In a qualitative study employing focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews as the research tools, is it advisable to conduct a FGD at the beginning so as to develop a deeper understanding of the topic and frame the in-depth interview guide in accordance with that? Or is it advisable to conduct the FGD towards the end of the data collection when most of the answers have been solicited through in-depth interviews?
Focus group discussion (FGD) is a good method for attaining the “why” and “how” of different aspects of an issue of interest, or adding a practical in-depth grasp to a piece of existing knowledge. It is recommended that FGD should be utilized when a researcher needs to fathom the problem under investigation at a deeper level, especially when such an understanding cannot be achieved using other data-collection means (e.g., survey). You might find the article by O.Nyumba et al. (2018) an insightful read.
O.Nyumba, T., Wilson, K., Derrick, C. J., & Mukherjee, N. (2018). The use of focus group discussion methodology: Insights from two decades of application in conservation. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9(1), 20–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12860
Article The use of focus group discussion methodology: Insights from...
Good luck,
What is the methodology guiding your study? This can influence how you use the data collection methods. Ultimately you should choose whichever process you can justify as most likely to get to the root of the issue you are exploring.
Thank you Mohialdeen Alotumi Heather Douglas Mark Gillespie that was really helpful
As you say, it can be useful to conduct an initial focus groups to get a better understanding of how participants relate to your topic. If you do so, it would make sense to have that focus group be relatively open-ended and participant oriented, so that you could hear as much as possible from the participants.
Of course, you could still conduct a follow-up focus group if that meets your needs. In that case, the most common justification is to do "member checking." This would typically involve inviting some of the participants from your individual interviews back, to hear and discuss your tentative conclusions.
Just adding this to the other answers as it might be useful -fgs do generate different data that one-to-one interviews as the method captures the group discussion. So say, if you are looking at something like youth and tobacco use, the data may not align between interviews and fgs. I’d expect interviews to produce data about personal motivations, feelings and perceptions of the individual, while a group discussion would show me how smoking worked at a group level (body language, interactions between teens etc).
Thank you so much, that really helps a lot! David L Morgan Ingrid Holme
This is a great discussion and could be useful to critically self-reflect to think about the purpose of your focus groups and how it aligns with what you are trying to understand. Another suggestion would be to test out your questions for focus groups and also for interviews with a few people. I found for instance in a recent study I'm conducting about innovative technology for children with autism that while we had planned focus groups, we ended up finding such unique responses from our pilot study that we are now moving to focus on interviews. Good luck and one way or another you could have something interesting to write about regarding this decision methodologically.
Anna S. CohenMiller Hi, thank you so much! My current research (my master's dissertation) is also related to children with autism in India! It's quite challenging. Right now I am collecting data through in-depth interviews, which I did pre-test among a few respondents. Would love to connect with you! :)
The answer to this question really depends on your research design and your research questions. At what point(s) in the process of your study do you need to collect interview data in order to answer your research questions?
To me its this way:
- If you are interested in deeper understanding, conduct indepth Interviews.
- If you are interested in negotiated meaning, study interactions, see how power relations work in a social setting etc, go for FGDs.
Needless to say that there can be a combination of the both as these are by no means mutually exclusive.
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