Swigger, N. (2013). The online citizen: Is social media changing citizens' beliefs about democratic values?

This chapter provides a guide to research logistics and ethics in studying immigrant families. The authors outline major pragmatic issues in research design and data collection to which all scholars must attend, although current practices often do not respond to the idiosyncratic issues related to vulnerable immigrant populations (e.g., undocumented immigrants). The chapter presents vital procedures to ensure both the protection of research participants from immigrant backgrounds and validity of the data collected from them and seeks to be a source of reference for institutional review boards (IRBs). Specific issues addressed include navigating IRBs, informed consent, recruitment and sampling, and translation of instruments and interviews.

Few studies examine how the macro context shapes ethnic or racial identity development during early adolescence. This analysis draws on interview data from 40 African American, Chinese American, Dominican American, and European American middle school students (6th through 8th grade) to explore how stereotypes inform adolescents' ethnic and racial identities. Findings revealed that stereotypes about race and ethnicity intersected with those about gender, sexuality, social class, and/or nationality and these intersecting stereotypes shaped adolescents' ethnic and racial identities. In addition, adolescents used stereotypes about other ethnic and racial groups as contrasts upon which their own ethnic or racial identities were constructed. Finally, adolescents' narratives were dominated, particularly for the ethnic minority youth during their 8th-grade interviews, by the desire to avoid or resist becoming an ethnic or racial stereotype. Findings underscore the importance of examining stereotypes as a context of identity development,

In this introduction, the editors give an overview of the ways the volume addresses the growing individual and institutional calls for increased clarity and rigor in methodological, ethical, and practical research policies and guidelines for conducting research with immigrant individuals, families, and communities. In addition to summarizing the volume's purpose, background on the U.S. immigrant population is given, followed by delineation of the five major issues contributing to the field of immigrant studies research and entering the "field" and engaging with immigrant families and communities: heterogeneity and history, documentation status, research pragmatics, research lens and bias, and influence on policy.

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