QUALITATIVE

RESEARCH
JOYCE P. PARCO
What is qualitative research?
Scientific research
• seeks answers to a question
• systematically uses a predefined set of procedures to answer
the question
• collects evidence
• produces findings that were not determined in advance
• produces findings that are applicable beyond the immediate
boundaries of the study
 Choosing when to apply qualitative methods
Ethnography
Infant and Young Child Feeding
Study of dietary habits of cultural Hmong in the context of Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
Grounded Theory
Anorexia Nervosa
How do parents of adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa cope?
Is the general coping theory appropriate for parents of those with anorexia?
Phenomenology
Supplementary Feeding Programs
Understanding the experience of school children in ARMM on supplementary
feeding programs
 Narrative
Celiac Disease
Food, family history, human development, and disease history to increase the
effectiveness of treatment and early detection
Participatory
Action Research
Eating and Hydration
Website development for college athletes to improve KAP on eating and
hydration (complemented with clinical trials)
Case studies
Sports Nutrition
Eating and training practices of older female triathletes with osteoporosis and
tibial microfractures. Examines common and differing personal
characteristics, treatment approaches, reactions, and compliance.
Choosing when to apply qualitative methods
• Hypothesis generation – answer options are unknown in
advance
• Behavioral interactions/response
• Legal barriers or social biases
• Evaluation how interventions work in practice
 Quantitative VS Qualitative
• Deductive
• Well-known phenomena
• Testing of hypothesis and theories
• Controlled settings
• Large sample size
• Standardized numerical data
collection
• Data gathered then analyzed
• Statistical analysis
• Explore outcomes due to treatments,
manipulations
• Inductive
• Little known phenomena
• Development of hypotheses and
theories
• Naturalistic settings
• Smaller targeted participants
• Textual, audio, and visual data
collection
• Data gathering and analysis are
simultaneous
• Content analysis
• Explore complex issues, interactions,
7 reasons, processes
Sampling in Qualitative Research
 SAMPLE SIZE
• Case study – one case or one person
• Ethnography, Grounded theory, and action research - 30-50
participants (Morse, 1994), 20-30 interviews (Creswell, 1998, Nastasi,
n.d.)
• Phenomenological studies – at least 6 (Morse, 1994), 5-25 (Creswell,
1998), 10 (Nastasi, n.d.)
• In-depth interviews – 30 participants
• Key informant interviews – 5 participants
• Focus groups – 5-10 participants
Saturation occurs when adding more participants to the study does not
result in additional insights
 Interview/Discussion Guide

■ Typically unstructured or semi-structured

■ Does not need to be read verbatim
■ Focus on research question and formulate questions that
are concretely oriented to answer to it (but avoid specific
questions)
■ Interviewer
○ Good understanding of research question
○ Able to probe
○ Use language that is relevant and understandable to participants

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 Basic rules in question formulation

■ Use specific, clear, and unambiguous words

■ Use simple words
■ Use simple sentences
■ Asks questions to which the respondent can be expected to
answer
■ AVOID:
○ Double barreled
○ Leading
○ Loaded
○ Double negative
○ Ambiguous
○ Complex
○ Technical terms
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 Guide for length of interviews

Number of interviews Length of each interview

10 1-2 hours
20 30 minutes – 1 hour
30 20-40 minutes

Focus group discussions can last up to 2 hours

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 Sample observation checklist/schedule
Skills to watch and listen for Specific examples you
heard or saw
Opens the appointment / sets the agenda
Affirms the participant
Asks some open-ended questions
Completes most of the assessment before educating
Reflects what the participant says
Summarizes what the participant has said
Works with the participant for their next steps
Shows genuine warmth, respect, and acceptance
Source: Counseling observation guide taken from Washington State Department of Health (https://www.doh.wa.gov)
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 Training and Pre-testing of instrument (Bentley et al, 1994)

■ Develop a field manual and codebooks

■ Pretesting of instrument
■ Inter and intra observer variability
1. Pair observers for observations of the same episode and
then compare their coding
2. Consistency check if there are too many new codes or
omission of old codes

👍 There should be 80-90%

agreement in all recordings
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 QUALITATIVE DATA IS TRANSCRIBED VERBATIM

The kids are driving The kids are driving The kids are driving
me crazy me crazy me crazy
What is Thematic Analysis?

