the major objective of a qualitative research study is to

Chapter 1. Introduction

“Science is in danger, and for that reason it is becoming dangerous” -Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity

Why an Open Access Textbook on Qualitative Research Methods?

I have been teaching qualitative research methods to both undergraduates and graduate students for many years. Although there are some excellent textbooks out there, they are often costly, and none of them, to my mind, properly introduces qualitative research methods to the beginning student (whether undergraduate or graduate student). In contrast, this open-access textbook is designed as a (free) true introduction to the subject, with helpful, practical pointers on how to conduct research and how to access more advanced instruction.

Textbooks are typically arranged in one of two ways: (1) by technique (each chapter covers one method used in qualitative research); or (2) by process (chapters advance from research design through publication). But both of these approaches are necessary for the beginner student. This textbook will have sections dedicated to the process as well as the techniques of qualitative research. This is a true “comprehensive” book for the beginning student. In addition to covering techniques of data collection and data analysis, it provides a road map of how to get started and how to keep going and where to go for advanced instruction. It covers aspects of research design and research communication as well as methods employed. Along the way, it includes examples from many different disciplines in the social sciences.

The primary goal has been to create a useful, accessible, engaging textbook for use across many disciplines. And, let’s face it. Textbooks can be boring. I hope readers find this to be a little different. I have tried to write in a practical and forthright manner, with many lively examples and references to good and intellectually creative qualitative research. Woven throughout the text are short textual asides (in colored textboxes) by professional (academic) qualitative researchers in various disciplines. These short accounts by practitioners should help inspire students. So, let’s begin!

What is Research?

When we use the word research , what exactly do we mean by that? This is one of those words that everyone thinks they understand, but it is worth beginning this textbook with a short explanation. We use the term to refer to “empirical research,” which is actually a historically specific approach to understanding the world around us. Think about how you know things about the world. [1] You might know your mother loves you because she’s told you she does. Or because that is what “mothers” do by tradition. Or you might know because you’ve looked for evidence that she does, like taking care of you when you are sick or reading to you in bed or working two jobs so you can have the things you need to do OK in life. Maybe it seems churlish to look for evidence; you just take it “on faith” that you are loved.

Only one of the above comes close to what we mean by research. Empirical research is research (investigation) based on evidence. Conclusions can then be drawn from observable data. This observable data can also be “tested” or checked. If the data cannot be tested, that is a good indication that we are not doing research. Note that we can never “prove” conclusively, through observable data, that our mothers love us. We might have some “disconfirming evidence” (that time she didn’t show up to your graduation, for example) that could push you to question an original hypothesis , but no amount of “confirming evidence” will ever allow us to say with 100% certainty, “my mother loves me.” Faith and tradition and authority work differently. Our knowledge can be 100% certain using each of those alternative methods of knowledge, but our certainty in those cases will not be based on facts or evidence.

For many periods of history, those in power have been nervous about “science” because it uses evidence and facts as the primary source of understanding the world, and facts can be at odds with what power or authority or tradition want you to believe. That is why I say that scientific empirical research is a historically specific approach to understand the world. You are in college or university now partly to learn how to engage in this historically specific approach.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, there was a newfound respect for empirical research, some of which was seriously challenging to the established church. Using observations and testing them, scientists found that the earth was not at the center of the universe, for example, but rather that it was but one planet of many which circled the sun. [2] For the next two centuries, the science of astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry emerged and became disciplines taught in universities. All used the scientific method of observation and testing to advance knowledge. Knowledge about people , however, and social institutions, however, was still left to faith, tradition, and authority. Historians and philosophers and poets wrote about the human condition, but none of them used research to do so. [3]

It was not until the nineteenth century that “social science” really emerged, using the scientific method (empirical observation) to understand people and social institutions. New fields of sociology, economics, political science, and anthropology emerged. The first sociologists, people like Auguste Comte and Karl Marx, sought specifically to apply the scientific method of research to understand society, Engels famously claiming that Marx had done for the social world what Darwin did for the natural world, tracings its laws of development. Today we tend to take for granted the naturalness of science here, but it is actually a pretty recent and radical development.

To return to the question, “does your mother love you?” Well, this is actually not really how a researcher would frame the question, as it is too specific to your case. It doesn’t tell us much about the world at large, even if it does tell us something about you and your relationship with your mother. A social science researcher might ask, “do mothers love their children?” Or maybe they would be more interested in how this loving relationship might change over time (e.g., “do mothers love their children more now than they did in the 18th century when so many children died before reaching adulthood?”) or perhaps they might be interested in measuring quality of love across cultures or time periods, or even establishing “what love looks like” using the mother/child relationship as a site of exploration. All of these make good research questions because we can use observable data to answer them.

What is Qualitative Research?

“All we know is how to learn. How to study, how to listen, how to talk, how to tell. If we don’t tell the world, we don’t know the world. We’re lost in it, we die.” -Ursula LeGuin, The Telling

At its simplest, qualitative research is research about the social world that does not use numbers in its analyses. All those who fear statistics can breathe a sigh of relief – there are no mathematical formulae or regression models in this book! But this definition is less about what qualitative research can be and more about what it is not. To be honest, any simple statement will fail to capture the power and depth of qualitative research. One way of contrasting qualitative research to quantitative research is to note that the focus of qualitative research is less about explaining and predicting relationships between variables and more about understanding the social world. To use our mother love example, the question about “what love looks like” is a good question for the qualitative researcher while all questions measuring love or comparing incidences of love (both of which require measurement) are good questions for quantitative researchers. Patton writes,

Qualitative data describe. They take us, as readers, into the time and place of the observation so that we know what it was like to have been there. They capture and communicate someone else’s experience of the world in his or her own words. Qualitative data tell a story. ( Patton 2002:47 )

Qualitative researchers are asking different questions about the world than their quantitative colleagues. Even when researchers are employed in “mixed methods” research ( both quantitative and qualitative), they are using different methods to address different questions of the study. I do a lot of research about first-generation and working-college college students. Where a quantitative researcher might ask, how many first-generation college students graduate from college within four years? Or does first-generation college status predict high student debt loads? A qualitative researcher might ask, how does the college experience differ for first-generation college students? What is it like to carry a lot of debt, and how does this impact the ability to complete college on time? Both sets of questions are important, but they can only be answered using specific tools tailored to those questions. For the former, you need large numbers to make adequate comparisons. For the latter, you need to talk to people, find out what they are thinking and feeling, and try to inhabit their shoes for a little while so you can make sense of their experiences and beliefs.

Examples of Qualitative Research

You have probably seen examples of qualitative research before, but you might not have paid particular attention to how they were produced or realized that the accounts you were reading were the result of hours, months, even years of research “in the field.” A good qualitative researcher will present the product of their hours of work in such a way that it seems natural, even obvious, to the reader. Because we are trying to convey what it is like answers, qualitative research is often presented as stories – stories about how people live their lives, go to work, raise their children, interact with one another. In some ways, this can seem like reading particularly insightful novels. But, unlike novels, there are very specific rules and guidelines that qualitative researchers follow to ensure that the “story” they are telling is accurate , a truthful rendition of what life is like for the people being studied. Most of this textbook will be spent conveying those rules and guidelines. Let’s take a look, first, however, at three examples of what the end product looks like. I have chosen these three examples to showcase very different approaches to qualitative research, and I will return to these five examples throughout the book. They were all published as whole books (not chapters or articles), and they are worth the long read, if you have the time. I will also provide some information on how these books came to be and the length of time it takes to get them into book version. It is important you know about this process, and the rest of this textbook will help explain why it takes so long to conduct good qualitative research!

Example 1 : The End Game (ethnography + interviews)

Corey Abramson is a sociologist who teaches at the University of Arizona. In 2015 he published The End Game: How Inequality Shapes our Final Years ( 2015 ). This book was based on the research he did for his dissertation at the University of California-Berkeley in 2012. Actually, the dissertation was completed in 2012 but the work that was produced that took several years. The dissertation was entitled, “This is How We Live, This is How We Die: Social Stratification, Aging, and Health in Urban America” ( 2012 ). You can see how the book version, which was written for a more general audience, has a more engaging sound to it, but that the dissertation version, which is what academic faculty read and evaluate, has a more descriptive title. You can read the title and know that this is a study about aging and health and that the focus is going to be inequality and that the context (place) is going to be “urban America.” It’s a study about “how” people do something – in this case, how they deal with aging and death. This is the very first sentence of the dissertation, “From our first breath in the hospital to the day we die, we live in a society characterized by unequal opportunities for maintaining health and taking care of ourselves when ill. These disparities reflect persistent racial, socio-economic, and gender-based inequalities and contribute to their persistence over time” ( 1 ). What follows is a truthful account of how that is so.

