Yelland J, Gifford S M
Centre for the Study of Mothers' and Children's Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
Aust J Public Health. 1995 Jun;19(3):257-63. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1995.tb00440.x.
Over the past decade there has been increasing interest in using focus group methods in public health research. Focus group discussions have become particularly popular, in part because they are commonly perceived to be a less time-consuming and less expensive way of collecting qualitative data than the more traditional ethnographic methods. However, little attention has been given to methodological issues when the focus group method is applied in cross-cultural settings. This paper discusses a number of these concerns, illustrated through the use of the focus groups to explore mothers' beliefs about sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in an ethnically diverse sample in Victoria. We found that some methodological difficulties were related to cultural factors. This has led us to use caution when considering the use of focused group discussions as a research method in cross-cultural contexts. We urge public health researchers to take a critical look at the appropriateness of focus groups before applying this method in cross-cultural public health research.
在过去十年中，公共卫生研究领域对焦点小组方法的兴趣与日俱增。焦点小组讨论变得格外流行，部分原因在于，人们普遍认为与更为传统的人种学方法相比，它是一种耗时较少且成本较低的收集定性数据的方式。然而，在跨文化背景下应用焦点小组方法时，方法论问题却很少受到关注。本文将讨论其中的一些问题，并通过在维多利亚州一个种族多样化的样本中使用焦点小组来探究母亲们对婴儿猝死综合征（SIDS）的看法进行说明。我们发现一些方法论上的困难与文化因素有关。这使得我们在考虑将焦点小组讨论作为跨文化背景下的一种研究方法时需谨慎行事。我们敦促公共卫生研究人员在将此方法应用于跨文化公共卫生研究之前，认真审视焦点小组的适用性。
