The Analysis of Focus Groups in Published Research Articles

Abstract

This article examines 72 published research articles that utilize a focus group methodology from the fields of health, sociology, and education. The articles are assessed in terms of what type of focus group analysis is conducted on the transcripts, how the methodology is specified, and whether the coding schemes used were emergent or pre-ordinate. Fewer than half of the articles use a coding scheme in order to analyze the transcripts, while more than half simply utilize interesting quotations from the focus groups in order to represent the discussion or else to corroborate other quantitative findings. It was found that 14% of the articles utilize some sort of quality check such as interrater reliability in order to ensure accuracy in the focus group data analysis. Most of the articles utilizing a quality check are from the health field. Results are discussed in terms of implications for evaluation practice and ongoing research.