Underrepresented Groups

Determining Research Design and Role of Participants

[Page 1766]Social science research has historically embraced a positivist philosophy that primarily has relied on large surveys using mostly quantitative measures. Because the process of “standardizing” measures has not reflected all people, individuals and groups with marginalized identities or experiences were often underrepresented in research or were justifiably mistrustful of the research enterprise. Alternatively, in participatory action research designs, participants are coresearchers and collaboratively determine the aims and methods of the project. Methodologically, diverse research approaches have been proliferating and include narrative, autoethnography, photovoice and photo-elicitation, and community-engaged scholarship. The research design and variations in the form and nature of participants have implications on the recruitment of participants and their motivation to support it through their involvement.

Defining an Underrepresented Group

Membership in an underrepresented group may vary depending on the nature of the discipline, the general phenomena being explored, and the particular research study. For example, a review of the psychology literature published by the main journals of the American Psychology Association (APA) found U.S. overrepresentation both in authorship and in the sample demographics, thus building an understanding of psychology based on only 5% of the world population and neglecting 95%. Individuals who are racially or ethnically minoritized are overrepresented among studies of the poor and underrepresented in studies of phenomenon prevalent in middle to upper socioeconomic class samples. Historically, studies of risk to the well-being of children and families have not focused on the affluent. Studies that focus on a particular racial or ethnic minority group may overly rely on a convenience sample, introducing sampling bias and threatening the validity of the findings as related to the target population. An underrepresented group in research, therefore, is defined by the previous lack of representation of the group in research generally or with respect to the particular outcomes and phenomena explored in a given study. Underrepresented groups may include the following: particular racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups that have been represented in the research literature, but perhaps with insufficient representation to reflect the full range of the population (e.g., cultural variation within ethnic groups, low-performing students of high socioeconomic status, or high-performing students of low socioeconomic status); studies that sample exclusively from an underrepresented group (e.g., socioemotional adjustment of Native American youth with high academic achievement or of Asian-American youth with low achievement); or studies that sample protected or vulnerable populations such as youth, persons not familiar with English, or persons associated with a socially vulnerable identity (e.g., homeless, criminal record, HIV positive). Through a literature review and preliminary fieldwork, researchers should identify the range of the target sample population.

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