Telephone focus groups: Strengths, challenges, and strategies for success

Abstract

Telephone focus groups offer an alternative to the limitations of traditional face-to-face focus groups for conducting research with rural research participants or those who are unable to meet in a common location. Identified strengths of telephone focus groups include: the ability to engage participants that are geographically dispersed; an opportunity for participants to connect with those who they would unlikely meet otherwise; and the ability to conduct focus groups with a lower cost and increased participation rate. Despite the usefulness of telephone focus groups, this methodology may present challenges with the participation and engagement of focus group members. Using the example of a telephone focus group study of early childhood mental health consultants, this article introduces procedures for overcoming the challenges of telephone focus group participation and engagement, and it analyzes the effectiveness of those procedures for improving the participation and engagement of focus group members. This study provides lessons learned in using telephone focus groups in social work research.