Parental Reflections on their Child’s Experience in Elite Gymnastics (Thesis Proposal Sample)

Parental reflections on their child’s experience in elite gymnastics
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Parental reflections on their child’s experience in elite gymnastics
Method
The section provides an overview of what was entailed in the research. It describes and evaluates parents' perceptions of their children participating as elite gymnasts. The adopted methodology approach describes how data is collected through a predetermined research design and analyzed based on qualitative data collection and analysis methods. Data was collected from parents using semi-structured interviews. These semi-structured interviews were focused on identifying the views of the parents on the involvement of their children in elite gymnastics. The participants were asked 12 different open-ended questions through a physical interaction and one video call from the Microsoft teams. The core focus of the questions was to identify if the parents deem it fit for their children to participate in elite gymnastics and they like the benefits and concerns associated with it. Thereafter, individual assessments were done on each of the identified parents who had a child in an elite gymnastics center. The schedule of the semi-structured interviews was made flexible to allow for easy participation of the parents in the interviews. Data analysis was done by identifying, interpreting, and examining the themes and patterns in the textual data as described in the design section.
Research Design
The general approach to the research involved a grounded theory. Grounded theory, as described by Chun Tie, Birks and Francis (2019) entails a process of collecting and analyzing data by constructing a hypothesis and relevant theories related to the research. The analysis of data in this design takes place after data collection. The rationale for using grounded theory was that it has a set of distinct procedures, including theoretical sampling and open coding which support simple data collection and analysis methods. It suits the research since the research utilized semi-structured interviews in data collection. This design developed a theory from the collected data, making the approach inductive. Through the grounded theory, interview transcripts of the data collected were produced. The transcripts were read aloud through a small test sample. Potential analytical categories, including possible themes arising in the data were identified. With the emergence of the analytic types, all the data from the categories was pulled together and then compared. The linkages between the categories were also identified. Theoretical models were built using the results, and the models were checked against the data. The analysis results were then presented using quotes from the interviews, illuminating the theory.
The perspective taken towards perusing the research design was social constructionism. This theory of knowledge examines how different individuals develop an understanding of experiences and knowledge about the world (Arksey, 2021). In pursuit of this theory, how parents build expertise and experience in elite gymnastics and how they construct their thoughts about its benefits and effects on their children were analyzed using grounded theory. Parents are more likely to have a critical stance towards their children's involvement in gymnastics, which instigated the need to identify and analyze such stances and standpoints.
Participants
The participants were parents who had their children subscribed to elite gymnastics sessions. A sample of 15 parents was interviewed had their children between the ages of 10 and 17 years. They were obtained through snowball sampling, in which they were asked to be recruited to participate in the study. The inclusion criteria used was the parents with children participating in elite gymnastics and the age of the children. Only parents with children between the ages of 10 and 17 were considered.
Materials
Interview Protocol
The materials used in the research included those used to develop the study. Semi-structured interview protocols were used and are seen in the appendix. The appendix provides a copy of semi-structured interview questions named as table 1. While the questions were being asked, the responses from the parents were written in a tabled format designed as presented in the appendix as table 2. The questions asked were developed from pilot interviews. The pilot interview helped generate the queries since it first identified the appropriateness of the formerly chosen questions. The semi-structured interview also consisted of one video call whose results were recorded on a digital sound recorder.
Procedure
The procedures for the research began with the identification of the research topic. After thoughtful consideration, it was decided to conduct research on parents' perceptions about the involvement of their children in elite gymnastics. The subsequent step entailed identifying the approach to conducting the research. The suitable approach considered was consensually determined to be a qualitative approach because it would be easy since the sample size involved was not significantly significant. A research design was also decided to be semi-structured interviews followed by grounded theory analysis. The most appropriate sampling method, which is snowballing, was chosen to obtain the participants. Preparations for the research were done. The preparations included identifying the participants and then notifying them of when and how the research would be done.
The inclusion criteria of the participants included two inclusion strategies, the first being parents with children who participate in gymnastics, and the second being narrowed down to those parents whose children are between the ages of 10 and 17 years. The notification of the participants was done through phone calls, after which a pilot test was conducted. During the pilot test, a set of interview questions were asked to determine if the questions were contextually relevant and would help collect credible and relevant data. A final list of the structured questions was developed, and then data collection and storage tools were assembled. The main research practice was then executed by asking the sampled participants the 12 questions and recording the responses. The findings were analyzed and then presented as research outputs to help in drawing valid conclusions about the research question.
Ethical Considerations
The research acknowledged all the ethical research protocols while preparing and executing the research practices. The ethical considerations in the study constituted a strict adherence to the BPS code of human research ethics. The four primary ethical principles of BPS code of human research are competence, respect, integrity and responsibility (Oates, 2020). Before carrying out the study, there was ethical approval. The research agreed to domicile its practices with a strict adherence to the accepted research ethical standards of a genuine research study. A briefing was also considered in which a summary of the research knowledge was provided. The principle of informed consent was fully followed since the participants were informed of the research and its purposes before being invited to participate. They were also free to choose not to take part in the participation without victimization. For those who participated in the research, there was a high level of anonymity and confidentiality as per the BPS demands. The identiti