methodology
Language
English
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Repository Citation
Renzetti, C. M.,
Follingstad, D. R.,
Campe, M. I.
(2021).
Mixed Methods in the Context of Quasi-Experimental Research Designs.
The Routledge International Handbook of Domestic Violence and Abuse
734-748.
Available at:
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