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Sexual Orientation Research Phase 1: A Review of Methodological Approaches
1 Introduction
1.1 Background and context
Equality of opportunity is a key principle of the Scottish Parliament and a priority of the Scottish Executive. The definition of equal opportunities given in the Scotland Act (1998) is expansive and clearly includes sexual orientation. This commitment to equal opportunity for LGBT communities is expanded upon in the Equality Strategy produced by the Scottish Executive
2, as well as by the other activities conducted by this Unit, such as the thematic seminar for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities held in the Summer of 2000 and Autumn of 2001.
One of the three main strategic aims identified in the Strategy is the commitment to
'making better policy and providing better services'. In practice this commitment means that in developing policy the Executive is dedicated to making sure that
'equality issues are considered in the formulation, design and delivery of policy/legislation/services'
3. As part of this, the Executive has pledged to review processes for consultation with the different equality groups, including the LGBT communities.
To support, inform and monitor progress towards equality objectives and 'mainstreaming', the Executive recognises the importance of having appropriate information on different equality groups. The provision of disaggregated statistics and targeted qualitative research is already underway for many equality groups, such as those concerned with gender and ethnicity. However, it has been recognised within the Executive that existing data sources do not provide adequate information on sexual orientation per se or on the characteristics, needs and circumstances of LGBT communities more broadly
4. Moreover, there is a lack of clarity within the Executive, and elsewhere, about what data needs exist in the Scottish Executive and which methods would be most effective in providing data on LGBT communities. For this reason, the Executive has commissioned this, and related studies, which aim to explore the need for, and possible approaches to, researching LGBT communities.
Understanding research and data needs on LGBT issues - both within and outwith the Executive - is important and has clear benefits. Generating appropriate data on all equality groups is essential because it can lead to policy that facilitates wider equality in society. It does this by increasing awareness and
'recognition of the different positions occupied by different individuals and groups vulnerable to inequality and disadvantage within economic and social systems'
5. Only by doing this will it be possible to ensure proper monitoring of the position of LGBT people in Scotland, and to achieve policy that can guarantee their equal treatment. Having comparable data on all equality groups will also highlight the diversity of Scottish society, generate understanding of the relative status of each, how they overlap with one another, and how they fare in society relative to the majority of Scottish people.
1.2 Objectives of the research
In its original conception, this research formed the first part of a three-part research study. The three components as originally envisaged were:
1. An international review of existing data sources and research, focusing specifically on research methods used to gather data on LGBT communities;
2. Group discussions with representatives of LGBT organisations in Scotland;
3. Depth interviews with policy makers, researchers and academics.
The main focus of the study, then, was to explore current existence of and need for data on sexual orientation. It had five broad aims:
to identify policy areas and specific issues where research of this type is considered lacking;
to identify the types of research needs that exist in these policy areas;
to pinpoint the barriers and facilitators to exploring LGBT issues through mainstream policy research in Scotland;
to describe and critically discuss methods which have been used previously to gather data on LGBT communities internationally;
to suggest future options for the collection of data on LGBT communities in Scotland.
This is the report of the international review of sexual orientation research methodologies and data sources. It concerns the first and fourth objectives outlined above - to identify policy areas where research is considered lacking and to describe and critically discuss methods which have been used previously to gather data on LGBT communities internationally. The consultation with LGBT organisations is reported in a separate publication.
6 The final component - the work with policy makers, researchers and academics - will be discussed with the project advisory group, to build on the work of the first two reports.
1.3 Introduction to the review
This review was commissioned by the Social Justice (Equalities) Research Team of the Scottish Executive to evaluate different existing methodological approaches to researching sexual orientation, and to review the scope of existing research. Over recent years in Scotland there has been an increased emphasis on evidence-based policy, and therefore an increased reliance on good quality research to bring about and inform policy change. The consultation with Scottish LGBT organisations, which constituted the second phase of this research, identified a general perception that little research existed that focused specifically on sexual orientation issues in Scotland. This impacts not only on policymakers, funders, and service providers, but also on LGBT representatives within other aspects of their own work, who otherwise have to rely on research originating from outside Scotland. LGBT representatives identified three key needs for such research: to inform organisational activities; to aid the development of community organisations; and to bring about change in policy or practice.
Scotland is not alone in beginning to tackle the issues surrounding the systematic collection of sexual orientation data. In a recent study exploring the need for sexual orientation research in the United States (particularly to inform the development of health services) Sell and Becker recommend that the government:
"(1)
create work groups to examine the collection of sexual orientation data;
(2) create a set of guiding principles to govern the process of selecting
standard definitions and measures; (3) recognize that racial/ethnic, immigrant-status, age, socio-economic, and geographic differences must be taken into account when standard measures of sexual orientation are selected; (4) select a minimum set of standard sexual orientation measures; and (5) develop a long-range strategic plan for the collection of sexual orientation data."
Sell and Becker, 2001
There is, of course, an enormous amount of research done that includes LGBT respondents. The problem is that little of this work has sought to establish a measure of the sexual orientation of respondents and so the information provided by LGBT people - and how this might vary from that of heterosexual respondents - is masked.
