Focus group guide - Family and Cultural Impact

“Family and Cultural Impact on STD and HIV Risk among Latino and African-American Youth”

Attachment 1c. Focus Group Guide – Phase 1

Form Approved

OMB No. 0920-0840

Expiration Date 01/31/2013

“Family and Cultural Impact on STD and HIV Risk among Latino and African-American Youth”

Focus Group Guide

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Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 6.7

Family and Cultural Influences on Talking Strategies (FACTS)

Moderator: Your instructions for carrying out this focus group are in brackets [*]

FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEW GUIDE

[As participants arrive at the waiting room, gather information on participant’s age. Be discrete so that others around will not hear response.]

[Moderator – before participants enter room]

[Write on flip chart “Topic of Discussion: Family and Cultural Influences on Talking Strategies.” Post in a location visible to all participants.]

[Write all ground rules on flip chart and post in a location visible to all participants.]

[Give the participants a name tag and ask them to put a nickname on the name tag. Inform the participants that this is the name that will be used during the focus group to protect their privacy.]

[Read aloud the consent form with everyone following along. Give time for everyone to read the consent on their own. Collect the signed forms.]

[Moderator: Read the introduction.]

Introduction

Welcome and thank you very much for agreeing to participate in this focus group. My name is ________, and my role is to guide the discussion tonight/today. I’m an independent moderator, and I’m not an expert in the topic we’ll be discussing, so I have no particular agenda or point of view about what is right or wrong. I want to hear your frank and honest opinions about the topics we discuss today. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions I’m going to ask. So please just relax and enjoy the discussion.

As you know, we will be discussing issues concerning how you as parents talk to your children about sex and sex education. You all have been invited to participate because each of you has at least one child between the ages of 12 to 15 years of age.

There are a couple of purposes of this discussion. First, we want to hear about your personal experiences talking to your children about sex and sex education. For example, we want to know about ways you talk to your children about sex, any strategies you use and where if anywhere you get information for talking to your children about sex. We also want to know if you think your family background and culture impact how you talk to your children about sex. Second, we want to find out what you think would be the best ways or strategies for you to talk to your children about sex and if you think there is a way for these strategies to be relevant to your family and/or cultural background.

Before we get started on our discussion, there are just a few things I’d like to point out. We are audio taping this session so we can listen to what you have to say and not worry about taking notes. The tapes help us in writing our reports and are used for this purpose only. Everything you have to say will be kept secure and anything that is reported will be done without names or identifiers. In other words, no one who reads the final report will know or be able to figure out that any of you participated in this study. Also, please remember that you can choose not to respond to a question at any time and that your participation in this study is completely voluntary.

Does anyone have any questions?

[Moderator: Read the ground rules as posted in the room.]

Ground Rules

There are also a few ground rules that I would like us to adopt for our discussion:

♦ You have been asked here to offer your views and opinions.

• We know that each of you might have different views about this topic. You might hear opinions that you do not agree with, and if this happens, we ask that you respectfully listen and then share your opinion.

♦ To the extent the law allows, the focus group facilitators will keep all comments secure.

♦ We ask that you not share comments you hear today with anyone outside this room. You should know that there is the possibility that a focus group participant may not honor this request.

♦ Everyone’s input is important; I may call on you if you are being quiet.

♦ Avoid side conversations.

♦ Let one person speak at a time.

♦ I may need to cut a discussion short to get through the whole guide.

♦ Please turn off all cell phones!

♦ There are no right or wrong answers.

♦ All answers will be kept secure and anonymous, so feel free to speak your mind.

♦ Respect one another at all times.

♦ It’s okay to disagree.

• It is helpful for us for you to state whatever name you are using today whenever you make a comment.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

If there are no more questions, I am going to turn on the tape recorder now.

[Moderator: Begin session with warm up.]

Let’s begin by finding out a little bit about each of you. Please tell us your:

♦ The name you want to use today,

♦ Favorite TV show, and

♦ Favorite type of music

Before we start, many of the answers you have may be different for a girl versus a boy.

We realize that many of your answers may be different for a girl versus a boy.

For many of the questions I am about to ask, I am going to ask you how your opinions might differ for a girl versus a boy. I might also ask you how your answers could be based on your family and cultural experiences.

• What are your experiences in talking with your child about sex?

Before answering, picture a time when you talked with your son or daughter about sex. If you haven’t talked with them, imagine what that would be like. Describe what happened or would happen. Where were you? How old was your child? Besides your child, who was with you?

• Describe strategies you use to talk to your child about sex.

[Moderator: Make a note of strategies on the flip chart.]

• Imagine using (insert strategy) in talking to your child about sex. How smoothly would that strategy go? Picture what would make that strategy easier? Imagine what some of the barriers to using that strategy might be. Do you agree with that strategy? Describe why or why not.

[Moderator: Ask question for each strategy.]

• In general, are there some things that make it hard talk to your child about sex?

• Describe the skills you think you have in talking to your child about sex?

• What would be a good age for a child to have a boy/girlfriend? What is a good age for a child to start dating? When is a child old enough to have sex?

• Think about a time when you would consider it good to talk to your child about sex. How old is your child? What is a good age? What is good about talking to your child about sex at this age as opposed to a younger or older age?

• What are some things that might make you think it is time for you to talk to your children about sex? For example, knowing your child has started puberty.

• If you thought your child was already having sex, what would be the best way to talk to the child about your expectations for their behavior?

• If you thought your child was NOT having sex, what would be the best way to talk to the child about your expectations for their behavior?

• What are your three biggest worries when it comes to your child’s health and why?

• From what you have heard or read, how serious a health concern are HIV/AIDS and other STDs for young people?

[Moderator: read as a pretext for the questions that follow. “There are ways we might help parents talk with their children about sex.”]

• What is the best way to get you this information? That is, how would you want to receive it? Books, pamphlets, one-on-one discussions with a doctor, school nurse or other health care provider.

• If you were to participate in a workshop or meeting, where would be the best place to hold it and why?

• How many workshops are you willing to attend to get help on this issue?

• Think about\ any public service announcements or other types of media (that is, internet books, magazines) that you have seen advising or implying that you should to talk to your children about sex? Describe what you saw.

• Where did you see these advertisements?

• What was your reaction to the material you saw?

• Was the material you saw helpful?

• Where is the best place for these advertisements in order to be seen by the most people?

Now we want to get your opinions about different kinds of media messages that try to help parents talk to their children about sex.

What do you think would be most effective in promoting communication between parents and their children?

Probe:

♦ How would you respond to messages that use humor? What is good /bad about these kinds of messages?

♦ How would you respond to messages that are serious? What is good /bad about these kinds of messages?

♦ How would you respond to messages that try to scare you? What is good /bad about these kinds of messages?

♦ Describe other types of messages that would improve the chances that you would pay attention to

the information?

• How do/did you respond to messages that promote children talking to parents about sex?

• Did any of you seek out any information on how to talk to your children about sex from any source? (doctor, nurse, friend, internet, etc…).

• What was your reaction to the material you found?

• How was the material you found helpful?

Now we want to get your opinions about the qualities of the information you found.

What tone do you think was most effective in promoting parent-adolescent communication about sex?

Probe:

• What was your reaction to the material you found? What was the material like? Was the material funny or serious?

• How was the material you found helpful?

[Moderator: Close the groups with the following]

Closing

Well, that is the last of my questions. Do you have any questions?

On the table behind me, you’ll see that we have brought some educational materials about talking to teens about sex, HIV/AIDS and other STDs. Please feel free to help yourselves to any of this information.

Thank you again for taking the time to participate in this discussion. We sincerely appreciate and value your input.