The Secret: Love, Marriage, and HIV

Appendix II. Marital Case Study Interview Field Guides

228 Appendix II. Marital Case Study Interview Field Guides Interviews1–3 The marital case study guides and participant observation guides included here as Appendices II and III were part of a set of thirteen documents developed by the team over the course of several very intense planning meetings during the year before we carried out our fieldwork. We used these shared instruments to ensure the comparability of data both in terms of topics covered and underlying theoretical constructs explored. The marital case studies consisted of three interviews (conducted separately) with each member of a couple, and so each of the three sections of the guide below corresponds to one of those three interviews. Once in the field, each of us translated and adapted the guide to incorporate concepts and concerns of local relevance; in some cases, as discussed in Chapter 1, we also modified the overall approach to exploring the questions included below. Because these guides and the other instruments were to be used only by team members and our field assistants (all of whom we would train ourselves), the guides were all characterized by a certain informality in formatting. For some of the questions, we spent a great deal of time working through specific wording for probes that were intended either to clarify the question or to ask follow-up questions , but in other cases the probes were just lists of topics. Most questions as written out included an explicit articulation of their purpose. As we developed them, we were acutely aware that as the guides were translated and adapted, the wording would change, making it all the more important to be explicit (and to remind ourselves ) of the underlying goals of each question. For some questions, however, the relevance of the material to our work was so obvious that we did not find it necessary to articulate the purpose. Our original field guides as developed as a group are reproduced here without significant editing. Appendix II 229 Interview 1: Coming of Age and the EarlyYears of Marriage Relationships, Sexual Practices, and Individual Sexual Coming of Age 1. Tell me about how you met your spouse. Purpose: To focus on courtship ideals as a way of uncovering marital ideals, gender ideals, and the rise of individualism; to elicit information about courtship practices/rituals, and reasons for choosing a spouse/this spouse. Probes: Tell me about the first time you saw your spouse. How did you meet? What did you like about him or her? Were there any things you didn’t like? What were you looking for in a spouse? What had your parents told you to look for in a spouse? 2. What was your relationship like before you were actually married? Purpose: To elicit information about the social context and organization of courtship; quality of relationship; importance of various dimensions of the relationship (e.g., emotional, material, and sexual). Probes: How did you become a couple? Who pursued whom and how? What types of activities did you to together? What feelings did you have for this person? How did you show them? How did he/she show his/her feelings? (Probes: gifts, kisses, sex.) Did you ever give each other gifts? Can you give me examples? When and how did your family find out about the relationship? How did they react? 3. Why did you marry this person? Purpose: To explore marital ideals, and individual vs. family choice of spouse. Probes: What did you think were the important aspects of a good marriage? 230 The Secret: Love, Marriage, and HIV 4. Tell me about other times before you met your spouse when you had a boyfriend/girlfriend. Alternative phrasing: Tell me about your first relationship with someone of the opposite sex? Purpose: To elicit information about sexual coming of age, early learning about sexuality, sense of sexual self/identity, premarital behavior patterns, and differences between premarital and marital relationships. Probes: How did you become a couple? Who pursued whom and how? What types of activities did you do together? What feelings did you have for this person? How did you show them? How did he/she show his/her feelings? (Probes: gifts, kisses, sex.) Did you ever give each other gifts? Can you give me examples? When and how did your family find out about the relationship? How did they react? Why did the relationship end? Why didn’t this relationship lead to marriage? What...