Reflections on methodological issues: lessons learned from the Life Activity projects

In this concluding chapter we offer some reflections on the conduct of our research that we believe have relevance across most qualitative studies that involve young people, particularly young people from diverse social and cultural groups. In the case of the Life Activity Project and related studies, we also needed to attend to the added sensitivity associated with researching young people’s meanings of health and, inevitably, their feelings and thoughts about their bodies and body weight. What follows are some stories, dilemmas and reflections ‘from the field’. The contributors to the book share issues around: recruiting participants to the research process and maintaining participants’ involvement; developing respectful relationships; and, the dilemmas of researching Others and representing the their voices. These reflections come from fieldnotes, thesis manuscripts and contributors’ input into our closing discussions on methodological issues. In many cases these have been included as verbatim quotes.