Lolita Survey for my senior thesis! COMPLETE!
Special thanks to everyone who participated in my study. With your help I received more than twice the number of responses I anticipated within the first two days of posting this, and I am learning a lot about today's Lolita community as a whole. I am removing my survey today to preserve the accuracy of my data, but I will continue to respond to questions in the comments. If anybody would like to request an abstract, please comment on this post or send me a private message. I will do my best to share my completed thesis with all of you in the future, so until then, wish me luck! :3
Greetings to all egl members!
My name is Randi, and I am an undergraduate university student beginning work on my senior thesis. My topic concerns the origins and myths surrounding Lolita fashion and its many changes and interpretations during globalization. As part of my research, I am conducting a study among Lolita community members involving surveys and interviews. My hope is that this study will supplement my other research (much of which focuses on designers, media, and literary representations of Lolita) by providing insight into the opinions and lifestyles of actual community members. If you are interested in participating in the survey phase of this study, please complete the following steps:
1. If you are a minor (under 18 years of age), please refrain from participation online and contact me in a private message to arrange participation through mail.
2. If you are not a minor, follow the survey link provided below to the electronic survey.
3. Before completing the survey, please read through the informed consent form provided at the top of the survey. If you do not agree to the conditions set forth in the informed consent form, do not complete the survey.
4. Complete the survey by choosing an answer option for each question provided. If during participation you decide that you are uncomfortable providing any of the information requested, do not submit your survey form.
5. Once you have completed the survey, please return to this post and follow the debriefing form link provided below. Save or print this form for your records. If you have any further questions or problems, you may contact me via the information provided in this form.
I will accept participants for 30 days or until 100 participants have completed the survey. Please note that electronic survey participation cannot be withdrawn once it has been submitted, so please review your answers carefully and do not submit if you are in any way uncomfortable with your participation. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Survey:
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Debriefing form:
You have been invited to participate in a voluntary interview as part of a research study to determine what motivates people to become and remain members of the Lolita fashion subculture, and what factors qualify a style of clothing as “Lolita.” You were invited to participate in this research study because you were a member of a worldwide Lolita fashion community. If you took part in this study, you were one of about one hundred people to do so.
Randi Ditta of the Louisiana Scholars’ College at Northwestern State University of Louisiana was in charge of this study. This project was part of her undergraduate thesis. She was guided in her research by Dr. Lisa Wolffe and Mrs. Jessica Parr of Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
The first part of the study was an online survey to be completed on a voluntary basis by anonymous members of the LiveJournal egl (Elegant Gothic Lolita) community. The survey was/is available online until either (1) one hundred participants had/have taken part or (2) thirty days had/have passed. The survey consisted of 15 multiple-choice questions concerning the participants’ personal ideas and experiences with Lolita fashion as well as a few general demographic questions. Some questions allowed one answer choice, while others included the phrase “Select all that apply” and allowed multiple answer choices. All but one question also included a “Prefer not to respond” option. . If you participated in the survey, you were asked not to participate in any other study components. To protect your anonymity, your name was not recorded with your responses. Because the length of answers, pace of reading, and overall speed of participants varied, there was no standard time requirement or time limit associated with this study. You may have chosen to answer any or all questions posed during this study.
Participants under 18 were asked to refrain from participation in this online survey. Those minor participants who wished to complete the physical survey process via mail were asked to contact the researcher via email at RandiDitta@yahoo.com or via phone at (985)-789-6749 to arrange reimbursement for postal fees and to receive a physical copy of the parental consent from, minor assent form, minor version of the survey and a copy of the debriefing form. With the exception of these circumstances, there were no costs associated with participation in this study.
Neither the person in charge of the study nor any personnel involved in this study have any financial or personal interest in any company or instrument being used.
You will not get any personal benefit from taking part in this study. You were informed that counseling services would not be made available to participants in this study, and asked to refrain from participating if these circumstances were not acceptable.
If you decided to take part in the study, it should have been because you really wanted to volunteer. You would not have lost any benefits or rights you would normally have if you had chosen not to volunteer. You were given the option to stop at any time before submitting your electronic survey and still keep the benefits and rights you had before volunteering. You were informed that once your survey has been submitted electronically, you would not be able to withdraw from this study and asked to consider your participation carefully before submitting. You will not be treated differently if you decided to stop taking part in the study.
Your information will be combined with information from other people taking part in the study. When we write up the study to share it with other researchers, we will write about this combined information. You will not be identified in these written materials. This study is anonymous. That means that no one, not even members of the research team, will know that the information you gave came from you.
Before your decision to take part in the study, you were given the opportunity to ask any questions that might have come to mind. If you have any questions about the study, you can contact the investigator, Randi Ditta, via email at RandiDitta@yahoo.com or telephone (985)-789-6749. You may also request a copy of the summarized results of the study from Ms. Ditta.”