Cory Abramson spent three years conducting his research in four different urban neighborhoods. We call the type of research he conducted “comparative ethnographic” because he designed his study to compare groups of seniors as they went about their everyday business. It’s comparative because he is comparing different groups (based on race, class, gender) and ethnographic because he is studying the culture/way of life of a group. [4] He had an educated guess, rooted in what previous research had shown and what social theory would suggest, that people’s experiences of aging differ by race, class, and gender. So, he set up a research design that would allow him to observe differences. He chose two primarily middle-class (one was racially diverse and the other was predominantly White) and two primarily poor neighborhoods (one was racially diverse and the other was predominantly African American). He hung out in senior centers and other places seniors congregated, watched them as they took the bus to get prescriptions filled, sat in doctor’s offices with them, and listened to their conversations with each other. He also conducted more formal conversations, what we call in-depth interviews, with sixty seniors from each of the four neighborhoods. As with a lot of fieldwork , as he got closer to the people involved, he both expanded and deepened his reach –

By the end of the project, I expanded my pool of general observations to include various settings frequented by seniors: apartment building common rooms, doctors’ offices, emergency rooms, pharmacies, senior centers, bars, parks, corner stores, shopping centers, pool halls, hair salons, coffee shops, and discount stores. Over the course of the three years of fieldwork, I observed hundreds of elders, and developed close relationships with a number of them. ( 2012:10 )

When Abramson rewrote the dissertation for a general audience and published his book in 2015, it got a lot of attention. It is a beautifully written book and it provided insight into a common human experience that we surprisingly know very little about. It won the Outstanding Publication Award by the American Sociological Association Section on Aging and the Life Course and was featured in the New York Times . The book was about aging, and specifically how inequality shapes the aging process, but it was also about much more than that. It helped show how inequality affects people’s everyday lives. For example, by observing the difficulties the poor had in setting up appointments and getting to them using public transportation and then being made to wait to see a doctor, sometimes in standing-room-only situations, when they are unwell, and then being treated dismissively by hospital staff, Abramson allowed readers to feel the material reality of being poor in the US. Comparing these examples with seniors with adequate supplemental insurance who have the resources to hire car services or have others assist them in arranging care when they need it, jolts the reader to understand and appreciate the difference money makes in the lives and circumstances of us all, and in a way that is different than simply reading a statistic (“80% of the poor do not keep regular doctor’s appointments”) does. Qualitative research can reach into spaces and places that often go unexamined and then reports back to the rest of us what it is like in those spaces and places.

Example 2: Racing for Innocence (Interviews + Content Analysis + Fictional Stories)

Jennifer Pierce is a Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota. Trained as a sociologist, she has written a number of books about gender, race, and power. Her very first book, Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms, published in 1995, is a brilliant look at gender dynamics within two law firms. Pierce was a participant observer, working as a paralegal, and she observed how female lawyers and female paralegals struggled to obtain parity with their male colleagues.

Fifteen years later, she reexamined the context of the law firm to include an examination of racial dynamics, particularly how elite white men working in these spaces created and maintained a culture that made it difficult for both female attorneys and attorneys of color to thrive. Her book, Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Gender, and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action , published in 2012, is an interesting and creative blending of interviews with attorneys, content analyses of popular films during this period, and fictional accounts of racial discrimination and sexual harassment. The law firm she chose to study had come under an affirmative action order and was in the process of implementing equitable policies and programs. She wanted to understand how recipients of white privilege (the elite white male attorneys) come to deny the role they play in reproducing inequality. Through interviews with attorneys who were present both before and during the affirmative action order, she creates a historical record of the “bad behavior” that necessitated new policies and procedures, but also, and more importantly , probed the participants ’ understanding of this behavior. It should come as no surprise that most (but not all) of the white male attorneys saw little need for change, and that almost everyone else had accounts that were different if not sometimes downright harrowing.

I’ve used Pierce’s book in my qualitative research methods courses as an example of an interesting blend of techniques and presentation styles. My students often have a very difficult time with the fictional accounts she includes. But they serve an important communicative purpose here. They are her attempts at presenting “both sides” to an objective reality – something happens (Pierce writes this something so it is very clear what it is), and the two participants to the thing that happened have very different understandings of what this means. By including these stories, Pierce presents one of her key findings – people remember things differently and these different memories tend to support their own ideological positions. I wonder what Pierce would have written had she studied the murder of George Floyd or the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 or any number of other historic events whose observers and participants record very different happenings.

This is not to say that qualitative researchers write fictional accounts. In fact, the use of fiction in our work remains controversial. When used, it must be clearly identified as a presentation device, as Pierce did. I include Racing for Innocence here as an example of the multiple uses of methods and techniques and the way that these work together to produce better understandings by us, the readers, of what Pierce studied. We readers come away with a better grasp of how and why advantaged people understate their own involvement in situations and structures that advantage them. This is normal human behavior , in other words. This case may have been about elite white men in law firms, but the general insights here can be transposed to other settings. Indeed, Pierce argues that more research needs to be done about the role elites play in the reproduction of inequality in the workplace in general.

Example 3: Amplified Advantage (Mixed Methods: Survey Interviews + Focus Groups + Archives)

The final example comes from my own work with college students, particularly the ways in which class background affects the experience of college and outcomes for graduates. I include it here as an example of mixed methods, and for the use of supplementary archival research. I’ve done a lot of research over the years on first-generation, low-income, and working-class college students. I am curious (and skeptical) about the possibility of social mobility today, particularly with the rising cost of college and growing inequality in general. As one of the few people in my family to go to college, I didn’t grow up with a lot of examples of what college was like or how to make the most of it. And when I entered graduate school, I realized with dismay that there were very few people like me there. I worried about becoming too different from my family and friends back home. And I wasn’t at all sure that I would ever be able to pay back the huge load of debt I was taking on. And so I wrote my dissertation and first two books about working-class college students. These books focused on experiences in college and the difficulties of navigating between family and school ( Hurst 2010a, 2012 ). But even after all that research, I kept coming back to wondering if working-class students who made it through college had an equal chance at finding good jobs and happy lives,

What happens to students after college? Do working-class students fare as well as their peers? I knew from my own experience that barriers continued through graduate school and beyond, and that my debtload was higher than that of my peers, constraining some of the choices I made when I graduated. To answer these questions, I designed a study of students attending small liberal arts colleges, the type of college that tried to equalize the experience of students by requiring all students to live on campus and offering small classes with lots of interaction with faculty. These private colleges tend to have more money and resources so they can provide financial aid to low-income students. They also attract some very wealthy students. Because they enroll students across the class spectrum, I would be able to draw comparisons. I ended up spending about four years collecting data, both a survey of more than 2000 students (which formed the basis for quantitative analyses) and qualitative data collection (interviews, focus groups, archival research, and participant observation). This is what we call a “mixed methods” approach because we use both quantitative and qualitative data. The survey gave me a large enough number of students that I could make comparisons of the how many kind, and to be able to say with some authority that there were in fact significant differences in experience and outcome by class (e.g., wealthier students earned more money and had little debt; working-class students often found jobs that were not in their chosen careers and were very affected by debt, upper-middle-class students were more likely to go to graduate school). But the survey analyses could not explain why these differences existed. For that, I needed to talk to people and ask them about their motivations and aspirations. I needed to understand their perceptions of the world, and it is very hard to do this through a survey.

By interviewing students and recent graduates, I was able to discern particular patterns and pathways through college and beyond. Specifically, I identified three versions of gameplay. Upper-middle-class students, whose parents were themselves professionals (academics, lawyers, managers of non-profits), saw college as the first stage of their education and took classes and declared majors that would prepare them for graduate school. They also spent a lot of time building their resumes, taking advantage of opportunities to help professors with their research, or study abroad. This helped them gain admission to highly-ranked graduate schools and interesting jobs in the public sector. In contrast, upper-class students, whose parents were wealthy and more likely to be engaged in business (as CEOs or other high-level directors), prioritized building social capital. They did this by joining fraternities and sororities and playing club sports. This helped them when they graduated as they called on friends and parents of friends to find them well-paying jobs. Finally, low-income, first-generation, and working-class students were often adrift. They took the classes that were recommended to them but without the knowledge of how to connect them to life beyond college. They spent time working and studying rather than partying or building their resumes. All three sets of students thought they were “doing college” the right way, the way that one was supposed to do college. But these three versions of gameplay led to distinct outcomes that advantaged some students over others. I titled my work “Amplified Advantage” to highlight this process.

These three examples, Cory Abramson’s The End Game , Jennifer Peirce’s Racing for Innocence, and my own Amplified Advantage, demonstrate the range of approaches and tools available to the qualitative researcher. They also help explain why qualitative research is so important. Numbers can tell us some things about the world, but they cannot get at the hearts and minds, motivations and beliefs of the people who make up the social worlds we inhabit. For that, we need tools that allow us to listen and make sense of what people tell us and show us. That is what good qualitative research offers us.

How Is This Book Organized?

This textbook is organized as a comprehensive introduction to the use of qualitative research methods. The first half covers general topics (e.g., approaches to qualitative research, ethics) and research design (necessary steps for building a successful qualitative research study). The second half reviews various data collection and data analysis techniques. Of course, building a successful qualitative research study requires some knowledge of data collection and data analysis so the chapters in the first half and the chapters in the second half should be read in conversation with each other. That said, each chapter can be read on its own for assistance with a particular narrow topic. In addition to the chapters, a helpful glossary can be found in the back of the book. Rummage around in the text as needed.

Chapter Descriptions

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Research Design Process. How does one begin a study? What is an appropriate research question? How is the study to be done – with what methods ? Involving what people and sites? Although qualitative research studies can and often do change and develop over the course of data collection, it is important to have a good idea of what the aims and goals of your study are at the outset and a good plan of how to achieve those aims and goals. Chapter 2 provides a road map of the process.

Chapter 3 describes and explains various ways of knowing the (social) world. What is it possible for us to know about how other people think or why they behave the way they do? What does it mean to say something is a “fact” or that it is “well-known” and understood? Qualitative researchers are particularly interested in these questions because of the types of research questions we are interested in answering (the how questions rather than the how many questions of quantitative research). Qualitative researchers have adopted various epistemological approaches. Chapter 3 will explore these approaches, highlighting interpretivist approaches that acknowledge the subjective aspect of reality – in other words, reality and knowledge are not objective but rather influenced by (interpreted through) people.

