{"id":173,"date":"2021-02-26T13:18:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T13:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/?p=173"},"modified":"2021-02-26T13:18:45","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T13:18:45","slug":"running-focus-groups-with-parents-in-a-covid-19-setting-how-will-we-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/2021\/02\/26\/running-focus-groups-with-parents-in-a-covid-19-setting-how-will-we-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Running focus groups with parents in a Covid-19 setting &#8211; how will we do it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>In this second project blog, the research team\nreflect on how Covid-19 and the restrictions it has placed on all our lives,\nhas led to methodological, ethical and practical challenges in working with\nfocus groups <\/em><em>on\nparental <\/em><em>buy-in for linking and analysing data\nabout families. They outline the challenges they face and how they\u2019re adapting\ntheir approach.<\/em><em><\/em><em>&nbsp;<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For\nthe next stage of our project, we\u2019re conducting focus groups to explore how particular social groups of\nparents understand and talk about their perspectives on data linkage and\npredictive analytics.&nbsp; Back in early\n2020, we were optimistic about the possibility of being able to conduct these\ngroups face-to-face by the time we reached this stage of our research.&nbsp; Now though, it\u2019s clear we\u2019ll need to move online,\nand we\u2019ve been thinking about the issues we\u2019ll face and how to deal\nwith them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Questions we\u2019re grappling with include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What might moving online mean\nfor how we recruit participants?&nbsp; <\/li><li>How can we best organise\ngroups and engage parents with the project?&nbsp;\n<\/li><li>How can we develop content for\nonline groups that will firstly, encourage parents to contribute and enjoy the\nresearch process, and secondly, be relevant to our research endeavour? <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What will moving online mean for recruiting participants?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Our intention was \u2013 and still is, to hold focus\ngroup discussions with homogenous groups of parents, to explore the consensus\nof views on what is and isn\u2019t acceptable (social licence) in joining together and using parents\u2019 administrative\nrecords. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re using the findings from our earlier\nprobability-based survey of parents to identify social groups of parents whose\nviews stand out. These include home-owning parents in professional and\nmanagerial occupations, who have stronger social licence, and mothers on low\nincomes, Black parents, and lone parents and parents in larger families living\nin rented accommodation, who tend to have weak or no social licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our original plan was to recruit participants\nfor our focus groups by contacting local community and interest groups, neighbourhood\nnetworks, services such as health centres and schools, workplaces and\nprofessional associations.&nbsp; We still plan\nto do this, but we\u2019re concerned that the pandemic is placing huge\npressures on community groups, services for families and businesses and we may\nneed to be prepared that helping us to identify parents to participate in\nresearch may not be a priority or, as with schools, appropriate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we\u2019ve also been considering recruitment through online routes, such as\nadvertising on relevant Facebook groups; using Twitter and putting\nadvertisements on websites likely to be accessed by parents. It\u2019ll be interesting to\nsee if these general reach-outs get us anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An important aspect of recruitment to our study\nis how to include marginalised parents.&nbsp;\nThis can be a conundrum whether research is face-to-face or online.&nbsp; Face-to-face we would have spent quite a bit\nof time establishing trust in person, which is not feasible now.&nbsp; Finding ways to reach out and convince these\nparents to participate is going to be an additional challenge. Our ideas for\ntrying to engage these parents include the use of advertising via foodbanks,\nneighbourhood support networks and housing organisations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And there\u2019s the additional problem for online methods,\nrevealed in inequalities of online schooling, of parents who have limited or no\nonline access. Further, Covid-19 is affecting parents living in poverty\nespecially and we don\u2019t want to add to any stress they\u2019re likely to be under. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enticing affluent parents working in\nprofessional and managerial occupations to participate may also be difficult\nunder the current circumstances.&nbsp; They\nmay be juggling full-time jobs and (currently) home schooling and feeling under\npressure.&nbsp; Either way, marginalised or\naffluent, we think we\u2019ll need to be flexible, offering group times in evenings and at weekends\nfor example.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How should we change the way we organise groups and engage parents with the project?<\/strong>&nbsp; <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>We know from reading the literature that online\ngroups can face higher drop-out rates than face-to-face.&nbsp; Will the pandemic and its potential effect on\nparent\u2019s\u2019 physical and mental health mean that we face even higher drop-out\nrates?&nbsp; One strategy we hope will help is\nestablishing personal links, through contacting participants and chatting to\nthem informally before the focus group takes place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve been mulling over using groups\ncontaining people who know each other, for example if they\u2019re members of a community group or\naccessed through a workplace, and groups that bring together participants who\nare unknown to each other.