Despite their long trajectory in the social sciences, few systematic works analyze how often and for what purposes focus groups appear in published works. This study fills this gap by undertaking a meta-analysis of focus group use over the last 10 years. It makes several contributions to our understanding of when and why focus groups are used in the social sciences. First, the study explains that focus groups generate data at three units of analysis, namely, the individual, the group, and the interaction. Although most researchers rely upon the individual unit of analysis, the method’s comparative advantage lies in the group and interactive units. Second, it reveals strong affinities between each unit of analysis and the primary motivation for using focus groups as a data collection method. The individual unit of analysis is appropriate for triangulation; the group unit is appropriate as a pretest; and the interactive unit is appropriate for exploration. Finally, it offers a set of guidelines that researchers should adopt when presenting focus groups as part of their research design. Researchers should, first, state the main purpose of the focus group in a research design; second, identify the primary unit of analysis exploited; and finally, list the questions used to collect data in the focus group.

Through the use of focus groups and interviews, this research aims to increase understanding of the ways in which the public in Adelaide, South Australia draw on well documented rape myths and the influence of this process on their understandings of consent to sexual intercourse. This research explores how individual attitudes and opinions about rape are shaped through social interaction, including comparing the attitudes of men and women. Equal numbers of men and women were drawn from one geographical location by snowball sampling and vignettes were used to facilitate discussion in focus groups. Findings showed that rape myths remain influential amongst the public and are often used to attribute responsibility to women in acquaintance rape scenarios. However, analysis of the public’s engagement with rape myths revealed a complex process. People did not simply adhere to or challenge rape myths but rather these myths were engaged with in different ways at different times and in different circumstances. Findings also highlighted the complexity of the notion of consent and revealed contradictions in the ways in which consent was understood. Moreover, in many cases despite being willing to label an incident as rape, participants were still reluctant to say that they would find the man guilty of the crime of rape. Overall, this study suggests that the public struggle with issues concerning how rape is defined and that this has widespread implications both for rape victims and for the Australian legal system. Findings also suggest that radical attitude change is required before any real improvement will be seen in rape conviction rates.

Class of 2010 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To determine what information and clinical skill sets current student pharmacists, recent graduates, and current preceptors felt should be incorporated in designing the Advanced Patient Care course at The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy (UACOP). METHODS: This was a prospective, descriptive study using focus groups. Subjects included students in the fourth year of a four-year Doctor of Pharmacy program at the UACOP currently on rotations, recent UACOP graduates practicing in residency programs, and current preceptors for the UACOP who work closely with the students. Participants verbally consented and completed a demographic questionnaire. The three focus group sessions (each lasting 1.5 hours) were audiotaped, and the data was coded into categories and subcategories based on frequencies of topics that were discussed. RESULTS: A total of 14 subjects, separated into three focus groups of students, residents, and preceptors were held with 5, 4, and 5 subjects respectively. Both men and women were included in the study, with only females in the resident group. The student, resident, and preceptor groups had mean ages of 29±5.4, 28±3.7, and 47±12 years respectively. Overall the most commonly discussed topics included various learning techniques, specific drug or disease state focuses, and the importance of professionalism. CONCLUSIONS: Many insightful ideas for the Advanced Patient Care course soon to be implemented at the UACOP were generated by the three focus groups. Focus groups including pharmacy students, residents and preceptors are a useful tool for designing new courses and determining information and skill sets to be added to college of pharmacy curriculums.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand why individuals enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) fail to retrieve food vouchers, miss WIC appointments, and become inactive in program components. In Kentucky, mothers who fail to pick up food instruments for 60 days are automatically terminated from the program. The specific research questions that guided this study are: (1) Which segments of enrollees are at greatest and least risks of nonparticipation in the WIC program? (2) How do predisposing, enabling and need characteristics impact WIC nonparticipation among eligible mothers? (3) How do WIC enrollees describe their experiences using WIC? (4) What do WIC enrollees report as reasons for nonparticipation while still eligible? Addressing these research questions will inform the development of practical outreach solutions specifically tailored for the purpose of mitigating nonparticipation in WIC and contribute to our understanding of the factors that deter eligible families from using government assistance programs like WIC.

This qualitative focus groups analysis examines the harmful effects of violent video games on emotions and behavior by comparing violent video game player's responses to that of non-violent video game players of the same age group. Research on the effects of video games has been done since the 70s, yet more research is needed to better understand the potentially harmful emotional and behavioral effects of playing violent games, especially from the gamers' perspectives. This thesis presents a qualitative analysis of data obtained from focus group sessions among undergraduate college students. Results of the analysis supports the presence as well as absence of violent video game effects, according to violent and non-violent video gamers' personal experiences and in their own words.