Chapter 4 focuses on the practical matter of developing a research question and finding the right approach to data collection. In any given study (think of Cory Abramson’s study of aging, for example), there may be years of collected data, thousands of observations , hundreds of pages of notes to read and review and make sense of. If all you had was a general interest area (“aging”), it would be very difficult, nearly impossible, to make sense of all of that data. The research question provides a helpful lens to refine and clarify (and simplify) everything you find and collect. For that reason, it is important to pull out that lens (articulate the research question) before you get started. In the case of the aging study, Cory Abramson was interested in how inequalities affected understandings and responses to aging. It is for this reason he designed a study that would allow him to compare different groups of seniors (some middle-class, some poor). Inevitably, he saw much more in the three years in the field than what made it into his book (or dissertation), but he was able to narrow down the complexity of the social world to provide us with this rich account linked to the original research question. Developing a good research question is thus crucial to effective design and a successful outcome. Chapter 4 will provide pointers on how to do this. Chapter 4 also provides an overview of general approaches taken to doing qualitative research and various “traditions of inquiry.”

Chapter 5 explores sampling . After you have developed a research question and have a general idea of how you will collect data (Observations? Interviews?), how do you go about actually finding people and sites to study? Although there is no “correct number” of people to interview , the sample should follow the research question and research design. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research involves nonprobability sampling. Chapter 5 explains why this is so and what qualities instead make a good sample for qualitative research.

Chapter 6 addresses the importance of reflexivity in qualitative research. Related to epistemological issues of how we know anything about the social world, qualitative researchers understand that we the researchers can never be truly neutral or outside the study we are conducting. As observers, we see things that make sense to us and may entirely miss what is either too obvious to note or too different to comprehend. As interviewers, as much as we would like to ask questions neutrally and remain in the background, interviews are a form of conversation, and the persons we interview are responding to us . Therefore, it is important to reflect upon our social positions and the knowledges and expectations we bring to our work and to work through any blind spots that we may have. Chapter 6 provides some examples of reflexivity in practice and exercises for thinking through one’s own biases.

Chapter 7 is a very important chapter and should not be overlooked. As a practical matter, it should also be read closely with chapters 6 and 8. Because qualitative researchers deal with people and the social world, it is imperative they develop and adhere to a strong ethical code for conducting research in a way that does not harm. There are legal requirements and guidelines for doing so (see chapter 8), but these requirements should not be considered synonymous with the ethical code required of us. Each researcher must constantly interrogate every aspect of their research, from research question to design to sample through analysis and presentation, to ensure that a minimum of harm (ideally, zero harm) is caused. Because each research project is unique, the standards of care for each study are unique. Part of being a professional researcher is carrying this code in one’s heart, being constantly attentive to what is required under particular circumstances. Chapter 7 provides various research scenarios and asks readers to weigh in on the suitability and appropriateness of the research. If done in a class setting, it will become obvious fairly quickly that there are often no absolutely correct answers, as different people find different aspects of the scenarios of greatest importance. Minimizing the harm in one area may require possible harm in another. Being attentive to all the ethical aspects of one’s research and making the best judgments one can, clearly and consciously, is an integral part of being a good researcher.

Chapter 8 , best to be read in conjunction with chapter 7, explains the role and importance of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) . Under federal guidelines, an IRB is an appropriately constituted group that has been formally designated to review and monitor research involving human subjects . Every institution that receives funding from the federal government has an IRB. IRBs have the authority to approve, require modifications to (to secure approval), or disapprove research. This group review serves an important role in the protection of the rights and welfare of human research subjects. Chapter 8 reviews the history of IRBs and the work they do but also argues that IRBs’ review of qualitative research is often both over-inclusive and under-inclusive. Some aspects of qualitative research are not well understood by IRBs, given that they were developed to prevent abuses in biomedical research. Thus, it is important not to rely on IRBs to identify all the potential ethical issues that emerge in our research (see chapter 7).

Chapter 9 provides help for getting started on formulating a research question based on gaps in the pre-existing literature. Research is conducted as part of a community, even if particular studies are done by single individuals (or small teams). What any of us finds and reports back becomes part of a much larger body of knowledge. Thus, it is important that we look at the larger body of knowledge before we actually start our bit to see how we can best contribute. When I first began interviewing working-class college students, there was only one other similar study I could find, and it hadn’t been published (it was a dissertation of students from poor backgrounds). But there had been a lot published by professors who had grown up working class and made it through college despite the odds. These accounts by “working-class academics” became an important inspiration for my study and helped me frame the questions I asked the students I interviewed. Chapter 9 will provide some pointers on how to search for relevant literature and how to use this to refine your research question.

Chapter 10 serves as a bridge between the two parts of the textbook, by introducing techniques of data collection. Qualitative research is often characterized by the form of data collection – for example, an ethnographic study is one that employs primarily observational data collection for the purpose of documenting and presenting a particular culture or ethnos. Techniques can be effectively combined, depending on the research question and the aims and goals of the study. Chapter 10 provides a general overview of all the various techniques and how they can be combined.

The second part of the textbook moves into the doing part of qualitative research once the research question has been articulated and the study designed. Chapters 11 through 17 cover various data collection techniques and approaches. Chapters 18 and 19 provide a very simple overview of basic data analysis. Chapter 20 covers communication of the data to various audiences, and in various formats.

Chapter 11 begins our overview of data collection techniques with a focus on interviewing , the true heart of qualitative research. This technique can serve as the primary and exclusive form of data collection, or it can be used to supplement other forms (observation, archival). An interview is distinct from a survey, where questions are asked in a specific order and often with a range of predetermined responses available. Interviews can be conversational and unstructured or, more conventionally, semistructured , where a general set of interview questions “guides” the conversation. Chapter 11 covers the basics of interviews: how to create interview guides, how many people to interview, where to conduct the interview, what to watch out for (how to prepare against things going wrong), and how to get the most out of your interviews.

Chapter 12 covers an important variant of interviewing, the focus group. Focus groups are semistructured interviews with a group of people moderated by a facilitator (the researcher or researcher’s assistant). Focus groups explicitly use group interaction to assist in the data collection. They are best used to collect data on a specific topic that is non-personal and shared among the group. For example, asking a group of college students about a common experience such as taking classes by remote delivery during the pandemic year of 2020. Chapter 12 covers the basics of focus groups: when to use them, how to create interview guides for them, and how to run them effectively.

Chapter 13 moves away from interviewing to the second major form of data collection unique to qualitative researchers – observation . Qualitative research that employs observation can best be understood as falling on a continuum of “fly on the wall” observation (e.g., observing how strangers interact in a doctor’s waiting room) to “participant” observation, where the researcher is also an active participant of the activity being observed. For example, an activist in the Black Lives Matter movement might want to study the movement, using her inside position to gain access to observe key meetings and interactions. Chapter 13 covers the basics of participant observation studies: advantages and disadvantages, gaining access, ethical concerns related to insider/outsider status and entanglement, and recording techniques.

Chapter 14 takes a closer look at “deep ethnography” – immersion in the field of a particularly long duration for the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of a particular culture or social world. Clifford Geertz called this “deep hanging out.” Whereas participant observation is often combined with semistructured interview techniques, deep ethnography’s commitment to “living the life” or experiencing the situation as it really is demands more conversational and natural interactions with people. These interactions and conversations may take place over months or even years. As can be expected, there are some costs to this technique, as well as some very large rewards when done competently. Chapter 14 provides some examples of deep ethnographies that will inspire some beginning researchers and intimidate others.

Chapter 15 moves in the opposite direction of deep ethnography, a technique that is the least positivist of all those discussed here, to mixed methods , a set of techniques that is arguably the most positivist . A mixed methods approach combines both qualitative data collection and quantitative data collection, commonly by combining a survey that is analyzed statistically (e.g., cross-tabs or regression analyses of large number probability samples) with semi-structured interviews. Although it is somewhat unconventional to discuss mixed methods in textbooks on qualitative research, I think it is important to recognize this often-employed approach here. There are several advantages and some disadvantages to taking this route. Chapter 16 will describe those advantages and disadvantages and provide some particular guidance on how to design a mixed methods study for maximum effectiveness.

Chapter 16 covers data collection that does not involve live human subjects at all – archival and historical research (chapter 17 will also cover data that does not involve interacting with human subjects). Sometimes people are unavailable to us, either because they do not wish to be interviewed or observed (as is the case with many “elites”) or because they are too far away, in both place and time. Fortunately, humans leave many traces and we can often answer questions we have by examining those traces. Special collections and archives can be goldmines for social science research. This chapter will explain how to access these places, for what purposes, and how to begin to make sense of what you find.

Chapter 17 covers another data collection area that does not involve face-to-face interaction with humans: content analysis . Although content analysis may be understood more properly as a data analysis technique, the term is often used for the entire approach, which will be the case here. Content analysis involves interpreting meaning from a body of text. This body of text might be something found in historical records (see chapter 16) or something collected by the researcher, as in the case of comment posts on a popular blog post. I once used the stories told by student loan debtors on the website studentloanjustice.org as the content I analyzed. Content analysis is particularly useful when attempting to define and understand prevalent stories or communication about a topic of interest. In other words, when we are less interested in what particular people (our defined sample) are doing or believing and more interested in what general narratives exist about a particular topic or issue. This chapter will explore different approaches to content analysis and provide helpful tips on how to collect data, how to turn that data into codes for analysis, and how to go about presenting what is found through analysis.

Where chapter 17 has pushed us towards data analysis, chapters 18 and 19 are all about what to do with the data collected, whether that data be in the form of interview transcripts or fieldnotes from observations. Chapter 18 introduces the basics of coding , the iterative process of assigning meaning to the data in order to both simplify and identify patterns. What is a code and how does it work? What are the different ways of coding data, and when should you use them? What is a codebook, and why do you need one? What does the process of data analysis look like?

Chapter 19 goes further into detail on codes and how to use them, particularly the later stages of coding in which our codes are refined, simplified, combined, and organized. These later rounds of coding are essential to getting the most out of the data we’ve collected. As students are often overwhelmed with the amount of data (a corpus of interview transcripts typically runs into the hundreds of pages; fieldnotes can easily top that), this chapter will also address time management and provide suggestions for dealing with chaos and reminders that feeling overwhelmed at the analysis stage is part of the process. By the end of the chapter, you should understand how “findings” are actually found.

