TPC-Journal-V4-Issue4

The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 4 318 Primary Researcher’s Background Qualitative research is personal in nature, and the identity and experiences of the researcher influence the results that are produced (McLeod, 2002). The first author was born and raised in Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslavia. The researcher left the former Yugoslavia in 1988, several years before the war began. Based on personal experiences and acquired knowledge, her assumptions included the following: (a) participants were resilient despite the traumatic events and stressors they were exposed to; (b) most participants did not seek professional help (e.g., counseling services), but engaged in talking with friends and family members; and (c) participants were likely to miss their home country, old friends and culture. Procedure A convenience and snowball sampling method was used in two communities in the Midwest. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (a) participants were older than 25 years of age (in order to remember their pre- migration experiences); (b) participants were Yugoslav citizens who had lived in the former Yugoslavia; and (c) participants had relocated to the United States as a direct result of the 1991–1995 civil wars. The first author scheduled a personal meeting with each individual who expressed interest in participating, in order to explain the nature of the study and discuss issues of confidentiality, informed consent and freedom to terminate participation at any time. This meeting included a detailed review of the consent form, ensuring that potential participants fully understood the purpose of this study and agreed to take part. The authors provided consent forms in English and in Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian, depending on the participant’s language of choice; the authors also explained confidentiality and privacy throughout the research process. Upon obtaining consent, the authors asked participants to fill out a demographic questionnaire, and then collected data through semi-structured interviews, which were recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated. Nine interviews were conducted in Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian and one in English. The first author translated the transcripts, and her husband verified the translations for accuracy. (The first author’s husband is fluent in English and Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian, and is not connected to this research project.) As a prerequisite of conducting translation verification services, the author’s husband took part in institutional review board (IRB) training and became familiar with the tenets of qualitative research interviewing. The first author conducted interviews in private homes—some in the participants’ homes and some in mutual acquaintances’ homes. Interviews lasted from 1–2 hours, depending on the amount of information provided. In qualitative research there is no fixed number of participants. Creswell (2007) suggested interviewing 5–25 individuals through single in-depth interviews or multiple interviews, until saturation of data is achieved. After careful consideration, the first author conducted in-depth interviews with 10 participants, which allowed her to reach the point of saturation. She asked participants at the end of the interviews and during the verification process whether they wanted to add anything to their story. The present study was part of a doctoral dissertation, and the university’s IRB and dissertation research committee approved the protocol. To ensure confidentiality, the authors locked all notes, tapes and flash drives in a file cabinet, and did not identify participants by their first or last names or with any other information (the names that appear in this paper are fictitious). The research questions for this study were as follows: 1. What are the key themes, contexts and processes in the integration of pre-migration experiences for refugees from the former Yugoslavia? 2. What are the key themes, contexts and processes in the integration of post-migration experiences for refugees from the former Yugoslavia?