&nbsp; Because we\u2019re feeling a bit unsure\nabout recruitment and organisation, we\u2019ve decided to go down both routes as and\nwhen opportunities present themselves.&nbsp;\nWe\u2019ll need to be aware of this as an issue when we come to do the analysis\nthough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re also thinking to organise more groups\nand have fewer participants in each group than we would have done face-to-face\n(after all, we\u2019re not going to be confined by our original travel and venue hire budget).&nbsp; Even in our online research team meetings we\ncan cut across and interrupt each other, and discussion doesn\u2019t flow in quite the\nsame way.&nbsp; Reading <del>&nbsp;<\/del>participants\u2019 body language and non-verbal cues in an online focus group is going to\nbe more difficult.&nbsp; Smaller numbers in\nthe group may help a bit, but it can still be difficult to see everyone if, for\nexample, someone is using a mobile phone.&nbsp;\nWe\u2019ll just have to see how this goes and how best to handle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s also a dilemma about how many of the project team to involve in the\nfocus groups. We\u2019ll need to have a team member to facilitate the group, but previous\nresearch shows it might be useful to have at least one other to monitor the\nchat and sort out any technical issues. But with a group as small as 4-6\nparticipants will that seem off putting for parents? It\u2019s all hard to know so may be a case of\ntrying it in order to find out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What should we consider in developing content that\u2019s engaging for parents and relevant to our research?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>What we\u2019ll miss by holding our group discussions online is the settling in and chatting and putting us and our participants at ease \u2013 how are you, would you like a drink, there\u2019s some biscuits if you want, let me introduce you to \u2026 and so on.&nbsp; We don\u2019t think that we can replicate this easily.&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> But we\u2019ve been pondering our opening icebreaker \u2013 should we ask something like&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote style=\"text-align:center\" class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p> \u2018If you could be anywhere else in the world where would you be?\u2019  <\/p><cite>or<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote style=\"text-align:center\" class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>\u2018What would be the one thing you\u2019d pack in a lockdown survival kit?\u2019&nbsp; <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And we\u2019re also planning to use a couple of initial questions that use the online poll function.&nbsp; Here\u2019s an instance where we think there\u2019s an advantage over in-person groups, because participants can vote in the poll anonymously.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"398\" height=\"127\" src=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/394\/2021\/02\/images.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-182\" srcset=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/394\/2021\/02\/images.png 398w, https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/394\/2021\/02\/images-300x96.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>After that, we\u2019ll be attempting to open up the discussion to focus on the issues that are at the heart of our research \u2013 what our participants feel is acceptable and what\u2019s not in various scenarios about the uses of data linkage and predictive analytics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ensuring the well-being of parents after focus groups is always important, but with online groups may be harder if the participants are not identified through community groups in which there\u2019s already access to support. We plan to contact people after groups via email but it\u2019s hard to know if parents would let us know even if groups presented issues for them. We have also given some thought to whether we could use online noticeboards for participants to post any further comments they may have about social licence after they\u2019ve had time to reflect, but do not know realistically if they would be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019ll be interesting to see if the concerns we\u2019ve discussed here are borne out in practice, and our hopeful means of addressing them work.&nbsp; And also, what sort of challenges arise for our online focus group discussions that we haven\u2019t thought of in advance! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you have any ideas that might help us with\nour focus groups, please do get in touch with us via <\/strong><a href=\"mailto:datalinkingproject@gmail.com\">datalinkingproject@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this second project blog, the research team reflect on how Covid-19 and the restrictions it has placed on all our lives, has led to methodological, ethical and practical challenges in working with focus groups on parental buy-in for linking and analysing data about families. They outline the challenges they face and how they\u2019re adapting &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/2021\/02\/26\/running-focus-groups-with-parents-in-a-covid-19-setting-how-will-we-do-it\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Running focus groups with parents in a Covid-19 setting &#8211; how will we do it?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4371,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[36,31,6,20,19,30,21,32,35,38],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-news","tag-children-data","tag-covid-19","tag-data","tag-data-analytics","tag-data-linkage","tag-focus-groups","tag-predictive-analytics","tag-qualitative-research","tag-research-in-a-pandemic","tag-research-methods"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/parentdata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}