Kennedy C, Kools S, Krueger R
Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco 94143-0606, USA.
Nurs Res. 2001 May-Jun;50(3):184-7. doi: 10.1097/00006199-200105000-00010.
Focus groups are a well-known qualitative approach to gathering data in health science research. The literature on focus groups, however, primarily discusses adults as subjects. Unfortunately, the scant reports of studies using children as participants in focus groups have not described their methods in detail. This article discusses the use of children (age 6-12) in focus groups, and highlights methodological considerations in this approach, with particular attention to the integration of developmental principles. Focus groups with children can capture their perspectives, original ideas, and insights, which are often neglected in more traditional pediatric research. Focus groups can also serve as an innovative approach to understanding children's experiences from a developmental perspective. Further, focus groups free children and investigator from the data-gathering limitations placed by literacy/reading levels that plague quantitative methods using self-report. By using relatively homogeneous groups, common cultural, emotional, and cognitive processes and responses are revealed that normally would not come to light in structured data collection. Focus groups offer a rich, interactive and developmentally effective approach to planning, content and evaluation in research with children.
焦点小组是健康科学研究中一种广为人知的收集数据的定性方法。然而，关于焦点小组的文献主要讨论的是以成年人作为研究对象。遗憾的是，仅有少量关于将儿童作为焦点小组参与者的研究报告，且并未详细描述其方法。本文讨论了在焦点小组中使用6至12岁儿童的情况，并强调了这种方法在方法论上的考量，尤其关注发展原则的整合。与儿童进行焦点小组讨论能够获取他们的观点、原创想法和见解，而这些在更为传统的儿科研究中常常被忽视。焦点小组还可以作为一种创新方法，从发展的角度理解儿童的经历。此外，焦点小组使儿童和研究者摆脱了困扰使用自我报告的定量方法的数据收集限制，即识字/阅读水平的限制。通过使用相对同质的小组，能够揭示出通常在结构化数据收集中不会显现的共同文化、情感和认知过程及反应。焦点小组为针对儿童的研究中的规划、内容和评估提供了一种丰富、互动且在发展方面有效的方法。