The concept of experiences may not be all that revolutionary or new, however, the notion of an economy where experiences make up the core of all businesses is. This suggestion was made by Pine and Gilmore in 1999 in their bestseller “The Experience Economy”, and since then, the concept has received a lot of positive attention. Critics of the authors’ proposal still remain few in number, and there is a lack of research re-garding experiences and consumers. As the authors of this thesis we posed ourselves positive to the Experience Economy in general, but also a bit hesitant to the idea of companies offering experiences in all consumer contexts. Due to the lack of research regarding the demand side, we set out to explore the phenomenon of the Experience Economy from the perception of consumers. By doing so we hoped to find whether or not a foundation for Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) idea exists. In order to explore consumers’ perceptions of the Experience Economy, we focused on what is at the core of the concept – experiences. A qualitative research approach was decided upon, and three focus group interviews were conducted. The focus groups were made up of young consumers, parents of small children, and middle aged consumers. The empirical findings indicate that a foundation for the claim that the Experience Economy is emerging does exist, at least to the extent that no substantial barriers have been identified. However, we believe that the notion of an experience-based economy is only to be discussed if the concept is somewhat widened in its claims. That is, our summation of the consumers’ perceptions of the Experience Economy suggests that experiences need to be viewed as existing along a spectrum, ranging from a negative to a positive extreme. Rather than just being at the positive extreme, as indicated by scholars, we believe that staged experiences in the Experience Econ-omy will range from the spectrum’s neutral centre to only on rare occasions touch upon the extraordinaire.

Introduction: Gendered practices of working life create gender inequalities through horizontal and vertical gender segregation in work, which may lead to inequalities in health between women and men. Gender equality could therefore be a key element of health equity in working life. Our aim was to analyze what gender (in) equality means for the employees at a woman-dominated workplace and discuss possible implications for health experiences. Methods: All caregiving staff at two workplaces in elder care within a municipality in the north of Sweden were invited to participate in the study. Forty-five employees participated, 38 women and 7 men. Seven focus group discussions were performed and led by a moderator. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the focus groups. Results: We identified two themes. "Advocating gender equality in principle" showed how gender (in) equality was seen as a structural issue not connected to the individual health experiences. "Justifying inequality with individualism" showed how the caregivers focused on personalities and interests as a justification of gender inequalities in work division. The justification of gender inequality resulted in a gendered work division which may be related to health inequalities between women and men. Gender inequalities in work division were primarily understood in terms of personality and interests and not in terms of gender. Conclusion: The health experience of the participants was affected by gender (in) equality in terms of a gendered work division. However, the participants did not see the gendered work division as a gender equality issue. Gender perspectives are needed to improve the health of the employees at the workplaces through shifting from individual to structural solutions. A healthy-setting approach considering gender relations is needed to achieve gender equality and fairness in health status between women and men.

Over the past several years, both government and the profession of pharmacy have acknowledged that pharmacists are not being used to their full potential in our health care system. In order to advance the profession of pharmacy in this area, guidance on how pharmacists can be integrated need to be investigated.<p>The purpose of this study was to identify how to integrate a pharmacist into an already established primary health care team, at the Student Health Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. The project was divided into three phases: defining the role of the pharmacist, implementing the proposed role and then evaluating and prioritizing the role. Using action research, an expert panel consisting of established primary health/ambulatory care pharmacists from across Canada helped to identify possible clinical activities for a Student Health Centre pharmacist. The results were presented to the primary health care team, who then collaborated with the pharmacist and researchers to define the role of the pharmacist. Once an agreement was reached, a pharmacist provided eight weeks of full-time clinical services. Upon completion, focus groups with the primary health care team members were used to evaluate the pharmacists clinical services.<p>The role of the pharmacist was tailored specifically for the student health care centre selected for the study. However, the process of integrating and evaluating the role of the pharmacist, will serve as a template for other pharmacists desiring to be involved in any primary health care team interested in expanding their multidisciplinary service.

Over the past several years, both government and the profession of pharmacy have acknowledged that pharmacists are not being used to their full potential in our health care system. In order to advance the profession of pharmacy in this area, guidance on how pharmacists can be integrated need to be investigated.<p>The purpose of this study was to identify how to integrate a pharmacist into an already established primary health care team, at the Student Health Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. The project was divided into three phases: defining the role of the pharmacist, implementing the proposed role and then evaluating and prioritizing the role. Using action research, an expert panel consisting of established primary health/ambulatory care pharmacists from across Canada helped to identify possible clinical activities for a Student Health Centre pharmacist. The results were presented to the primary health care team, who then collaborated with the pharmacist and researchers to define the role of the pharmacist. Once an agreement was reached, a pharmacist provided eight weeks of full-time clinical services. Upon completion, focus groups with the primary health care team members were used to evaluate the pharmacists clinical services.<p>The role of the pharmacist was tailored specifically for the student health care centre selected for the study. However, the process of integrating and evaluating the role of the pharmacist, will serve as a template for other pharmacists desiring to be involved in any primary health care team interested in expanding their multidisciplinary service.