Qualitative Story Completion: Opportunities and Considerations for Health Research

Abstract

Qualitative story completion (QSC) is an innovative research method that offers researchers a range of unique opportunities for generating and analysing data. Participants are asked to write a ‘story’ in response to a hypothetical ‘story stem’, often in the third-person and involving fictional characters, rather than reporting on their direct experiences. QSC is being developed and increasingly taken up by researchers working across a range of fields; but it has been little used in health research, especially in the fields of nursing, health services research, medicine, and allied health. This means that health researchers have few examples to draw on when considering what QSC can offer them and how to rigorously design, conduct, and report a QSC study within health-related fields. We aim to address this gap and contribute to existing QSC literature by promoting increased use of QSC by health researchers and supporting them to produce rigorous QSC research. We outline three case examples illustrating how we have used QSC to conduct multidisciplinary health research relevant to nursing, medicine and nutrition. Drawing on these case examples, we reflect on challenges that we encountered, describe decision-making processes, and offer recommendations for conducting rigorous health research using QSC.

‘I wasn't made to feel like a nut case after all’: A qualitative story completion study exploring healthcare recipient and carer perceptions of good professional caregiving relationships

“…Furthermore, because story stems are centred on hypothetical characters, story completion permits access to a range of meanings, not just socially desirable ones, 42 thus reducing participants' attempts to align with researchers' motivations and shape their responses accordingly 41 . Story completion therefore allowed us to examine a broader range of social and cultural understandings in relation to the topic at hand 44 …”

“…Story completion was chosen for this study because it enables researchers to explore participants' perceptions without the requirement to have had a specific experience 40–42 . Given the variable, sometimes poor, quality of professional caregiving relationships, story completion enabled us to explore possibilities for what makes a good relationship, even if those possibilities have not been experienced by participants 44 . Furthermore, because story stems are centred on hypothetical characters, story completion permits access to a range of meanings, not just socially desirable ones, 42 thus reducing participants' attempts to align with researchers' motivations and shape their responses accordingly 41 .…”

“…41 Story completion therefore allowed us to examine a broader range of social and cultural understandings in relation to the topic at hand. 44 Critical realism was chosen as the methodological framework to guide the study. Critical realism frequently underpins qualitative research, 45 including story completion studies.…”

Exploring the influence of context on social norms around Australian parents’ food provision using story completion

“…Researching social norms is challenging and may be influenced by social desirability bias. Story completion method provides a unique approach to examining social discourses, including social norms and the ability to compare multiple contexts through scenarios and examine story character and/or participant characteristics ( 27 , 28 ) . Despite being an underutilised method in nutrition, it is increasingly used in health research ( 28 ) .…”

“…Story completion method provides a unique approach to examining social discourses, including social norms and the ability to compare multiple contexts through scenarios and examine story character and/or participant characteristics ( 27 , 28 ) . Despite being an underutilised method in nutrition, it is increasingly used in health research ( 28 ) . Furthermore, the research to date on social norms has sought to describe or test norms.…”