Alla Chavarga

The use of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models such as ChatGPT, has significantly expanded across academia and research in recent years. Of growing interest is AI’s potential role in qualitative research, especially in expediting tasks such as literature review and synthesis, data management and coding, and manuscript preparation, all while striving to maintain the rigor expected of qualitative inquiry. This paper explores the degree of alignment between AI-generated thematic analysis and a traditional, manual approach to analyzing focus group data and potential uses of AI in qualitative research. Using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis framework, a publicly available focus group dataset was analyzed in three stages: (1) Data Familiarization, (2) Human-Led Thematic Analysis, and (3) AI-Generated Analysis using ChatGPT. The human coders followed all six phases of the framework prior to engaging with the AI, to prevent influence from AI-generated output. The comparison revealed partial overlap between the human and AI-generated categories, particularly at the level of broader categories and themes. However, ChatGPT’s analysis tended to reflect a more superficial reading of the data, lacking the interpretive depth and nuance demonstrated by the human coders. While AI tools like ChatGPT show potential for supporting certain aspects of qualitative analysis, this study highlights key limitations in their ability to fully replicate the complexity and contextual understanding that human-led analysis provides. Further exploration is needed to define appropriate and ethical roles for AI in qualitative research workflows.

Religious disaffiliation from Orthodox Judaism is becoming more prevalent and of interest to researchers. In Orthodox Judaism, though gender norms dictate everyday life, research on the role of gender in disaffiliation is scarce. This study analyzed data from a parent study describing the personal experiences of men and women raised as Orthodox Jews who either disaffiliated from the practice (N_women = 153, N_men = 153) or continued practicing (N_women = 168, N_men = 146), examined through the lens of gender. Gender differences had a divergent pattern: disaffiliated women reported adverse social/emotional experiences at a significantly higher rate than disaffiliated men and all affiliates, while all men reported adverse education experiences at a significantly higher rate than women. These patterns may, in part, be due to community norms and differential willingness to report outcomes by disaffiliated and affiliated individuals. Our findings highlight the influence of gender on the experiences within the religious community and the complex process of disaffiliation.

Religious disaffiliation has been found to occur at higher rates in LGBTQ+ individuals than in heterosexual individuals and in the general population. In this brief report, we explore whether LGBTQ+ people who disaffiliated from Orthodox Judaism attributed sexual identity and/or Orthodox Judaism’s lack of acceptance of homosexuality to their disaffiliation. This analysis focuses on 117 individuals who identified as LGBTQ+ who were drawn from a larger study that included 387 participants across all sexual orientations who disaffiliated from Orthodox Judaism. Unexpectedly, only 18 of the respondents reported that their sexual identity and/or religious views on homosexuality were causes for their disaffiliation. A lack of education and language around LGBTQ+ concepts in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities may have contributed to this finding. We suggest that additional research be conducted to explore the complex relationship between LGBTQ+ identity and disaffiliation from Orthodox Judaism.