Journaling During a Disaster: Challenges and Opportunities for Data Collection

This paper describes challenges and opportunities for data collection during a disaster, focusing on how young adults in the United States navigated the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic--a disaster which introduced significant uncertainty and precarity both for individuals and the research process.

This paper draws on lessons from a small exploratory study which used journaling techniques as a data collection tool.

Journaling addressed 3 key challenges to collecting data during a public health crisis: 1) accessing respondents when preparation time and resources are limited; 2) ensuring protection for both participants and researchers in a context when human interaction is severely constrained; and 3) needing both rapid response and flexibility in research design and data collection.

Journaling techniques are a feasible, efficient and effective tool that can be adapted and utilized in various disaster contexts, including other pandemics and extreme climate events.