“Are You Still in Touch With Your Participants?”: The Implications of Asking Questions About Other People’s Research

This article reflects upon the most common question I get asked after presenting my research with youth: Are you still in touch with your participants? On one hand, this question works to counter the long history of researchers leaving participants in the metaphorical dust after fieldwork; it is a history I endeavor to correct with my work, especially as a white male researcher. However, the question also seems to imply that staying in touch with participants is the pinnacle of being a successful ethical researcher. Pulling on critical methodological approaches, this paper thinks through how expecting, hoping, or requiring researchers to stay in touch with youth participants might reflect more about researchers’ (or research’s) desires than about the wants and needs of participants themselves. Moreover, I wonder what this question reveals about common assumptions about what it means to be a participant in a research study (and who it is commonly assumed that participants are), and if there is something to learn about being a “participant” from the study of young people.