< Back to previous page

Project

Research integration and meta-analysis of individualized and large-scale research: methodology and application in research on the treatment of problem behaviour among persons with severe and profound intellectual disabilities.

Historically, qualitative and quantitative approaches have been used relatively separately in synthesizing scientific evidence in many researchdomains. During the last decade, mixed methods approaches are becoming increasingly popular, and practices of combining qualitative and quantitative data and methods at the primary empirical study level have increased considerably in frequency in the educational, health, psychological, and social sciences. However, this mixing of approaches is only rarely considered and implemented at the meta-level. The aim of this dissertation was to explore the possible contribution of mixed methods research to research integration at the meta-level (i.e., mixed methods research syntheses, MMRS). 
According to pragmatism, a method is only scientifically relevant if it works and if it can generate new insights and better understanding in a specific scientific domain. In line with this philosophical stance, we selected the domain of intervention research for reducing challenging behaviour in persons with intellectual disabilities to serve as test case domain for the applicability of MMRS in thedissertation. Chapter 1 presents an introduction overview of this domain. Mainly applying quantitative synthesis methods, this chapter reports on the effects of different interventions for managing challenging behaviour among persons with intellectual disabilities.
The next three chapters address theoretical-methodological issues concerning MMRS. Chapter2 provides an overview of recent developments regarding MMRS, lists possible strengths of MMRS, and notes challenges concerning the implementation of MMRS. Based on this work, a framework to conduct MMRS is developed in Chapter 3, and the use of this framework is illustrated by applyingit to the planning of MMRS in our test case domain. The presented framework can help to inform researchers intending to carry out MMRS, and to provide ideas for conceptualizing, designing, and conducting MMRS. We identified the critical appraisal of mixed methods primary-level studies as an important knowledge gap in the literature on conducting MMRS. Chapter 4 presents an overview and comparison of the available critical appraisal frameworks for evaluating primary-level mixed methods articles.
The last two chapters of the dissertation concern two MMRS in our test case domain. Chapter 5 reports a two-phase study on the effectiveness of different interventions for challenging behaviour in persons with intellectual disabilities. This study involved the sequential application of qualitative (i.e., qualitative meta-synthesis of 137 studies) and quantitative (i.e., multilevel meta-analysis of 285 single-case studies reporting on 598 individuals) approaches, with a dominant quantitative phase. Chapter 6 describes a study involving concurrent qualitative and quantitative phases, with a dominant qualitative phase, to systematically review the published literature on restraint interventions for managing challenging behaviour in persons with intellectual disabilities. A combination of statistical meta-analysis and qualitative meta-synthesis techniques was applied to synthesize the 95 retrieved primary-level articles. 
In our concluding remarks, we discuss how the MMRS method demonstrated its ability to generate fresh insights and improved understanding in the domain of intervention research for challenging behaviour among persons with intellectual disabilities (Chapters 5 and 6), as wellas in several other research domains of the educational, health, psychological, and social sciences. 
 
Date:1 Oct 2008 →  30 Sep 2012
Keywords:Intellectual disabilities, Problem behaviour
Disciplines:Psychological methods, Mathematical and quantitative methods, General pedagogical and educational sciences, Social theory and sociological methods, Political theory and methodology, Public health services
Project type:PhD project