Family Interviews - Letter of Information
Making a Home in off-campus housing: Learning from international student families
Investigators: Dr. Alkim Karaagac and Dr. Nancy Worth
Department of Geography, University of Waterloo
Project Partner: University of Waterloo Graduate Students Association
You and your family are invited to take part in this study about off-campus housing.
The goal of the research is to understand your experience of home and housing in terms of affordability, homemaking, as well as examining housing as a space of care giving and receiving.
What will happen during the study? We are inviting you to a family interview of about 90 minutes, including all family members (adults and children) where all of you will be given the chance to tell your stories, opinions, take photos and/or draw pictures. This family interview will be followed by an optional 1-1 interview (about 1 hour) with one or two of the adult family members.
What’s in it for me?
Risks? It is not likely that there will be any discomfort associated with the interview. However, your family might find some questions uncomfortable to answer as we will be talking about your experiences of your home and family life. Any family member can skip any questions that make them feel uncomfortable.
Benefits? It is unlikely that there will be direct benefits to your family; however, by better understanding the experiences of international student families, researchers and others may be able to understand the housing issues facing this group. Your family will receive $100 as a thank you for participating in the interview. It will be sent by e-transfer or cash. (The amount received is taxable. It is your responsibility to report this amount for income tax purposes).
Do all family members have to participate? No, participation of family members in this study is voluntary. Any family member, or your child, may decline to participate or withdraw from participation at any time. Withdrawal or refusing to participate will not have any negative effects. You can agree to allow them to be in the study now and change your mind later without any penalty.
What if my child does not want to participate? In addition to your permission, your child must agree to participate in the study. If your child does not want to participate, they will not be included in the study and there will be no penalty. If your child initially agrees to be in the study, they can change their mind later without any penalty.
Why are you collecting my demographic data? Demographic information allows us to better understand certain background characteristics of our group study. At the end of the interview, we will be asking questions about age, ethnicity, income, work situation, marital status, sexuality, status of housing, language spoken at home, and citizenship status. These questions are all optional.
Your identities are confidential: We will keep your identity confidential. During the interview, your family will choose pseudonyms or names you would like us to use for the research. When information is shared, we will not use your name, but instead, use a pseudonym. We can sometimes be identified by the stories we tell; however, we will obscure identifying details to help keep your family’s identity confidential. Your anonymized responses will be used by the researchers to assist with publications, and the anonymized interviews will be kept on the researchers’ password-protected computers for at least 7 years.
Where will the interview be? We will come to your home to complete the interview, as your home is an important part of the study. If this isn’t possible, we may be able to use an online platform, Zoom. Zoom has implemented technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect the information provided via the Services from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no Internet transmission is ever fully secure or error-free.
Participation is completely voluntary:
Participation in this study is voluntary. You can decide to stop at any time, even part-way through the interview for whatever reason.
If any family member decides to stop participating, there will be no consequences for them. If someone decides to stop, we will ask you how you would like us to handle the data collected up to that point. This could include returning it to you, destroying it or using the data collected up to that point.
If any family member does not want to answer some of the questions they do not have to, but they can still be in the study.
If you have any questions about this study or would like more information, you can email Dr. Alkim Karaagac at makeahome@uwaterloo.ca
If you are interested, information about the research will be posted regularly on the project website, makeahome.ca
Who is funding this research? This research has received the Insight Development Grant (2022-24) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.
Has this study received ethical approval? This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through the University of Waterloo Research Ethics Board (REB #44806). If you have questions for the Board contact the Office of Research Ethics at 1-519-888-4567 ext. 36005 or reb@uwaterloo.ca.ake a minute to write an introduction that is short, sweet, and to the point.