The ecological validity of the narrative interview: open questions from an intervention research on the “time of the birth” in hospital

Our work aims to promote a reflection on the ecological validity of qualitative data collected through narrative interviews as part of an intervention research project, named “Accompanying individuals and families in the path from territory to hospital and from hospital to territory during the birth and the postnatal periods”. The research involved 21 new mothers, hospitalized at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of a hospital of Naples. They answered some questions for a narrative interview, which was set up ad hoc on the basis of existing literature and the interests of the research group. We used a categorical content analysis procedure for the analysis of the texts produced, and a lexical analysis, using TLAB software, to investigate any differences based on the profiles of the respondents. We present the thematic areas provided by the interview guide and the main themes that emerged during data processing. Furthermore, we present the results of the textual analysis (typical specificities and factorial correspondences analyses). Those analyses showed the existence of cross-category dimensions linked to the use of language, and highlighted the differences between primiparae and women which have already had children. The paper discusses the advantages and limits of the joint use of the two types of data analysis and the methodological issues for the ecological validity of qualitative research, in the perspective of the intervention-research: the influence of the environment; the relational difficulties with participants with medium-low sociocultural level; the co-validation of the themes and the results of the textual analysis through a discussion with the training participants.