Getting the Focus and the Group: Enhancing Analytical Rigor in Focus Group Research

In the literature on focus groups, far more attention has been devoted to how groups are organized and conducted than to issues of analysis. Although exploitation of group dynamics is touted as a virtue of focus groups, there is very little guidance in the literature with respect to how differences between group and individual discourse impact the analysis and interpretation of focus group data. In this article, the authors describe analytical challenges inherent in the interpretation of focus group data and suggest approaches for enhancing the rigor of analysis and the reliability and validity of focus group findings.