Using Data Triangulation of Mother and Daughter Interviews to Enhance Research about Families

Abstract

Qualitative researchers use the term triangulation to describe the use of multiple strategies to study the same phenomenon. Although it is endorsed in social work research textbooks and contested in the literature, qualitative social work researchers are left on their own to determine how to 'do' triangulation. This article discusses triangulation, including recent debates around the concept. It describes two methods of data triangulation and illustrates them with examples from the study of mothers and daughters coping with a daughter's religious intensification. From the first method, a comparative analysis of mother-daughter dyads, the authors identify and provide examples of five types of triangulated data: (1) same story, same meaning; (2) same story, different interpretations; (3) missing pieces; (4) unique information; and (5) illuminating. The second method, triangulation within groups and between groups, makes visible perspectives that are common and distinct to mothers and KEY WORDS: dyad families group qualitative research triangulation ARTICLE

Building life-long learning capacity in undergraduate nursing freshmen within an integrative and small group learning context

“…The quantitative data were collected with a set of self-administered questionnaires containing three sub-scales, and the qualitative data were obtained later from focus group interviews. Outcomes were collected from multiple informants, both teachers and students, since different types of data collected from different sources can be triangulated to produce a more comprehensive picture of the topic being studied (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983;Sands and Roer-Strier, 2006). The central premise of the mixed-methods approach is that the combination can provide a better understanding of the research topic than either the qualitative or quantitative approach alone (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007).…”

Couples Managing the Risk of Financing Long-Term Care

“…According to Sands and Roer-Strier (2006), there are five potential types of triangulated data: (1) same story, same meaning is defined as ''participants [give] similar answers to an interviewer's question and indicate similar interpretations or assign a similar meaning to the described phenomenon''; (2) same story, different interpretation occurs when ''both informants give similar answers to a similar interview question but indicate that they have a different understanding or assign a different meaning to the described phenomenon''; (3) missing pieces occurs when ''information provided by one informant [is] needed to understand the story and [is] not included in her counterparts' description''; (4) unique information is defined as ''a report that [is] provided by one informant only''; and (5) illuminating occurs when ''accounts were different but not contradictory'' (pp. 242-243).…”

“…Articulation of a financial LTC planning intention would be ''I will consider purchasing LTCI in the future,'' whereas articulation of a financial LTC planning behavior would be ''I decided to self-insure through private income for now.'' A dyadic approach followed in which coded sections of the individual spouse interviews were analyzed simultaneously using trustworthy triangulated data analysis for dyads as proposed by Sands and Roer-Strier (2006). Triangulated data analysis is a method that verifies the credibility of qualitative findings; the corroboration of findings are enhanced by juxtaposing, comparing, and contrasting findings within and across dyads (Sands and Roer-Strier 2006).…”

“…A detailed survey instrument can be requested from the primary author. Data coding and analysis followed methods as reported by Sands and Roer-Strier (2006). Interviews were first individually coded for each interview followed by dyadic coding of couple interviews.…”

Spatial Information in Qualitative Pedagogical Research: Theoretical Assumptions

“…This way, based upon the geographical parameters and the GPS coordinates of the building we can receive satellite or street views of the school. With this multiple approach the findings can fulfill the principle of complementarity, they can complement each other and can contribute to a better understanding of the issue (Kelle & Erzberger, 2002;Sands & Roer-Strier, 2006).…”