Triangulation in Research on Children's Subjective Well-Being during Societal Crises: Opportunities and Limitations in ‘Complicated’ Crisis Situations
This contribution will discuss the results of a participatory Photovoice/interview study on the subjective well-being of children in the Federal Republic of Germany during the Covid-19 pandemic from two perspectives.
Firstly, the focus will be on the insights of the triangulation on material and methods employed in the study by means of (reconstructive) analyses of two types of materials: interview narratives and photographs produced by the children (PhotoVoice). It will explore to what extent the reconstructions of children's subjective well-being in societal exceptional situations—conceptualized as the simultaneity of vulnerability and agency (Heite & Magyar-Haas, 2020)—are enriched by different material types.
Secondly, these implications will be discussed in relation to an outline of a children and youth oriented social scientific crisis research (Grimm, Ertugrul & Bauer, 2020) with special regards to subjective well-being. Particular attention will be paid to the implications' transferability to a specific current crisis: the rise in far-right narratives across various European countries and the corresponding increase in electoral opportunities for far-right parties. This contribution will address ethical and methodological challenges in researching the well-being of children and adolescents—as witnesses or active participants—in such polarized contexts. These include context sensitivity, researchers' positionality, power dynamics, and the risk of stigmatization.
Ultimately, this contribution aims to foster dialogue on participatory approaches and triangulation in research on the subjective well-being of children and youth in ‘complicated’ crisis situations.