The book concludes with a chapter dedicated to the effective presentation of data results. Chapter 20 covers the many ways that researchers communicate their studies to various audiences (academic, personal, political), what elements must be included in these various publications, and the hallmarks of excellent qualitative research that various audiences will be expecting. Because qualitative researchers are motivated by understanding and conveying meaning , effective communication is not only an essential skill but a fundamental facet of the entire research project. Ethnographers must be able to convey a certain sense of verisimilitude , the appearance of true reality. Those employing interviews must faithfully depict the key meanings of the people they interviewed in a way that rings true to those people, even if the end result surprises them. And all researchers must strive for clarity in their publications so that various audiences can understand what was found and why it is important.

The book concludes with a short chapter ( chapter 21 ) discussing the value of qualitative research. At the very end of this book, you will find a glossary of terms. I recommend you make frequent use of the glossary and add to each entry as you find examples. Although the entries are meant to be simple and clear, you may also want to paraphrase the definition—make it “make sense” to you, in other words. In addition to the standard reference list (all works cited here), you will find various recommendations for further reading at the end of many chapters. Some of these recommendations will be examples of excellent qualitative research, indicated with an asterisk (*) at the end of the entry. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. A good example of qualitative research can teach you more about conducting research than any textbook can (this one included). I highly recommend you select one to three examples from these lists and read them along with the textbook.

A final note on the choice of examples – you will note that many of the examples used in the text come from research on college students. This is for two reasons. First, as most of my research falls in this area, I am most familiar with this literature and have contacts with those who do research here and can call upon them to share their stories with you. Second, and more importantly, my hope is that this textbook reaches a wide audience of beginning researchers who study widely and deeply across the range of what can be known about the social world (from marine resources management to public policy to nursing to political science to sexuality studies and beyond). It is sometimes difficult to find examples that speak to all those research interests, however. A focus on college students is something that all readers can understand and, hopefully, appreciate, as we are all now or have been at some point a college student.

Patton’s Ten Suggestions for Doing Qualitative Research

The following ten suggestions were made by Michael Quinn Patton in his massive textbooks Qualitative Research and Evaluations Methods . This book is highly recommended for those of you who want more than an introduction to qualitative methods. It is the book I relied on heavily when I was a graduate student, although it is much easier to “dip into” when necessary than to read through as a whole. Patton is asked for “just one bit of advice” for a graduate student considering using qualitative research methods for their dissertation. Here are his top ten responses, in short form, heavily paraphrased, and with additional comments and emphases from me:

Make sure that a qualitative approach fits the research question. The following are the kinds of questions that call out for qualitative methods or where qualitative methods are particularly appropriate: questions about people’s experiences or how they make sense of those experiences; studying a person in their natural environment; researching a phenomenon so unknown that it would be impossible to study it with standardized instruments or other forms of quantitative data collection.
Study qualitative research by going to the original sources for the design and analysis appropriate to the particular approach you want to take (e.g., read Glaser and Straus if you are using grounded theory )
Find a dissertation adviser who understands or at least who will support your use of qualitative research methods. You are asking for trouble if your entire committee is populated by quantitative researchers, even if they are all very knowledgeable about the subject or focus of your study (maybe even more so if they are!)
Really work on design. Doing qualitative research effectively takes a lot of planning. Even if things are more flexible than in quantitative research, a good design is absolutely essential when starting out.
Practice data collection techniques, particularly interviewing and observing. There is definitely a set of learned skills here! Do not expect your first interview to be perfect. You will continue to grow as a researcher the more interviews you conduct, and you will probably come to understand yourself a bit more in the process, too. This is not easy, despite what others who don’t work with qualitative methods may assume (and tell you!)
Have a plan for analysis before you begin data collection. This is often a requirement in IRB protocols , although you can get away with writing something fairly simple. And even if you are taking an approach, such as grounded theory, that pushes you to remain fairly open-minded during the data collection process, you still want to know what you will be doing with all the data collected – creating a codebook? Writing analytical memos? Comparing cases? Having a plan in hand will also help prevent you from collecting too much extraneous data.
Be prepared to confront controversies both within the qualitative research community and between qualitative research and quantitative research. Don’t be naïve about this – qualitative research, particularly some approaches, will be derided by many more “positivist” researchers and audiences. For example, is an “n” of 1 really sufficient? Yes! But not everyone will agree.
Do not make the mistake of using qualitative research methods because someone told you it was easier, or because you are intimidated by the math required of statistical analyses. Qualitative research is difficult in its own way (and many would claim much more time-consuming than quantitative research). Do it because you are convinced it is right for your goals, aims, and research questions.
Find a good support network. This could be a research mentor, or it could be a group of friends or colleagues who are also using qualitative research, or it could be just someone who will listen to you work through all of the issues you will confront out in the field and during the writing process. Even though qualitative research often involves human subjects, it can be pretty lonely. A lot of times you will feel like you are working without a net. You have to create one for yourself. Take care of yourself.
And, finally, in the words of Patton, “Prepare to be changed. Looking deeply at other people’s lives will force you to look deeply at yourself.”
We will actually spend an entire chapter ( chapter 3 ) looking at this question in much more detail! ↵
Note that this might have been news to Europeans at the time, but many other societies around the world had also come to this conclusion through observation. There is often a tendency to equate “the scientific revolution” with the European world in which it took place, but this is somewhat misleading. ↵
Historians are a special case here. Historians have scrupulously and rigorously investigated the social world, but not for the purpose of understanding general laws about how things work, which is the point of scientific empirical research. History is often referred to as an idiographic field of study, meaning that it studies things that happened or are happening in themselves and not for general observations or conclusions. ↵
Don’t worry, we’ll spend more time later in this book unpacking the meaning of ethnography and other terms that are important here. Note the available glossary ↵

An approach to research that is “multimethod in focus, involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variety of empirical materials – case study, personal experience, introspective, life story, interview, observational, historical, interactional, and visual texts – that describe routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals’ lives." ( Denzin and Lincoln 2005:2 ). Contrast with quantitative research .

In contrast to methodology, methods are more simply the practices and tools used to collect and analyze data. Examples of common methods in qualitative research are interviews , observations , and documentary analysis . One’s methodology should connect to one’s choice of methods, of course, but they are distinguishable terms. See also methodology .

A proposed explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation. The positing of a hypothesis is often the first step in quantitative research but not in qualitative research. Even when qualitative researchers offer possible explanations in advance of conducting research, they will tend to not use the word “hypothesis” as it conjures up the kind of positivist research they are not conducting.

The foundational question to be addressed by the research study. This will form the anchor of the research design, collection, and analysis. Note that in qualitative research, the research question may, and probably will, alter or develop during the course of the research.

An approach to research that collects and analyzes numerical data for the purpose of finding patterns and averages, making predictions, testing causal relationships, and generalizing results to wider populations. Contrast with qualitative research .

Data collection that takes place in real-world settings, referred to as “the field;” a key component of much Grounded Theory and ethnographic research. Patton ( 2002 ) calls fieldwork “the central activity of qualitative inquiry” where “‘going into the field’ means having direct and personal contact with people under study in their own environments – getting close to people and situations being studied to personally understand the realities of minutiae of daily life” (48).

The people who are the subjects of a qualitative study. In interview-based studies, they may be the respondents to the interviewer; for purposes of IRBs, they are often referred to as the human subjects of the research.

The branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. For researchers, it is important to recognize and adopt one of the many distinguishing epistemological perspectives as part of our understanding of what questions research can address or fully answer. See, e.g., constructivism , subjectivism, and objectivism .

An approach that refutes the possibility of neutrality in social science research. All research is “guided by a set of beliefs and feelings about the world and how it should be understood and studied” (Denzin and Lincoln 2005: 13). In contrast to positivism , interpretivism recognizes the social constructedness of reality, and researchers adopting this approach focus on capturing interpretations and understandings people have about the world rather than “the world” as it is (which is a chimera).

The cluster of data-collection tools and techniques that involve observing interactions between people, the behaviors, and practices of individuals (sometimes in contrast to what they say about how they act and behave), and cultures in context. Observational methods are the key tools employed by ethnographers and Grounded Theory .

Research based on data collected and analyzed by the research (in contrast to secondary “library” research).

The process of selecting people or other units of analysis to represent a larger population. In quantitative research, this representation is taken quite literally, as statistically representative. In qualitative research, in contrast, sample selection is often made based on potential to generate insight about a particular topic or phenomenon.

A method of data collection in which the researcher asks the participant questions; the answers to these questions are often recorded and transcribed verbatim. There are many different kinds of interviews - see also semistructured interview , structured interview , and unstructured interview .

The specific group of individuals that you will collect data from. Contrast population.

The practice of being conscious of and reflective upon one’s own social location and presence when conducting research. Because qualitative research often requires interaction with live humans, failing to take into account how one’s presence and prior expectations and social location affect the data collected and how analyzed may limit the reliability of the findings. This remains true even when dealing with historical archives and other content. Who we are matters when asking questions about how people experience the world because we, too, are a part of that world.

The science and practice of right conduct; in research, it is also the delineation of moral obligations towards research participants, communities to which we belong, and communities in which we conduct our research.

An administrative body established to protect the rights and welfare of human research subjects recruited to participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of the institution with which it is affiliated. The IRB is charged with the responsibility of reviewing all research involving human participants. The IRB is concerned with protecting the welfare, rights, and privacy of human subjects. The IRB has the authority to approve, disapprove, monitor, and require modifications in all research activities that fall within its jurisdiction as specified by both the federal regulations and institutional policy.

Research, according to US federal guidelines, that involves “a living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research: (1) Obtains information or biospecimens through intervention or interaction with the individual, and uses, studies, or analyzes the information or biospecimens; or (2) Obtains, uses, studies, analyzes, or generates identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens.”

