Focus group discussions and individual interviews were used as major tools for gathering information to answer research questions of the study.
4.7.1. Focus group
A focus group is a discussion conducted with a group of people sharing similarities and differences about certain experiences for research purposes (Kelly, 2006). Focus groups were used in the study to obtain group opinions and meanings behind them, and ideas and beliefs about contraceptive use.
Focus group discussions enabled participants to talk about sensitive topics such as sexual activity,
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how condoms are worn and pregnancy. Such topics might not have been discussed if students were only interviewed.
The focus group schedule (see Appendix 4) was used to guide the data collection process. The schedule followed a set of open-ended questions which enabled participants to freely share their opinions, beliefs and experiences with one another or with the researcher. The questions were developed based on previous studies on contraceptive use. The questions tapped on knowledge of contraceptives and mechanisms of their action; sources of knowledge of contraceptives;
understanding of sexual risk and risk factors; factors influencing contraceptive use; and ways to promote contraceptive use. The exercise (refer to Appendix 4, Activity 1) obtained from the study of Johnson and Mayoux (1998) on the use of participatory skills in investigations was used to commence each session. The exercise was used to ascertain participants’ knowledge of reproduction, and to build rapport between researcher and participants and among participants.
The participants were asked to draw the female reproductive system and illustrate how conception occurs and how it can be prevented. It was followed by a brief discussion of the drawings and responses to questions asked from the drawings.
Four focus groups were conducted in English during the time convenient for students. The first group comprised of three female undergraduates, all South Africans; the second group comprised of four male postgraduates (3 international students and 1 South African national). The third group comprised of four men, all international students at postgraduate level. The fourth group was recruited through snowball sampling. The group comprised of four women and one man, all South African nationals in their first year. The male participant in the fourth group asked to participate with his peers to hear their views on contraceptive use. All women in the group gave a verbal consent allowing him to be part of the group. Rich data was obtained in this group due to the participants’ social interaction and positive engagement with each other in the discussion.
The focus group sessions lasted 45 to 90 minutes. The length of each session was dependent on participants’ knowledge of contraceptives and their willingness to discuss issues about contraceptive use. The researcher was faced with two major challenges in the process of data collection. The first one is about scheduling focus group appointments as participants gave different times and venues that suit them, hence it was difficult to conduct focus group discussions
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with all the participants who responded to the initial advert (see Appendix 3). The second challenge is that focus group discussions were to be conducted before individual interviews, but that did not happen due to insufficient participants.
4.7.2. Interviews
An interview is a dialogue between two people where the interviewer asks the interviewee questions to explore an issue of interest in the study (Terre Blanche, Durrheim & Kelly, 2006).
The interviews were used to explore individual views and experiences on contraceptive use, sexual risk and factors motivating contraceptive use (Kelly, 2006). The use of interviews enabled participants to freely discuss confidential information about their sexual life and experiences on contraceptive use. That kind of information would not have been raised in a group setting. A set of open-ended questions (see Appendix 5) was used to guide the data collection process. These questions gave participants room for flexibility in sharing their ideas and experiences with the researcher. All the questions were developed based on previous studies on contraceptive use. The questions tapped on knowledge of contraceptives and mechanisms of their action; sources of knowledge; experiences of contraceptive use; factors motivating contraceptive use; opinions on ways to promote contraceptive use among students. Rephrasing of the questions and probing of participants’ responses were necessary not only for an insightful discussion, but also to gain an understanding of any concept raised in the session (Kelly, 2006). Ten in-depth interviews comprising of five men and five women were conducted in English at convenient times for students. Most of the participants interviewed were those who responded to the initial advert (see Appendix 3).
The interview sessions lasted 15 to 35 minutes. The length of each session was dependent on a participant’s knowledge of contraceptives, experience of contraceptive use and the length of time a participant was willing to stay in the session. The researcher had initially planned each interview session to last between 45 minutes and 1 hour but most of the students were busy while others were not willing to stay in a session for long. Due to limited time in some sessions, probing of participants’ responses might not have been well conducted. Another setback encountered in the process of collecting data is that, a few students who volunteered to participate in interviews failed to adhere to their appointments. The researcher had to reschedule them and in that process, four students withdrew from the study.
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