4.9.1 Permission to conduct the study
Before undertaking the study, I requested ethical clearance from the University of Limpopo‟s ethics committee (Roberts, 2015; Walliman, 2017). Thereafter, Gatekeeper permission was requested from the Enhlanzeni Municipality (See appendix 4 for Letter of permission to Enhlanzeni). Ethical clearance number: TREC/96/2020: PG.
4.9.2 Informed consent
Informed consent means that research participants have the right to be informed about the nature of the research and the right to withdraw at any time (Walliman, 2017).
Participants were informed about the significance and relevance of the study. The nature and aim of the research were explained to the participants and it was ensured that they
85 understood the information. According to Roberts (2015), researchers obtain the informed
consent of participants to ensure that they explicitly express a willingness to take part in the research, after having been informed about its nature. I also explained to the participants that their participation in the research project was entirely voluntary, and they were free to withdraw at any time and that any information they had given would be used solely for the purpose of my research (PhD) and any possible articles.
In this study the participants (all women who experienced IPV) were approached (as per the sampling procedure) and requested to give informed consent before they were interviewed.
In this regard, each participant was given an informed consent letter (see Appendix 1) and an informed consent form (see Appendix 3) that they then signed (Roberts, 2015; Walliman, 2017).
4.9.3 Confidentiality, privacy, and anonymity
Confidentiality means a person knows but will not tell and anonymity means that a person‟s name is not known and is not made public. Walliman (2017) states that information obtained from research must be confined to certain well-defined scientific uses that should be clear to the participants at the time of informed consent. Information they provide must not be made generally available in any way that could harm or embarrass the participants. I undertook to do this.
Research participants who agreed to participate in this study were ensured of the confidentiality of their information. Privacy and anonymity were also assured, and the participants were informed it would be maintained throughout the study. To ensure anonymity the participants only wrote their names on the informed consent forms but not on the
questionnaires. The informed consent forms were separated from the questionnaires. Where any
limits of confidentiality and privacy were envisaged, it was discussed with participants during the consent form agreement phase. For instance, if a participant expressed that she was depressed and wanted to take her own life at that time. In this research this did not happen. The researcher used an audio recorder to record interviews with permission from the participants.
The data collected was safely stored and accessed only by the researcher and the supervisors.
When storing data, I used pseudonyms rather than participants‟ actual names to ensure privacy and anonymity. The information shared was kept confidential, as no names or other identifying information were used in the write up (Roberts, 2015). The information will be kept at the University of Limpopo, by my supervisors for a period of five years after the research was completed, it will then be destroyed (shredded).
4.9.4 After-care for participants
Due to the nature of the topic investigated some participants had negative psychological reactions. These participants were referred for psychological support to psychologists at the clinic which they already attended. I hope that participants benefited from the research by airing their feelings and having the time and space to reflect on them. The coping guidelines developed out of the study were presented in a poster format to the clinic for all attendees to use. I contacted the participants after the research had been completed and ensured they were given a copy of the poster of coping guidelines. It is hoped they will help the participants in two ways: 1) by giving useful and relevant information to them pertaining to IPV and 2) by giving the partcipants a sense of self-worth as they are aware that the guidelines were developed out of their inputs. In this regard, participants should benefit from the study regarding aspects of coping strategies and help seeking pathways.
87 4.9.5 Vulnerable persons
This study aimed to investigate the experiences of women. The participants of the study were adults, and no children or other vulnerable group took part in the research. These participants were adults who did not need consent (Walliman, 2017) as they were not cognitively challenged in any way. This study did not aim to obtain information or conduct any experiment with the children or minors, only to understand the lived experience of women who have experienced IPV. As a result, only the participants consent was necessary. In terms of IPV the women could be regarded as vulnerable however, every effort was made to ensure the research was ethically and empathetically conducted and participants were properly informed and referred for aftercare as needed.
4.9.6 Deception
Deception is the act of misleading or wrongly informing the participants about the nature of the research and concealing information (Roberts, 2015; Walliman, 2017). When a psychological research study involves deception, no consent can be ethically obtained. In this research there was no deception and the reason for the research was properly explained, as was the research process.