Concept reintegration for youth focus group engagement and empowerment

Abstract

Youths’ views on how community and social influences impact dating violence are virtually absent in research literature, in part because it is difficult to capture. When researchers ask youth what causes dating violence, responses focus on dating violence “triggers.” The few multi-level influences identified revolve around restraining orders and punishing abusers. In this article, we review formats that have been used for youth focus groups, especially in research on teen dating violence. We note that conventional focus groups and concept mapping processes rely on facilitator prompts to elicit discussion based on cause and effect that are assumed to be in line with the researcher’s social science understanding of causality. We then propose a new focus group format that begins with conventional focus group prompts followed by integration of participant concepts with concepts added by the researcher. The new format reverses the typical coding process in which the researcher gleans knowledge from focus group participants post-interview through the lens of the scientific knowledge base. We present pilot results based on three focus groups with 37 youth and 10 adults. We report the effect of the new format on participation, engagement, complexity of discussion, critical thinking about social structure, and participant empowerment. We discuss specific areas in which the focus group formats differed and suggest important implications for focus group methods and practice with groups, especially youth groups.