American sexologist Alfred Kinsey attempted to establish a 'scientific' approach to the investigation of sexual orientation, and his figure of a one in ten male homosexuality prevalence is still cited in recent research.(Kinsey
et al., 1948; Kinsey
et al., 1953) His work, and that of psychologist Evelyn Hooker, started to challenge the model of pathologising and problematising that had previously characterised the concept of homosexuality in psychological research.(McWhirter, 1990) Several currents in psychology have continued, until recently, to focus on researching the 'origins' of non-heterosexual orientations, and homosexuality was only removed from the WHO's International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) listing of psychological disorders in 1992.
7(King, 1999)
The post-Kinsey large-scale sexology studies of the seventies and eighties shifted attention away from sexual orientation and focused instead on fertility. (Bancroft, 1997) However at this time smaller social research projects also began to explore issues of discrimination, and new community studies were conducted. Throughout the eighties "remarkable advances occurred in our appreciation of the diversity of gay women, men, and their families." (D'Augelli and Hart, 1987) Studies were carried out, particularly in America, with same-sex couples, older LGB men and women, married LGB people, LGB mothers and fathers, and the children of gay parents, and these contributed to a new recognition of the variety of LGB people.
With the advent of the AIDS pandemic came a time of revived homophobic prejudice and discrimination, while a massive new programme of state sponsored health research focused on men who have sex with men and on HIV transmission risk factors, emerged. In 1997 Bancroft described how the last ten years had seen "an unprecedented surge of survey research into sexual behaviour, driven predominantly by concern over HIV and AIDS and the need to establish the frequency of behaviours which might facilitate the spread of the virus."(Bancroft, 1997) Since then there has also been a growth of qualitative research in the area of sexual health, and throughout the nineties an expansion into other areas, including transgender issues and bisexuality. Despite this increase, there remains a severe paucity of quality research and of research addressing the needs of particular groups and issues within the LGBT community.
This evidence base has been particularly limited in Scotland, at times restricted to Britain-wide surveys with sufficient Scottish respondents to report on the regional sub-sample. In recent years, however, several of these national studies have either begun reporting on Scotland separately and in greater detail, or have initiated an independent Scottish project (e.g. Vital Statistics Scotland (2002); National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal, 2002); MORI polls (2000); and Scottish Social Attitudes (annual)).
8 The last few years have also witnessed the publication of several key new Scottish-specific studies with LGBT respondents. These have tackled issues such as homophobic hate crime (Plant,
et al., 1999; Morrison and Mackay, 2000; Ramsay, 2001); health and sexual health (Coia
et al., 2002; Ross 2000; Hart
et al., 2001); social inclusion and housing (John & Patrick, 1999; Watterson, 2000), Section 28 (Jarvis, 2001), and transsexualism (Wilson, 1999). As with the sexual orientation research conducted elsewhere, the work has tended to focus on particular subject areas, and with a bias towards younger men in urban environments (particularly Edinburgh and Glasgow).
There are three main bodies of research particularly relevant to this review;
studies specifically researching sexual behaviour (and which therefore can usually provide some measures of same-sex sexual behaviour);
studies and administrative data, on any topic, which include question(s) on sexual orientation (or at least record same-sex cohabitation);
and studies which directly explore LGBT issues and/or which have a sample predominantly made up of LGBT identified respondents.
This review draws primarily on empirical research and data published since 1990, with earlier studies only mentioned to highlight work of special interest or which are in a particularly under developed field.
9 Searches have been carried out on various academic databases (including MEDLINE and Web of Science), libraries (including the British Library and the Glasgow Women's Library), and on the Internet. While most of the sources cited are from peer review journals, published books, or authoritative large-scale data sets, a considerable amount of 'grey' literature is also included. The focus of the review is methodological, based on the description of methods reported in published reports and supplemented by information from researchers specialising in particular fields. The scope is international (primarily English speaking) and an attempt has been made to cover a wide range of policy areas and disciplines. Studies reviewed come from a range of non-mutually exclusive perspectives including feminism, queer theory, sociology, intervention and policy evaluation, psychology, psychiatry and health research, and brief mention is made of biological and genetic approaches.
While attempts have been made to be as inclusive as possible of the range of accessible research, this review can not be comprehensive of what are broad ranging and diverse fields. Another limitation is that this review is largely dependent upon the details of methodologies published in reports and articles. Unfortunately, much reporting is characterised by a severe lack of methodological transparency. Generally topic guides and questionnaires are not reproduced, and little if any information is provided about the sampling, interviewing or analysis techniques. This is a severe handicap for any methodological evaluation of current research practice.
1.4 Structure of the review
This review begins by focusing on issues of definition and classification, primarily of sexual orientation, but also of concepts such as transgender, transsexualism, and LGBT community. The next Chapter addresses a range of other research issues including sampling, methodology, interview and analysis techniques, reporting and ethical considerations (Chapter 3). Various large-scale data sources available in the UK and the United States are listed and briefly considered in Chapter 4, and Chapter 5 summarises the research issues, and reviews the research coverage, of different policy and topic areas. Chapter 6 focuses on achieving diversity and inclusiveness in the research process.
In accompaniment to this report are methodological summaries of about 200 recent sexual orientation articles, reports and books. These summaries can be accessed from the Internet. They are available as an EXCEL database, which allows for studies to be sorted and searched by various criteria.
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