Group Interviews and Focus Group Discussions

Deborah RubinCultural Practice, LLC

A4NH Gender-Nutrition Methods WorkshopNairobi, December 2013

Is there a difference?

Group Interview

Purpose: To obtain data from a group of people together on the same topic or topics using a structured questionnaire

Focus Group Discussion

Purpose: To explore issues and to use group interaction to do so, especially on experiences, attitudes, and opinions

Not just “asking people things”!

Group InterviewCharacteristics:

• Use structured set of questionsQ. Who had breakfast this morning?Q. What foods did you eat for breakfast?Q. What beverages did you drink for/with breakfast?

• Information flow is primarily one-way, from the interviewees to the interviewer

• Interviewer/researcher maintains control and leads interviewees through the topic

Benefits:

• Convenience• Security

Benefits: • Group interaction creates new knowledge; participants hear each other and create

new ideas, sometime influencing previously held opinions• Make visible group norms, shared culture and language, clarifying not one “right

answer” but revealing which views are more widely held and to clarify their meaning

Focus Group DiscussionCharacteristics:• Uses structured process for discussion

Q. 1: What are your experiences – What do you have for breakfast most mornings and why do you choose those items?Q. 2: What are the challenges to changing people attitudes about eating a nutritious breakfast? Q. 3: What actions can be taken to get more people to eat a nutritious breakfast?

• Interviewer/researcher facilitates discussions among participants

Group Selection

Purposive sampling: using selection criteria that will reveal differences in the data, e.g., social or demographic dimensions including gender, age, economic level, rural/urban, marital status, with or without children under 5 years of age• Group size• Degree of familiarity• Use of pre-existing groups (e.g., farmer association)• Mixed or same sex

Challenges

• Getting people to talk – but not too much

• Overcoming focus group fatigue

• FGDs need really skilled moderators

• Managing conflict

• Managing ethical issues

– Chatham house rules

– Uncovering abuse

Paul Baran (1957) once wrote, “whether or not there is meat in the kitchen is not decided in the kitchen.”

Group Interview

• Which household members prepared dinner yesterday?

• Who decided what to cook?

• Which of those food items had been purchased?

• Who purchased those foods?

• Who provided the money to purchase the food?

Focus Group DiscussionExperience• Describe who decides what is

cooked for dinner at your home. • Describe men’s and women’s

responsibilities for contributing to dinner (who buys the food, who prepares it, who cooks it)

• Why is it handled in this way?Challenges/Discussion• Would you like to see any

changes in who decides about what is served for dinner?

Actions or Resolution• What could you do to change

this division of labor?