One of the primary methodological traditions of inquiry in qualitative research, ethnography is the study of a group or group culture, largely through observational fieldwork supplemented by interviews. It is a form of fieldwork that may include participant-observation data collection. See chapter 14 for a discussion of deep ethnography.

A form of interview that follows a standard guide of questions asked, although the order of the questions may change to match the particular needs of each individual interview subject, and probing “follow-up” questions are often added during the course of the interview. The semi-structured interview is the primary form of interviewing used by qualitative researchers in the social sciences. It is sometimes referred to as an “in-depth” interview. See also interview and interview guide .

A method of observational data collection taking place in a natural setting; a form of fieldwork . The term encompasses a continuum of relative participation by the researcher (from full participant to “fly-on-the-wall” observer). This is also sometimes referred to as ethnography , although the latter is characterized by a greater focus on the culture under observation.

A research design that employs both quantitative and qualitative methods, as in the case of a survey supplemented by interviews.

An epistemological perspective that posits the existence of reality through sensory experience similar to empiricism but goes further in denying any non-sensory basis of thought or consciousness. In the social sciences, the term has roots in the proto-sociologist August Comte, who believed he could discern “laws” of society similar to the laws of natural science (e.g., gravity). The term has come to mean the kinds of measurable and verifiable science conducted by quantitative researchers and is thus used pejoratively by some qualitative researchers interested in interpretation, consciousness, and human understanding. Calling someone a “positivist” is often intended as an insult. See also empiricism and objectivism.

A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest; most universities have an archive of material related to the university’s history, as well as other “special collections” that may be of interest to members of the community.

A method of both data collection and data analysis in which a given content (textual, visual, graphic) is examined systematically and rigorously to identify meanings, themes, patterns and assumptions. Qualitative content analysis (QCA) is concerned with gathering and interpreting an existing body of material.

A word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data (Saldaña 2021:5).

Usually a verbatim written record of an interview or focus group discussion.

The primary form of data for fieldwork , participant observation , and ethnography . These notes, taken by the researcher either during the course of fieldwork or at day’s end, should include as many details as possible on what was observed and what was said. They should include clear identifiers of date, time, setting, and names (or identifying characteristics) of participants.

The process of labeling and organizing qualitative data to identify different themes and the relationships between them; a way of simplifying data to allow better management and retrieval of key themes and illustrative passages. See coding frame and codebook.

A methodological tradition of inquiry and approach to analyzing qualitative data in which theories emerge from a rigorous and systematic process of induction. This approach was pioneered by the sociologists Glaser and Strauss (1967). The elements of theory generated from comparative analysis of data are, first, conceptual categories and their properties and, second, hypotheses or generalized relations among the categories and their properties – “The constant comparing of many groups draws the [researcher’s] attention to their many similarities and differences. Considering these leads [the researcher] to generate abstract categories and their properties, which, since they emerge from the data, will clearly be important to a theory explaining the kind of behavior under observation.” (36).

A detailed description of any proposed research that involves human subjects for review by IRB. The protocol serves as the recipe for the conduct of the research activity. It includes the scientific rationale to justify the conduct of the study, the information necessary to conduct the study, the plan for managing and analyzing the data, and a discussion of the research ethical issues relevant to the research. Protocols for qualitative research often include interview guides, all documents related to recruitment, informed consent forms, very clear guidelines on the safekeeping of materials collected, and plans for de-identifying transcripts or other data that include personal identifying information.

Open access
Published: 27 May 2020

How to use and assess qualitative research methods

Loraine Busetto ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9228-7875 1 ,
Wolfgang Wick 1 , 2 &
Christoph Gumbinger 1

Neurological Research and Practice volume 2 , Article number: 14 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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This paper aims to provide an overview of the use and assessment of qualitative research methods in the health sciences. Qualitative research can be defined as the study of the nature of phenomena and is especially appropriate for answering questions of why something is (not) observed, assessing complex multi-component interventions, and focussing on intervention improvement. The most common methods of data collection are document study, (non-) participant observations, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. For data analysis, field-notes and audio-recordings are transcribed into protocols and transcripts, and coded using qualitative data management software. Criteria such as checklists, reflexivity, sampling strategies, piloting, co-coding, member-checking and stakeholder involvement can be used to enhance and assess the quality of the research conducted. Using qualitative in addition to quantitative designs will equip us with better tools to address a greater range of research problems, and to fill in blind spots in current neurological research and practice.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of qualitative research methods, including hands-on information on how they can be used, reported and assessed. This article is intended for beginning qualitative researchers in the health sciences as well as experienced quantitative researchers who wish to broaden their understanding of qualitative research.

What is qualitative research?

Qualitative research is defined as “the study of the nature of phenomena”, including “their quality, different manifestations, the context in which they appear or the perspectives from which they can be perceived” , but excluding “their range, frequency and place in an objectively determined chain of cause and effect” [ 1 ]. This formal definition can be complemented with a more pragmatic rule of thumb: qualitative research generally includes data in form of words rather than numbers [ 2 ].

Why conduct qualitative research?

Because some research questions cannot be answered using (only) quantitative methods. For example, one Australian study addressed the issue of why patients from Aboriginal communities often present late or not at all to specialist services offered by tertiary care hospitals. Using qualitative interviews with patients and staff, it found one of the most significant access barriers to be transportation problems, including some towns and communities simply not having a bus service to the hospital [ 3 ]. A quantitative study could have measured the number of patients over time or even looked at possible explanatory factors – but only those previously known or suspected to be of relevance. To discover reasons for observed patterns, especially the invisible or surprising ones, qualitative designs are needed.

While qualitative research is common in other fields, it is still relatively underrepresented in health services research. The latter field is more traditionally rooted in the evidence-based-medicine paradigm, as seen in " research that involves testing the effectiveness of various strategies to achieve changes in clinical practice, preferably applying randomised controlled trial study designs (...) " [ 4 ]. This focus on quantitative research and specifically randomised controlled trials (RCT) is visible in the idea of a hierarchy of research evidence which assumes that some research designs are objectively better than others, and that choosing a "lesser" design is only acceptable when the better ones are not practically or ethically feasible [ 5 , 6 ]. Others, however, argue that an objective hierarchy does not exist, and that, instead, the research design and methods should be chosen to fit the specific research question at hand – "questions before methods" [ 2 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. This means that even when an RCT is possible, some research problems require a different design that is better suited to addressing them. Arguing in JAMA, Berwick uses the example of rapid response teams in hospitals, which he describes as " a complex, multicomponent intervention – essentially a process of social change" susceptible to a range of different context factors including leadership or organisation history. According to him, "[in] such complex terrain, the RCT is an impoverished way to learn. Critics who use it as a truth standard in this context are incorrect" [ 8 ] . Instead of limiting oneself to RCTs, Berwick recommends embracing a wider range of methods , including qualitative ones, which for "these specific applications, (...) are not compromises in learning how to improve; they are superior" [ 8 ].

Research problems that can be approached particularly well using qualitative methods include assessing complex multi-component interventions or systems (of change), addressing questions beyond “what works”, towards “what works for whom when, how and why”, and focussing on intervention improvement rather than accreditation [ 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Using qualitative methods can also help shed light on the “softer” side of medical treatment. For example, while quantitative trials can measure the costs and benefits of neuro-oncological treatment in terms of survival rates or adverse effects, qualitative research can help provide a better understanding of patient or caregiver stress, visibility of illness or out-of-pocket expenses.

How to conduct qualitative research?

Given that qualitative research is characterised by flexibility, openness and responsivity to context, the steps of data collection and analysis are not as separate and consecutive as they tend to be in quantitative research [ 13 , 14 ]. As Fossey puts it : “sampling, data collection, analysis and interpretation are related to each other in a cyclical (iterative) manner, rather than following one after another in a stepwise approach” [ 15 ]. The researcher can make educated decisions with regard to the choice of method, how they are implemented, and to which and how many units they are applied [ 13 ]. As shown in Fig. 1 , this can involve several back-and-forth steps between data collection and analysis where new insights and experiences can lead to adaption and expansion of the original plan. Some insights may also necessitate a revision of the research question and/or the research design as a whole. The process ends when saturation is achieved, i.e. when no relevant new information can be found (see also below: sampling and saturation). For reasons of transparency, it is essential for all decisions as well as the underlying reasoning to be well-documented.

Iterative research process

While it is not always explicitly addressed, qualitative methods reflect a different underlying research paradigm than quantitative research (e.g. constructivism or interpretivism as opposed to positivism). The choice of methods can be based on the respective underlying substantive theory or theoretical framework used by the researcher [ 2 ].

Data collection

The methods of qualitative data collection most commonly used in health research are document study, observations, semi-structured interviews and focus groups [ 1 , 14 , 16 , 17 ].

Document study

Document study (also called document analysis) refers to the review by the researcher of written materials [ 14 ]. These can include personal and non-personal documents such as archives, annual reports, guidelines, policy documents, diaries or letters.

Observations

Observations are particularly useful to gain insights into a certain setting and actual behaviour – as opposed to reported behaviour or opinions [ 13 ]. Qualitative observations can be either participant or non-participant in nature. In participant observations, the observer is part of the observed setting, for example a nurse working in an intensive care unit [ 18 ]. In non-participant observations, the observer is “on the outside looking in”, i.e. present in but not part of the situation, trying not to influence the setting by their presence. Observations can be planned (e.g. for 3 h during the day or night shift) or ad hoc (e.g. as soon as a stroke patient arrives at the emergency room). During the observation, the observer takes notes on everything or certain pre-determined parts of what is happening around them, for example focusing on physician-patient interactions or communication between different professional groups. Written notes can be taken during or after the observations, depending on feasibility (which is usually lower during participant observations) and acceptability (e.g. when the observer is perceived to be judging the observed). Afterwards, these field notes are transcribed into observation protocols. If more than one observer was involved, field notes are taken independently, but notes can be consolidated into one protocol after discussions. Advantages of conducting observations include minimising the distance between the researcher and the researched, the potential discovery of topics that the researcher did not realise were relevant and gaining deeper insights into the real-world dimensions of the research problem at hand [ 18 ].

