Exploring inequalities in health with young people through online focus groups: navigating the methodological and ethical challenges

Abstract

PurposeThe use of online focus groups to explore children and young people's (CYP) perspectives of inequalities in health and associated “sensitive” topics raises important ethical and methodological issues to consider. The purpose of the paper is to discuss lessons learnt from navigating the authors' way through some of the key challenges the authors encountered when researching inequalities in health with CYP through online focus groups.Design/methodology/approachIn the paper, the authors draw on reflections and notes from the fieldwork design, public involvement and engagement (PIE) activities and data collection for their research project.FindingsCollecting data online influenced the authors' ability to develop rapport and relationships with CYP and to provide effective support when discussing sensitive topics. The authors note that building activities to develop rapport with participants during recruitment and data collection and establishing clear support and safeguarding protocols helped navigate challenges of online approaches around effective and supportive participant engagement.Originality/valueThe paper highlights that despite ethical and methodological challenges of conducting online focus groups with CYP on potentially sensitive topics, the adoption of practical steps and strategies before, during and following data collection can facilitate the safe participation of CYP and generate useful and valid data in meaningful and appropriate ways.

‘It All Kind of Links Really’: Young People’s Perspectives on the Relationship between Socioeconomic Circumstances and Health

“…Nevertheless, working closely with youth groups afforded many benefits. Youth workers helped to refine our topic guides and facilitate participant engagement, and they provided an invaluable source of trusted support for participants (see Woodrow et al, 2021 [ 31 ]).…”

“…Focus group discussions lasted between 90 and 100 min. Further details on the methodological and ethical challenges of this study are described elsewhere [ 31 ]. Ethical approval for the study was granted by the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) Ethics Committee at the University of Sheffield.…”

“…The stigmas around topics of health and inequality (where practices and situations are individualised and equated with deficit, passivity and irrational choice) make discussion of such topics challenging [ 36 , 37 ]. We employed focus group discussions to generate data and we gave careful consideration to the topic guides (activities and language used), as well as how support could be provided during and after the sessions [ 31 ]. While focus groups may prevent people sharing information due to concerns around privacy and stigma [ 38 ], they can help to reduce potential power differentials between researchers and participants and provide a space where people can discuss challenging topics with the support of others [ 39 ].…”

Exploring young people's perspectives on mental health support: A qualitative study across three geographical areas in England, UK

“…Recruiting through youth groups afforded many benefits to the project (see Fairbrother et al, 2022 ; Woodrow et al, 2022 ). Youth workers helped facilitate participant engagement and provided a trusted source of support to participants (Woodrow et al, 2022 ).…”

“…We had support facilitating the focus groups from partnering youth workers, providing benefits to both engagement (facilitating participation) and protection (when discussing potentially sensitive topics). Details of the methodological and ethical challenges encountered in this study and how they were overcome, as well as the benefits of working with youth organisations to facilitate data collection, have been reported in a previous paper (Woodrow et al, 2022 ).…”