Identifies, Organizes
analyzes, and
Flexible
and reports describes
method
patterns the data set
within data in rich detail

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 CONTENT ANALYSIS
• Either a quanti or quali approach
• Generally counts the occurrence
of concepts or keywords to infer
meaning
• Count instances of coded
concepts and keywords within
large amounts of textual data
with less focus on comparing or
contrasting those codes
THEMATIC ANALYSIS
• Qualitative method used to
uncover themes in textual data
• Assigns meaning by extracting
high-level ideas
• Focuses on overarching themes
and how they relate to one
another
Child Consumer Socialization with Media as Key Influencer

What are the What is the role of

preferences and food advertisements
food habits of in influencing food
children? preferences?

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CODING EXERCISE
Interviewer: Mahilig ka ba kumain [mentions name of child] (child nods)? Mahilig ka din manood ng TV
(child nods). Dahil sinabi mong mahilig kang kumain, ano ang mga paborito mong pagkain? Sabihin mo sa
amin.
Child_1_9: Ilan po?
Interviewer: Kahit ilan. Sige sabihin mo lahat ng paborito mong pagkain
Child_1_9: Cake.
Interviewer: Ano pa?
Child_1_9: Tapos po, ice cream.
Interviewer: Ano pa?
FAVORITE
Child_1_9: Bread pan FOOD
Interviewer: May naiisip ka pang paborito mo?
Child_1_9: Doughnut.
Interviewer: Ano pa, may naisip ka pa?
Child_1_9: Chicken po.
Interviewer: Bakit mo paborito ‘tong ang mga ito?
Child_1_9: Kasi po masarap.
Interviewer: Kasi masarap. Masustansya ba sila? Ano sa tingin mo? Yung cake, tsaka ice cream? (child
shakes head to answer no) Bakit sa tingin mo? Ano bang meron ito?
Child_1_9: Wala po kasing gulay.
Interviewer: Sino nagtuturo sayo tungkol sa masustansyang pagkain?
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Child_1_9: Si mama at papa po.
CODING EXERCISE
Interviewer: Ano yung mga pagkain na pinapabili mo kay mommy kapag nasa supermarket
kayo?
Child_ 8_7: Kokocrunch po.
Interviewer: Tapos ano pa?
Child_ 8_7: Gatas po.
Interviewer: Anong gatas?
Child_ 8_7: Hindi ko po alam.
Interviewer: Tinuturo mo? Paano mo sinasabi sa kanya?
Child_ 8_7: “Ma, gusto ko po nun” FOOD SEEN ON TV
Interviewer: Yung kokocrunch ba nakita mo din sa tv? Anong meron sa kokocrunch?
Child_ 8_7: Yung nanay po sinasabi niya gatas tapos tumatakbo
Interviewer: Bakit siya tumatakbo?
Child_ 8_7: Hahabulin niya po yung baka
Interviewer: Oo nga naaalala ko yun! Ikaw lang ba yung may favorite nun? Si [mention name of
twin] kumakain nun? Si ate?
Child_ 8_7: Hindi po.
Interviewer: Sino lang kumakain ng kokocrunch?
Child_ 8_7: Kami lang pong dalawa ni [name of twin].
Interviewer: Nilalagyan niyo pa ba yun ng gatas?
Child_ 8_7: Opo. Minsan-minsan po hindi. 23
 Content Analysis

measures restaurant owners and

managers plan to do to align with the
“new normal” demands
Thematic
Analysis
Write your results
 “
Verbatim quotations work within these
main constructs: as the matter of enquiry, as
evidence, as explanation, as illustration, to
deepen understanding, to give participants a
voice, and enhance readability.
(Corden & Sainsbury, 2006)

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 “
“Kaya nga gusto ko breastfeed… mas mabuti yung
breastfeed sa bottlefeed. Yung bottlefeed kasi di mo
nararamdaman na may sakit, pero kung nagpapasuso siya,
nararamdaman ng ina. Mainit yung dila kung may sinat” –
Mother

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 👪
ETHICAL
GUIDELINES
Whenever we conduct research on
people, the well-being of research
participants must be our top priority

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Ethical and Legal Guidelines
• National Ethical Guidelines for Health (pchrd.gov.ph)
• RA No. 10173 Data Privacy Act (senate.gov.ph)
• “seeks to protect all forms of information, be it private, personal, or
sensitive. It is meant to cover both natural and juridical persons
involved in the processing of personal information”
Resources
Thank you and good day!