Semi-structured interviews

Hijmans & Kuyper describe qualitative interviews as “an exchange with an informal character, a conversation with a goal” [ 19 ]. Interviews are used to gain insights into a person’s subjective experiences, opinions and motivations – as opposed to facts or behaviours [ 13 ]. Interviews can be distinguished by the degree to which they are structured (i.e. a questionnaire), open (e.g. free conversation or autobiographical interviews) or semi-structured [ 2 , 13 ]. Semi-structured interviews are characterized by open-ended questions and the use of an interview guide (or topic guide/list) in which the broad areas of interest, sometimes including sub-questions, are defined [ 19 ]. The pre-defined topics in the interview guide can be derived from the literature, previous research or a preliminary method of data collection, e.g. document study or observations. The topic list is usually adapted and improved at the start of the data collection process as the interviewer learns more about the field [ 20 ]. Across interviews the focus on the different (blocks of) questions may differ and some questions may be skipped altogether (e.g. if the interviewee is not able or willing to answer the questions or for concerns about the total length of the interview) [ 20 ]. Qualitative interviews are usually not conducted in written format as it impedes on the interactive component of the method [ 20 ]. In comparison to written surveys, qualitative interviews have the advantage of being interactive and allowing for unexpected topics to emerge and to be taken up by the researcher. This can also help overcome a provider or researcher-centred bias often found in written surveys, which by nature, can only measure what is already known or expected to be of relevance to the researcher. Interviews can be audio- or video-taped; but sometimes it is only feasible or acceptable for the interviewer to take written notes [ 14 , 16 , 20 ].

Focus groups

Focus groups are group interviews to explore participants’ expertise and experiences, including explorations of how and why people behave in certain ways [ 1 ]. Focus groups usually consist of 6–8 people and are led by an experienced moderator following a topic guide or “script” [ 21 ]. They can involve an observer who takes note of the non-verbal aspects of the situation, possibly using an observation guide [ 21 ]. Depending on researchers’ and participants’ preferences, the discussions can be audio- or video-taped and transcribed afterwards [ 21 ]. Focus groups are useful for bringing together homogeneous (to a lesser extent heterogeneous) groups of participants with relevant expertise and experience on a given topic on which they can share detailed information [ 21 ]. Focus groups are a relatively easy, fast and inexpensive method to gain access to information on interactions in a given group, i.e. “the sharing and comparing” among participants [ 21 ]. Disadvantages include less control over the process and a lesser extent to which each individual may participate. Moreover, focus group moderators need experience, as do those tasked with the analysis of the resulting data. Focus groups can be less appropriate for discussing sensitive topics that participants might be reluctant to disclose in a group setting [ 13 ]. Moreover, attention must be paid to the emergence of “groupthink” as well as possible power dynamics within the group, e.g. when patients are awed or intimidated by health professionals.

Choosing the “right” method

As explained above, the school of thought underlying qualitative research assumes no objective hierarchy of evidence and methods. This means that each choice of single or combined methods has to be based on the research question that needs to be answered and a critical assessment with regard to whether or to what extent the chosen method can accomplish this – i.e. the “fit” between question and method [ 14 ]. It is necessary for these decisions to be documented when they are being made, and to be critically discussed when reporting methods and results.

Let us assume that our research aim is to examine the (clinical) processes around acute endovascular treatment (EVT), from the patient’s arrival at the emergency room to recanalization, with the aim to identify possible causes for delay and/or other causes for sub-optimal treatment outcome. As a first step, we could conduct a document study of the relevant standard operating procedures (SOPs) for this phase of care – are they up-to-date and in line with current guidelines? Do they contain any mistakes, irregularities or uncertainties that could cause delays or other problems? Regardless of the answers to these questions, the results have to be interpreted based on what they are: a written outline of what care processes in this hospital should look like. If we want to know what they actually look like in practice, we can conduct observations of the processes described in the SOPs. These results can (and should) be analysed in themselves, but also in comparison to the results of the document analysis, especially as regards relevant discrepancies. Do the SOPs outline specific tests for which no equipment can be observed or tasks to be performed by specialized nurses who are not present during the observation? It might also be possible that the written SOP is outdated, but the actual care provided is in line with current best practice. In order to find out why these discrepancies exist, it can be useful to conduct interviews. Are the physicians simply not aware of the SOPs (because their existence is limited to the hospital’s intranet) or do they actively disagree with them or does the infrastructure make it impossible to provide the care as described? Another rationale for adding interviews is that some situations (or all of their possible variations for different patient groups or the day, night or weekend shift) cannot practically or ethically be observed. In this case, it is possible to ask those involved to report on their actions – being aware that this is not the same as the actual observation. A senior physician’s or hospital manager’s description of certain situations might differ from a nurse’s or junior physician’s one, maybe because they intentionally misrepresent facts or maybe because different aspects of the process are visible or important to them. In some cases, it can also be relevant to consider to whom the interviewee is disclosing this information – someone they trust, someone they are otherwise not connected to, or someone they suspect or are aware of being in a potentially “dangerous” power relationship to them. Lastly, a focus group could be conducted with representatives of the relevant professional groups to explore how and why exactly they provide care around EVT. The discussion might reveal discrepancies (between SOPs and actual care or between different physicians) and motivations to the researchers as well as to the focus group members that they might not have been aware of themselves. For the focus group to deliver relevant information, attention has to be paid to its composition and conduct, for example, to make sure that all participants feel safe to disclose sensitive or potentially problematic information or that the discussion is not dominated by (senior) physicians only. The resulting combination of data collection methods is shown in Fig. 2 .

Possible combination of data collection methods

Attributions for icons: “Book” by Serhii Smirnov, “Interview” by Adrien Coquet, FR, “Magnifying Glass” by anggun, ID, “Business communication” by Vectors Market; all from the Noun Project

The combination of multiple data source as described for this example can be referred to as “triangulation”, in which multiple measurements are carried out from different angles to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon under study [ 22 , 23 ].

Data analysis

To analyse the data collected through observations, interviews and focus groups these need to be transcribed into protocols and transcripts (see Fig. 3 ). Interviews and focus groups can be transcribed verbatim , with or without annotations for behaviour (e.g. laughing, crying, pausing) and with or without phonetic transcription of dialects and filler words, depending on what is expected or known to be relevant for the analysis. In the next step, the protocols and transcripts are coded , that is, marked (or tagged, labelled) with one or more short descriptors of the content of a sentence or paragraph [ 2 , 15 , 23 ]. Jansen describes coding as “connecting the raw data with “theoretical” terms” [ 20 ]. In a more practical sense, coding makes raw data sortable. This makes it possible to extract and examine all segments describing, say, a tele-neurology consultation from multiple data sources (e.g. SOPs, emergency room observations, staff and patient interview). In a process of synthesis and abstraction, the codes are then grouped, summarised and/or categorised [ 15 , 20 ]. The end product of the coding or analysis process is a descriptive theory of the behavioural pattern under investigation [ 20 ]. The coding process is performed using qualitative data management software, the most common ones being InVivo, MaxQDA and Atlas.ti. It should be noted that these are data management tools which support the analysis performed by the researcher(s) [ 14 ].

From data collection to data analysis

Attributions for icons: see Fig. 2 , also “Speech to text” by Trevor Dsouza, “Field Notes” by Mike O’Brien, US, “Voice Record” by ProSymbols, US, “Inspection” by Made, AU, and “Cloud” by Graphic Tigers; all from the Noun Project

How to report qualitative research?

Protocols of qualitative research can be published separately and in advance of the study results. However, the aim is not the same as in RCT protocols, i.e. to pre-define and set in stone the research questions and primary or secondary endpoints. Rather, it is a way to describe the research methods in detail, which might not be possible in the results paper given journals’ word limits. Qualitative research papers are usually longer than their quantitative counterparts to allow for deep understanding and so-called “thick description”. In the methods section, the focus is on transparency of the methods used, including why, how and by whom they were implemented in the specific study setting, so as to enable a discussion of whether and how this may have influenced data collection, analysis and interpretation. The results section usually starts with a paragraph outlining the main findings, followed by more detailed descriptions of, for example, the commonalities, discrepancies or exceptions per category [ 20 ]. Here it is important to support main findings by relevant quotations, which may add information, context, emphasis or real-life examples [ 20 , 23 ]. It is subject to debate in the field whether it is relevant to state the exact number or percentage of respondents supporting a certain statement (e.g. “Five interviewees expressed negative feelings towards XYZ”) [ 21 ].

How to combine qualitative with quantitative research?

Qualitative methods can be combined with other methods in multi- or mixed methods designs, which “[employ] two or more different methods [ …] within the same study or research program rather than confining the research to one single method” [ 24 ]. Reasons for combining methods can be diverse, including triangulation for corroboration of findings, complementarity for illustration and clarification of results, expansion to extend the breadth and range of the study, explanation of (unexpected) results generated with one method with the help of another, or offsetting the weakness of one method with the strength of another [ 1 , 17 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. The resulting designs can be classified according to when, why and how the different quantitative and/or qualitative data strands are combined. The three most common types of mixed method designs are the convergent parallel design , the explanatory sequential design and the exploratory sequential design. The designs with examples are shown in Fig. 4 .

