Chapter 2

The Participants

One hundred women living in Inishowen took part in this research, the purpose of which was explained in an introductory letter (see appendix A), on foot of which an interview date and time was arranged.  The questionnaires (see Appendix B) were completed during the course of individual interviews with a researcher from IWIN and other comments were recorded where offered.   Before commencing the interviews, each woman was asked if she would be willing to take part in a possible follow-up study at a later date.  Overwhelmingly, ninety women agreed, including five who will do so again only if the same researcher is involved.  A unique code was then constructed for each individual to maintain confidentiality in the records kept; this consisted of the initials of the interviewer, the birth-date of the respondent and the initials of her mother’ maiden name.  This code will only be used if future research is carried out.  The participants were assured that they would not be identified in the final report and that they could opt out at any stage, either at the time or in the future.  

2.1 Household Composition and Age Group

The following figures and tables contain background information for the sample of women (N = 100) surveyed.  The households in which these respondents live comprise a total of 199 adults and 166 children.  As can be seen from Table 1, the largest sub-group in the sample were mothers living with their husbands or partners and children (47).  Over one in three of the women (36) are between 31 and 40 years of age, making it the most common age group in the survey (see also Figure 1).