Exploring young people’s attitudes towards domestic violence through focus groups

Why Focus Groups?

Phase 2 of the From Boys to Men project examined the contingencies through which young people deem domestic abuse acceptable and unacceptable. Focus groups  interviews with several people on a specific topic or issue (Bryman, 2013: 501) were considered the best means of exploring such contingencies because of their capacity to open conversation, facilitate the expression of ideas and illuminate competing perspectives through debate (Kitzinger, 1995). They have previously been employed to elicit information on children and young people’s attitudes towards violence (Buckley et al., 2007; Burman & Cartmel, 2005; Burton et al., 1998) and, more generally, they have been considered appropriate for research on sensitive topics given the relative safe space they provide for discussion of issues that might otherwise be taboo for young people to broach alone (Kitzinger, 1995; Mauthner, 1997).

This section of the toolkit describes:

• Recruiting participants
• Focus group design
• Undertaking focus group discussions
• Analysis
• Ethical considerations
• References