Chapter 4
Wear Nice Socks: Guidance for Researchers Conducting In-Home Studies with Children
Researchers at the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab conducted three studies spanning five years to investigate how children and adolescents search on the Internet by visiting the homes of participants. This chapter describes how the authors approached an exploratory research study by drawing from broad methods, including Grounded Theory and ethnography. The authors then detail their experiences while planning, recruiting, and scheduling interviews, describing ethical considerations, the formation of their research team, and their approach to diverse families. The chapter includes challenges the authors encountered while in the field, including differing levels of comfort with recording devices, over-eager parents, hungry and distracted child participants, and hectic family homes. For each problem, the authors share techniques they used to overcome the challenges and generalize from the context of their study by drawing lessons for other researchers planning in-home research with children and adolescents.
