I am currently studying cross-sectional research design. I have found that these studies are often associated with surveys and structured interviews but can also include other methods such as structured observation, content analysis, official statistics, and diaries (Bryman, 2016). I wonder if the focus group technique can be used in a cross-sectional research design and in what situations it could be classified as such.
Could you help me with literature or examples to resolve this question?
Any data collection that occurs at one point in time is cross-sectional, so that could definitely include focus groups. In practice, nearly all focus group research is cross-sectional, because repeated waves of focus groups are quite rare.
Hello, Erika,
I see Professor Morgan gave you the short answer, yes. Most focus are by their nature cross-sectional, and then further by their design. Your question did not say whether this is your research, for your PhD, or sponsored research. Most of my focus groups were sponsored research, so the designs for individual studies were constrained by the needs of the sponsors, mostly agencies of state and local governments, and the US government. One upside of sponsored research is that it is often longitudinal, making time an analytical variable. That is, I got multiple "bites of the apple" over time from the same study populations.
By their nature, cross-sectional studies have comparative potential. If this is or will be strictly your research, I suggest you build in as much consistency as possible in the questions you ask across different groups. Patterns of similarities and difference are usually obvious. For example, with the Department of Information Technology in Alexandria, Virginia as a sponsor, the focus group studies showed clearly the different IT uses, and areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction across the fire department and the departments of human resources and parks and recreation.
Best wishes as you move forward with your dissertation.
Erika Margarita Arias
Is this of any interest?:
https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/24056_Chapter4.pdf
Good luck with your studies,
Mary
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