Disadvantages Of Focus Groups

Qualitative research aims to explore and analyse the experiences of individuals and groups (Barber, 2008). With group research, the interactions amongst members can help the researcher gain a greater understanding of the topic being discussed. Thus, a beneficial qualitative research method is ‘focus groups’. The study by Slater and Tiggermann (2010), entitled ‘’ ‘Uncool to do sport’: A focus group study of adolescent girls’ reasons for withdrawing from physical activity’’, had the aim of developing a greater understanding of the reasons, adolescent girls give, for why they stop participating in sport and physical activity and the reasons they believe girls don’t participate as much as boys. A sample of 49 South Australian girls between the ages of 13-15 years, from two different metropolitan public schools, were split into 6 different focus groups. A focus group can be defined as the overt use of group interaction to produce data and understandings that would otherwise be less accessible (Threlfall, 1999).
Kitzinger, (1995), explained that focus groups can be both quick and convenient for data collection because several people can be surveyed at the same time. She explains how focus groups allow for the exploration of people’s …show more content…
This is a disadvantage because bias could occur. Thus, reducing the reliability and validity of the study. However, due to the age of the participants it was imperative for the researchers to get parental consent prior to the study, it is likely that girls from the same friendship groups would take part. This raises ethical problems with research. If they had carried out covert ethnographical research instead it would have infringed an individual’s right to not be studied (Lugosi, 2006). Therefore, focus groups, with informed consent from both the parents and participants, was a positive aspect to this study despite the problems with