Three common mixed methods designs

In the convergent parallel design, a qualitative study is conducted in parallel to and independently of a quantitative study, and the results of both studies are compared and combined at the stage of interpretation of results. Using the above example of EVT provision, this could entail setting up a quantitative EVT registry to measure process times and patient outcomes in parallel to conducting the qualitative research outlined above, and then comparing results. Amongst other things, this would make it possible to assess whether interview respondents’ subjective impressions of patients receiving good care match modified Rankin Scores at follow-up, or whether observed delays in care provision are exceptions or the rule when compared to door-to-needle times as documented in the registry. In the explanatory sequential design, a quantitative study is carried out first, followed by a qualitative study to help explain the results from the quantitative study. This would be an appropriate design if the registry alone had revealed relevant delays in door-to-needle times and the qualitative study would be used to understand where and why these occurred, and how they could be improved. In the exploratory design, the qualitative study is carried out first and its results help informing and building the quantitative study in the next step [ 26 ]. If the qualitative study around EVT provision had shown a high level of dissatisfaction among the staff members involved, a quantitative questionnaire investigating staff satisfaction could be set up in the next step, informed by the qualitative study on which topics dissatisfaction had been expressed. Amongst other things, the questionnaire design would make it possible to widen the reach of the research to more respondents from different (types of) hospitals, regions, countries or settings, and to conduct sub-group analyses for different professional groups.

How to assess qualitative research?

A variety of assessment criteria and lists have been developed for qualitative research, ranging in their focus and comprehensiveness [ 14 , 17 , 27 ]. However, none of these has been elevated to the “gold standard” in the field. In the following, we therefore focus on a set of commonly used assessment criteria that, from a practical standpoint, a researcher can look for when assessing a qualitative research report or paper.

Assessors should check the authors’ use of and adherence to the relevant reporting checklists (e.g. Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR)) to make sure all items that are relevant for this type of research are addressed [ 23 , 28 ]. Discussions of quantitative measures in addition to or instead of these qualitative measures can be a sign of lower quality of the research (paper). Providing and adhering to a checklist for qualitative research contributes to an important quality criterion for qualitative research, namely transparency [ 15 , 17 , 23 ].

Reflexivity

While methodological transparency and complete reporting is relevant for all types of research, some additional criteria must be taken into account for qualitative research. This includes what is called reflexivity, i.e. sensitivity to the relationship between the researcher and the researched, including how contact was established and maintained, or the background and experience of the researcher(s) involved in data collection and analysis. Depending on the research question and population to be researched this can be limited to professional experience, but it may also include gender, age or ethnicity [ 17 , 27 ]. These details are relevant because in qualitative research, as opposed to quantitative research, the researcher as a person cannot be isolated from the research process [ 23 ]. It may influence the conversation when an interviewed patient speaks to an interviewer who is a physician, or when an interviewee is asked to discuss a gynaecological procedure with a male interviewer, and therefore the reader must be made aware of these details [ 19 ].

Sampling and saturation

The aim of qualitative sampling is for all variants of the objects of observation that are deemed relevant for the study to be present in the sample “ to see the issue and its meanings from as many angles as possible” [ 1 , 16 , 19 , 20 , 27 ] , and to ensure “information-richness [ 15 ]. An iterative sampling approach is advised, in which data collection (e.g. five interviews) is followed by data analysis, followed by more data collection to find variants that are lacking in the current sample. This process continues until no new (relevant) information can be found and further sampling becomes redundant – which is called saturation [ 1 , 15 ] . In other words: qualitative data collection finds its end point not a priori , but when the research team determines that saturation has been reached [ 29 , 30 ].

This is also the reason why most qualitative studies use deliberate instead of random sampling strategies. This is generally referred to as “ purposive sampling” , in which researchers pre-define which types of participants or cases they need to include so as to cover all variations that are expected to be of relevance, based on the literature, previous experience or theory (i.e. theoretical sampling) [ 14 , 20 ]. Other types of purposive sampling include (but are not limited to) maximum variation sampling, critical case sampling or extreme or deviant case sampling [ 2 ]. In the above EVT example, a purposive sample could include all relevant professional groups and/or all relevant stakeholders (patients, relatives) and/or all relevant times of observation (day, night and weekend shift).

Assessors of qualitative research should check whether the considerations underlying the sampling strategy were sound and whether or how researchers tried to adapt and improve their strategies in stepwise or cyclical approaches between data collection and analysis to achieve saturation [ 14 ].

Good qualitative research is iterative in nature, i.e. it goes back and forth between data collection and analysis, revising and improving the approach where necessary. One example of this are pilot interviews, where different aspects of the interview (especially the interview guide, but also, for example, the site of the interview or whether the interview can be audio-recorded) are tested with a small number of respondents, evaluated and revised [ 19 ]. In doing so, the interviewer learns which wording or types of questions work best, or which is the best length of an interview with patients who have trouble concentrating for an extended time. Of course, the same reasoning applies to observations or focus groups which can also be piloted.

Ideally, coding should be performed by at least two researchers, especially at the beginning of the coding process when a common approach must be defined, including the establishment of a useful coding list (or tree), and when a common meaning of individual codes must be established [ 23 ]. An initial sub-set or all transcripts can be coded independently by the coders and then compared and consolidated after regular discussions in the research team. This is to make sure that codes are applied consistently to the research data.

Member checking

Member checking, also called respondent validation , refers to the practice of checking back with study respondents to see if the research is in line with their views [ 14 , 27 ]. This can happen after data collection or analysis or when first results are available [ 23 ]. For example, interviewees can be provided with (summaries of) their transcripts and asked whether they believe this to be a complete representation of their views or whether they would like to clarify or elaborate on their responses [ 17 ]. Respondents’ feedback on these issues then becomes part of the data collection and analysis [ 27 ].

Stakeholder involvement

In those niches where qualitative approaches have been able to evolve and grow, a new trend has seen the inclusion of patients and their representatives not only as study participants (i.e. “members”, see above) but as consultants to and active participants in the broader research process [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. The underlying assumption is that patients and other stakeholders hold unique perspectives and experiences that add value beyond their own single story, making the research more relevant and beneficial to researchers, study participants and (future) patients alike [ 34 , 35 ]. Using the example of patients on or nearing dialysis, a recent scoping review found that 80% of clinical research did not address the top 10 research priorities identified by patients and caregivers [ 32 , 36 ]. In this sense, the involvement of the relevant stakeholders, especially patients and relatives, is increasingly being seen as a quality indicator in and of itself.

How not to assess qualitative research

The above overview does not include certain items that are routine in assessments of quantitative research. What follows is a non-exhaustive, non-representative, experience-based list of the quantitative criteria often applied to the assessment of qualitative research, as well as an explanation of the limited usefulness of these endeavours.

Protocol adherence

Given the openness and flexibility of qualitative research, it should not be assessed by how well it adheres to pre-determined and fixed strategies – in other words: its rigidity. Instead, the assessor should look for signs of adaptation and refinement based on lessons learned from earlier steps in the research process.

Sample size

For the reasons explained above, qualitative research does not require specific sample sizes, nor does it require that the sample size be determined a priori [ 1 , 14 , 27 , 37 , 38 , 39 ]. Sample size can only be a useful quality indicator when related to the research purpose, the chosen methodology and the composition of the sample, i.e. who was included and why.

Randomisation

While some authors argue that randomisation can be used in qualitative research, this is not commonly the case, as neither its feasibility nor its necessity or usefulness has been convincingly established for qualitative research [ 13 , 27 ]. Relevant disadvantages include the negative impact of a too large sample size as well as the possibility (or probability) of selecting “ quiet, uncooperative or inarticulate individuals ” [ 17 ]. Qualitative studies do not use control groups, either.

Interrater reliability, variability and other “objectivity checks”

The concept of “interrater reliability” is sometimes used in qualitative research to assess to which extent the coding approach overlaps between the two co-coders. However, it is not clear what this measure tells us about the quality of the analysis [ 23 ]. This means that these scores can be included in qualitative research reports, preferably with some additional information on what the score means for the analysis, but it is not a requirement. Relatedly, it is not relevant for the quality or “objectivity” of qualitative research to separate those who recruited the study participants and collected and analysed the data. Experiences even show that it might be better to have the same person or team perform all of these tasks [ 20 ]. First, when researchers introduce themselves during recruitment this can enhance trust when the interview takes place days or weeks later with the same researcher. Second, when the audio-recording is transcribed for analysis, the researcher conducting the interviews will usually remember the interviewee and the specific interview situation during data analysis. This might be helpful in providing additional context information for interpretation of data, e.g. on whether something might have been meant as a joke [ 18 ].

Not being quantitative research

Being qualitative research instead of quantitative research should not be used as an assessment criterion if it is used irrespectively of the research problem at hand. Similarly, qualitative research should not be required to be combined with quantitative research per se – unless mixed methods research is judged as inherently better than single-method research. In this case, the same criterion should be applied for quantitative studies without a qualitative component.

The main take-away points of this paper are summarised in Table 1 . We aimed to show that, if conducted well, qualitative research can answer specific research questions that cannot to be adequately answered using (only) quantitative designs. Seeing qualitative and quantitative methods as equal will help us become more aware and critical of the “fit” between the research problem and our chosen methods: I can conduct an RCT to determine the reasons for transportation delays of acute stroke patients – but should I? It also provides us with a greater range of tools to tackle a greater range of research problems more appropriately and successfully, filling in the blind spots on one half of the methodological spectrum to better address the whole complexity of neurological research and practice.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

Endovascular treatment

Randomised Controlled Trial

Standard Operating Procedure

Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research

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Loraine Busetto, Wolfgang Wick & Christoph Gumbinger

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Busetto, L., Wick, W. & Gumbinger, C. How to use and assess qualitative research methods. Neurol. Res. Pract. 2 , 14 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42466-020-00059-z

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The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research

A newer edition of this book is available.

