Qualitative Interview

Buston and Wight in 2010 conducted a qualitative study (in-depth interviews) to better comprehend what motivates incarcerated male young offenders to seek STIs testing and why others have not been tested. The independent variables included characteristics of the interviewees (e.g., age, sex education, sexual partner history, contraceptive use, testing for STIs, residential care, religious background, and education level). The dependent variable was STI testing behaviors. The sample included 40 men, aged 16–21 years, and the men were incarcerated in a Scottish Young Offender Institute (YOI). The study involved non-probability sampling method in which participants who were all new admissions were approached to take part in the study. This
took place over a period of several months. Data was collected through self-completed questionnaires and in-depth interviews.
The results demonstrated that majority (24 of 40) of the participants in the study reported having done STI testing (e.g., eight did the test in the community, 12 within the YOI, and four in both the community and YOI) (Buston & Wight, 2010). Of the 40 men, eight-reported repeated STI testing, five did frequent (three times or more) testing, and three had a positive result for chlamydia (these men were frequent testers) (Buston & Wight, 2010). It is important to note that all of the research participants had significant awareness about the consequences of having unprotected sex (Buston & Wight, 2010). However, frequent testers were concerned or worried about the risk of STIs. Furthermore, three of the four subjects were not interested in getting an STI test and they also described high condom use (Buston & Wight, 2010). Also,
there were a few factors that motivated the men to seek STI testing (Buston & Wight, 2010). As an illustration, five of the subjects demonstrated their experience with worrying about STI symptoms after having unprotected sex with women they believe have an STI (Buston & Wight, 2010). Others were motivated by their mother, a friend or girlfriend to seek testing (Buston & Wight, 2010). On the other hand, the men who did not report (n=16) doing an STI test, they either did not know that testing in the YOI was available or they felt there was not an urgent need to get tested (Buston & Wight, 2010). Others didn’t get tested because they were embarrassed or the sexual health clinic was too far away (Buston & Wight, 2010). Also, STIs, specifically chlamydia was underplayed by some of the men, and thus this influenced their decision to not get tested (Buston & Wight, 2010). The findings from this study revealed that increase awareness of STI testing availability within the YOI and community settings would likely increase motivation to get tested (Buston & Wight, 2010).
The main limitations to this study include the fact that this study was conducted using in-depth interview, this could have resulted in an Hawthorne effect in that the participants could say what the interviewers would like to hear. This is a threat to internal validity. Also, the researchers did not have clinic records to verify the participant’s testing behaviors. Hence, the results could have been subjected to recall bias. Additionally, this study used non-probability sampling method in which the researchers approached the subjects to take part in the in-depth interviews. Thus, this rose the concern of how ‘real’ the consent was for this study, and also threats to external validity, specifically selection treatment interaction was introduced to the study. Additionally, the study only used male young offenders, and hence the findings should not be generalized beyond this study population. In spite of the limitations for this study, the in-depth interviews provided a wide range of issues related to sexual behaviors of incarcerated adolescents and their motivations to seek STI testing. The in-depth interviews also provided valuable information for need to implement accessible and availability of STI programs within the YOI and the
community.