International ArticlesAlternative methods in the investigation of adolescents’ sexual life
Section snippets
Use of focus group and role-playing in the development of the questionnaire
The participation of young people in the elaboration of the questionnaire, through focus groups and role-playing, was necessary to capture the contextual aspects of the adolescents’ culture (25).
During recent years, focus groups have been used in different research settings 25, 26, 27, often within qualitative research focusing on norms and attitudes 26, 28, and in some instances as a tool to improve the content of survey questionnaires 25, 27. The way focus groups were used in the present
Results
A total of 4291 pupils were involved in the study, among whom only 4 refused to answer the questionnaire. Four other questionnaires were excluded from the analysis because of questionable validity. Table 2 gives the main sociodemographic characteristics of the final sample. Owing to the length of the questionnaire, 7.6% of the participants switched off the computer before filling in the whole set of modules corresponding to their experience, usually shortly before the end of the questionnaire;
Discussion
Given the fact that the main purpose of this article was to present the methods of this survey, the discussion will concentrate on the advantages, difficulties, or biases linked with the use of focus groups and role-playing in the design of the questionnaire and with the use of a computerized format.
The participation of young people in the design of the questionnaire brought an enormous amount of usable information and certainly increased the acceptability of the survey for the respondents.
Acknowledgements
This study was performed under Contract No. 316.91.5139 from the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health.
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