Dissertation help

[curtlivesay]

Dear gentlemen,

Hello, my name is Curt Livesay and I'm a doctoral candidate in Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.  I am currently working on my dissertation and I am appealing to all of you for help.  I posted this message to the Fathers Issues page a couple months back, but the moderator, Waylon, suggested that I repost it here.  I'm still desperately short of participants for Phase 1 AND Phase 2, so if you would be interested in either phase, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. 

First, a little background about me so you have some idea as to why i'm doing what I'm doing:

My parents got divorced when I was 9 and my sister was 6.  While they had joint legal custody, my mother had primary physical custody.  My dad made every effort to see us kids as often as possible, including coaching ALL of our sports teams and often driving through the night just to see us perform at a music ensemble or my sister's dance performance.  Needless to say I have always been very close to my father, and eventually I chose to move in with him when I was about 16.  We remain close to this day. 

Fast forward several years: My close relationship with my father and my background in family communication and technologically mediated communication lead naturally to a pretty obvious, though surprisingly under studied phenomenon:  How do nonresidential dads use social media to keep in touch with their kids and do the work of being a father via technologically mediated communication? 

This is where you come in.  I'll post the IRB approved recruitment script below, but the short version is this:  I have a survey that will take you about 15 minutes to fill out, and I will be forever in your debt should you decide to take this survey.  Unfortunately, I cannot provide compensation for participation in my survey; however, that's because I am providing $25.00 gift cards for those who choose to participate in the second, more involved, phase of the study.  If you are interested in one or both phases please follow the link provided below.  You can also email me at curtis-livesay @ uiowa.edu or even call me on my cell: (641)919-5574.
Thank you so much.

http://www.fatheringstudy.com

*************
Hello, my name is Curt Livesay and I am a doctoral student at the University of Iowa in the Communication Studies program.  I am seeking participants for my dissertation research project.  In order to participate, you must:
1.      Be a divorced father who lives apart from one or more of your children.
2.      At least one of those children must be between the ages of 12 and 20 years old, and
3.      You must use one or more forms of mediated communication to keep in touch with your children.  Examples would include, but are not limited to, phone conversations, text messaging, email, Skype, instant messaging and Facebook.

The purpose of this research study is to try to understand how divorced, nonresidential fathers do the work of being a father with their physically absent children. More specifically, I am seeking to understand how divorced, nonresidential fathers enact their identities as fathers via mediated communication.

If you agree to participate in my study, I will ask you first to complete an on-line survey.  If you are interested in participating in my study, click on the following link or paste the web address in your web browser:

http://www.fatheringstudy.com
You will be asked to read additional information about the research study before beginning the survey.

Thank you for your consideration of my study.

*****
Sincerely,
Curt Livesay, M.S.
Doctoral Candidate
Communication Department
University of Iowa
641-919-5574     
[email protected]