November 7, 2009

Administration
Faculty
Staff
Students
Jobs

Projects
Seminars
Working Papers
Publications
Dissertations

Prospective  Students

Programs
Courses
Course Schedule

Data Archive
Library
Pop Index
NIH Public
    Access Policy

Calendar

CRCW
CHW
CMD
PUM
OPR Mail

Search

Qualitative Survey Transcript Files

Prior to the collection of the Guatemala Survey of Family Health (EGSF, 1995), a qualitative study was carried out in four rural communities during May and June of 1994. The fieldwork was organized and supervised by an experienced Guatemalan medical anthropologist (Elena Hurtado), in conjunction with Noreen Goldman and Anne Pebley (RAND). The objective of the study was to learn more about how families think about and cope with child and maternal illness.

The four rural communities were relatively small (between 500 and 2500 inhabitants) and were located within three departments of Guatemala (two in Chimaltenango and one each in Totonicapán and Jalapa). The study consisted of interviews with mothers of young children (87), focus groups of women and men (13), interviews with community informants (15) and interviews with biomedical and traditional health providers (31).

Respondents were chosen by quota sampling, with the objective of incorporating all sections of each of the selected communities. Interviews were conducted in Spanish, K’iche or Kaqchikel depending on the preference of the respondent. Interviews were recorded in two ways: (1) tape recording and (2) abbreviated field notes. The tape recordings were translated into Spanish (for those in indigenous languages) and transcribed into WordPerfect computer files. These WordPerfect files (a total of 137) are contained within the file guate.zip.

Further information about the qualitative study and an outline for the interviews with mothers is available in Pebley, Hurtado and Goldman, "Beliefs about Children’s Illness," Journal of Biosocial Science Vol. 31, 1999.