Gordon Allegra R, Calzo Jerel P, Eiduson Rose, Sharp Kendall, Silverstein Scout, Lopez Ethan, Thomson Katharine, Reisner Sari L
Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Division of Adolescent/Young Adults Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Int J Qual Methods. 2021 Jan-Dec;20. doi: 10.1177/1609406921990489. Epub 2021 Feb 9.
Increasingly, social life-and accordingly, social research-is conducted in online environments. Asynchronous online focus groups (AOFGs) have emerged as an important tool to conduct remote research with geographically diverse populations. However, there remain few systematic accounts of AOFG methods to guide researchers' decision-making in designing and implementing studies. This paper seeks to address this gap by describing a recent study on body image and health among transgender and gender diverse (TGD) young adults. In this study, eight AOFGs were conducted in August-October 2019 with 66 TGD young adults residing in 25 U.S. states. Each AOFG lasted four consecutive days with two prompts posted by moderators per day. Overall, participant satisfaction with AOFGs was high: 98% reported their experience was excellent, very good, or good and 95% would be somewhat or very likely to sign up for another AOFG. This example is used to illustrate key methodological decision-points, acceptability of the method to participants, and lessons learned. The goal of this paper is to encourage other researchers, particularly health researchers, to consider using AOFGs and to engage with the method's strengths and limitations in order to develop new opportunities for online technologies to enrich the field of qualitative health research.
社交生活以及相应的社会研究越来越多地在网络环境中进行。异步在线焦点小组（AOFGs）已成为对地理分布广泛的人群进行远程研究的重要工具。然而，关于AOFG方法的系统性描述仍然很少，难以指导研究人员在设计和实施研究时做出决策。本文旨在通过描述一项关于跨性别和性别多样化（TGD）年轻人的身体形象与健康的近期研究来填补这一空白。在这项研究中，2019年8月至10月对居住在美国25个州的66名TGD年轻人进行了8个AOFG。每个AOFG持续四天，主持人每天发布两个提示。总体而言，参与者对AOFG的满意度很高：98%的人表示他们的体验很好、非常好或良好，95%的人表示有点或非常有可能报名参加另一个AOFG。这个例子用于说明关键的方法学决策点、该方法对参与者的可接受性以及所学到的经验教训。本文的目的是鼓励其他研究人员，特别是健康研究人员，考虑使用AOFG，并了解该方法的优缺点，以便为在线技术创造新机会，丰富定性健康研究领域。
