Hyde Abbey, Howlett Etaoine, Brady Dympna, Drennan Jonathan
School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Dublin, Belfield Campus, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Soc Sci Med. 2005 Dec;61(12):2588-99. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.04.040. Epub 2005 Jun 13.
This article concerns the manner in which group interaction during focus groups impacted upon the data generated in a study of adolescent sexual health. Twenty-nine group interviews were conducted with secondary school pupils in Ireland, and data were subjected to a qualitative analysis. In exploring the relationship between method and theory generation, we begin by focusing on the ethnographic potential within group interviews. We propose that at times during the interviews, episodes of acting-out, or presenting a particular image in the presence of others, can be highly revealing in attempting to understand the normative rules embedded in the culture from which participants are drawn. However, we highlight a specific problem with distinguishing which parts of the group interview are a valid representation of group processes and which parts accurately reflect individuals' retrospective experiences of reality. We also note that at various points in the interview, focus groups have the potential to reveal participants' vulnerabilities. In addition, group members themselves can challenge one another on how aspects of their sub-culture are represented within the focus group, in a way that is normally beyond reach within individual interviews. The formation and composition of focus groups, particularly through the clustering of like-minded individuals, can affect the dominant views being expressed within specific groups. While focus groups have been noted to have an educational and transformative potential, we caution that they may also be a source of inaccurate information, placing participants at risk. Finally, the opportunities that focus groups offer in enabling researchers to cross-check the trustworthiness of data using a post-interview questionnaire are considered. We conclude by arguing that although far from flawless, focus groups are a valuable method for gathering data about health issues.
本文关注焦点小组中的群体互动对青少年性健康研究中所产生数据的影响方式。我们对爱尔兰的中学生进行了29次小组访谈，并对数据进行了定性分析。在探讨方法与理论生成之间的关系时，我们首先关注小组访谈中的人种志潜力。我们认为，在访谈过程中，有时出现的行为表现情节，或在他人面前呈现特定形象的情况，在试图理解参与者所处文化中所蕴含的规范规则时可能具有高度启发性。然而，我们强调了一个特定问题，即区分小组访谈的哪些部分是群体过程的有效代表，哪些部分准确反映了个体对现实的回顾性体验。我们还指出，在访谈的不同阶段，焦点小组有可能揭示参与者的脆弱性。此外，小组成员自身可以就其亚文化在焦点小组中的呈现方式相互质疑，这种方式在个体访谈中通常是无法实现的。焦点小组的形成和组成，特别是通过志同道合个体的聚集，会影响特定小组中所表达的主导观点。虽然焦点小组已被指出具有教育和变革潜力，但我们提醒，它们也可能是不准确信息的来源，使参与者面临风险。最后，我们考虑了焦点小组为研究人员提供的利用访谈后问卷交叉检验数据可信度的机会。我们的结论是，尽管焦点小组远非完美，但它是收集有关健康问题数据的一种有价值的方法。
