‘Yeah, Me Too!’: Adolescent Talk Building in Group Interviews

Abstract

How do researchers capture children's and adolescents’ cultures and peer interactions? Ethnography, as argued by several sociologists including Corsaro (1996), is indeed a valuable method for understanding everyday life. However, what about issues that are sensitive? What about issues that are salient in the lives of children and adolescents, yet are not talked about in settings generally accessible to researchers such as schools, youth groups, community centers, and extracurricular programs? Family issues such as divorce, for example, might be highly salient in a child's life, yet not talked about during school lunch in front of an adult researcher. Children talk with their friends and peers about divorce, share stories and experiences with divorce, and interpret the meanings of divorce in groups.

Citation

Fingerson, L. (2005), "‘Yeah, Me Too!’: Adolescent Talk Building in Group Interviews", Kinney, D.A. and Brown Rosier, K. (Ed.) Sociological Studies of Children and Youth (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 261-287. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1537-4661(05)11010-1