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1 Introduction

Patricia Leavy Independent Scholar Kennebunk, ME, USA

Published: 01 July 2014
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This chapter serves as the introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research . The first half of the chapter responds to two questions. First, the chapter addresses the question: What is qualitative research? In answering the question, the chapter reviews the major elements of research: paradigm, ontology, epistemology (which together form the philosophical basis of research), genre, methods, theory, methodology (which operate at the level of praxis), ethics, values, and reflexivity (which merge the philosophical and praxis dimensions of research). Second, the chapter addresses the question: Who are qualitative researchers? Leavy explains qualitative research as a form of bricolage and qualitative researchers as bricoleurs. The remainder of the chapter reviews the contents of the handbook, providing a chapter by chapter summary.

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. – T. S. Eliot

I open the introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research with the preceding quote for two reasons. First, it captures the essence of qualitative inquiry as a way of understanding, describing, explaining, unraveling, illuminating, chronicling, and documenting social life—which includes attention to the everyday, to the mundane and ordinary, as much as the extraordinary. Qualitative research can involve the study of others, but also the self and the complex relationships between, within, and among people and groups, including our own entanglements. The second reason I have begun with this quote is because it opens Laurel Richardson’s book Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life (1997) . This is one of my favorite books, and, in it, Richardson expands the way we think of ourselves as researchers, writers, and knowers. What I intend to do by way of sharing this is to locate myself within the field and within this text—this is something that many qualitative researchers aim to do, in various ways. In qualitative research, we are not outside of our projects, but located and shifting within them. Qualitative research is an engaged way of building knowledge about the social world and human experience, and qualitative researchers are enmeshed in their projects.

What Is Qualitative Research?

Science is a conversation between rigor and imagination. ( Abbott, 2004 , p. 3)

Qualitative research is a way of learning about social reality. Qualitative approaches to research can be used across the disciplines to study a wide array of topics. In the social and behavioral sciences, these approaches to research are often used to explore, describe, or explain social phenomenon; unpack the meanings people ascribe to activities, situations, events, or artefacts; build a depth of understanding about some aspect of social life; build “thick descriptions” (see Clifford Geertz, 1973 ) of people in naturalistic settings; explore new or underresearched areas; or make micro–macro links (illuminate connections between individuals–groups and institutional and/or cultural contexts).

Qualitative research itself is an umbrella term for a rich array of research practices and products. Qualitative research is an expansive and continually evolving methodological field that encompasses a wide range of approaches to research, as well as multiple perspectives on the nature of research itself. It has been argued that qualitative research developed in an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, or counterdisciplinary field ( Denzin & Lincoln, 1998 ; Jovanic, 2011 ; Lorenz, 2010 ). This approach to inquiry is unique, in part because of its philosophical and methodological diversity, as well as because of the value system guiding research practice.

The diversity of the qualitative landscape, as well as the gestalt of qualitative practice, is also partly attributable to the context in which qualitative research developed. Chapter 2 in this handbook looks much more fully at the historical development of qualitative research, but I would like to briefly note the period of growth in the 1960s and 1970s because it bears directly on the richness of contemporary qualitative practice. 2

Although there were many pivotal works published prior to the 1960s, the social justice movements of the 1960s and 1970s—the civil rights, women’s, gay rights, and peace movements—culminated in major changes in the academic landscape, including the asking of new research questions and the reframing of many previously asked research questions and corresponding approaches to research. These movements in essence became sites for new ways of thinking and led to the critique of dominant methods of scientific practice, many of which relied on positivism ( Jovanic, 2011 ). There was a drive to include people historically excluded from social research or included in ways that reinforced stereotypes and justified relations of oppression, and researchers became more cognizant of power within the research process ( Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2011 ). A couple of decades later, interdisciplinary area studies that developed in the context of critique—women’s studies, African-American studies, Chicana/Chicano studies—began emerging across academic institutions.

Because of the sociohistorical conditions in which it developed, the qualitative tradition can be characterized by its multiplicity of approaches to research as well as by its focus on the uses to which that research might be put . In this vein, there is a social justice undercurrent to qualitative practice, one that may be implicit or explicit depending on the positioning and goals of the practitioner and the project at hand.

Many qualitative researchers define qualitative research by comparing it to quantitative research. I myself have done this. However, instead of describing what something is by explaining what it isn’t, I focus on a discussion of the qualitative tradition as understood on its own merits. 3 One way of understanding qualitative research is by considering the key dimensions of any research practice and discussing them in terms of qualitative practice.

The Elements of Research

The main dimensions of research can be categorized under three general categories: philosophical, praxis, and ethics. The philosophical substructure of research consists of three elements: paradigm, ontology, and epistemology. At the level of praxis there are four key elements of research: genre, methods, theory, and methodology. The ethical compass (which combines philosophical and praxis dimensions) includes three main elements: ethics, values, and reflexivity (see Table 1.1 ).

The Philosophical Substructure of Qualitative Research

A range of beliefs guide research practice—beliefs about how research should proceed, what can be known, who can be a knower, and how we come to know. Together, these beliefs form the philosophical substructure of research and inform all aspects of the research from topic selection to research design to the final representation and dissemination of the research findings and all phases in between.

A paradigm is a worldview through which knowledge is filtered ( Kuhn, 1962 ). In other words, it is an overarching perspective that guides the research process. I think of paradigms as sunglasses, with different color lenses. When you put a pair on, it influences everything you see. Qualitative research is multiparadigmatic, with researchers working from different worldviews (such as post-positivism, interpretivism, and critical orientations), which makes it a highly diverse field of inquiry.

An ontology is a philosophical belief system about the nature of social reality, including what we can learn about this reality and how we can do so. In their classic definition, Egon Guba and Yvonna Lincoln explained the ontological question as: “What is the form and nature of reality and, therefore, what is there that can be known about it?” (1998, p. 201). Qualitative researchers adopt a perspective that suggests knowledge building is viewed as generative and process-oriented. The truth is not absolute and ready to be “discovered” by “objective” researchers, but rather it is contingent, contextual, and multiple ( Saldaña, 2011 ). Subjectivity is acknowledged and valued. Objectivity may be redefined and achieved through the owning and disclosing of one’s values system, not disavowing it ( Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2011 ).

If the ontological question is “What can be known?” then the epistemological question is “Who can be a knower?” An epistemology is a philosophical belief system about how research proceeds as an embodied activity, how one embodies the role of researcher, and the relationship between the researcher and research participants ( Guba & Lincoln, 1998 ; Harding, 1987 ; Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2004 ; 2011 ). Qualitative researchers work from many different epistemological positions. Researchers may work individually or as a part of a team with their participants in the co-creation of knowledge. From this perspective, researchers are not considered neutral or objective in the traditional sense. Rather, researchers acknowledge how their personal, professional, and political commitments influence all aspects of their research. Researchers are considered instruments in qualitative research ( Bresler, 2005 ; Saldaña, 2011 ). Research participants are valued and positioned as knowledge bearers and co-creators. This position rejects a hierarchical structure between the researcher and research participants or the idea that the researcher is the sole authority.

Together, the ontological and epistemological belief systems guiding the research practice serves as the philosophical basis or substructure of any research practice ( Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2011 ). Although a researcher’s ontological and epistemological positions can vary across qualitative projects and may be influenced by a range of other factors, including theoretical and personal commitments, generally, qualitative researchers seek to build partial and contextualized truths in collaboration with their research participants or through reflexive engagement with their research texts.

Praxis: Approaches, Methods, and Theories in Action

Praxis is the doing of research—the practice of research. Approaches, methods, and theories come into being during praxis, as researchers build projects and execute on them, often making adjustments along the way.

Genres of research are overarching categories for different ways of approaching research ( Saldaña, 2011 ). Each genre lends itself to studying particular kinds of topics and includes a range of commonly used methods of data collection, analysis, and representation. Frequently used research genres include but are not limited to field research, interview, grounded theory, unobtrusive approaches, participatory research, community-based research, arts-based research, internet research, and multimethod and mixed-method approaches. This is not an exhaustive list. The genre within which a researcher works is motivated by a combination of factors, including the research topic, the research question(s), his or her methodological preferences and experiences, and the intended audience(s) for the research, as well as by a range of pragmatic considerations such as funding, time, and the researcher’s previous experience, skills, and personal preferences.

Research methods are tools for data collection. Research methods commonly used in qualitative practice include but are not limited to ethnography, autoethnography, duoethnography, narrative inquiry, in-depth interview, semistructured interview, focus group interview, oral history, document analysis, content analysis, historical-comparative methods, poetic inquiry, audiovisual methods, visual methods, photo-voice, case study, multiple case study, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, daily diary research, program evaluation, ethnodrama, ethnotheatre, ethnocinema, play building, and fiction-based research. As you can see, qualitative researchers use a range of tools for data collection. Research methods are selected because they are the best tools to gather the data sought for a particular study. The selection of research methods should be made in conjunction with the research question(s) and purpose or objective. In other words, depending on the research topic and how the research questions are framed, as well as more pragmatic issues such as access to participants or textual/preexisting data sources, time, and practical skills, researchers are guided to particular methods.

Each genre discussed earlier lends itself to the use of particular methods. For example, the genre of arts-based research lends itself to the use of ethnodrama, ethnotheatre, ethnocinema, play building, fiction-based research, poetic inquiry, audiovisual methods, photo-voice, or visual methods. The genre of interview research lends itself to the use of in-depth interview, semistructured interview, focus group interview, or oral history. Of course, these genres are all more complicated in practice. For example, discourse analysis is a method that may be employed in an interview study, document analysis, or narrative inquiry. Furthermore, depending on the context in which one employs a method, such as narrative inquiry, one might view it as an arts-based approach, interview approach, way of doing autoethnography, or a method of analysis. The intent is not to confuse matters but, given how large and diffuse the field of qualitative research is and the variety of ways that methods can be creatively employed, it is important to understand that you may come across these terms conceptualized in various ways in the literature. One of the reasons that methods can be conceptualized and employed in many different ways is because qualitative researchers also draw on multiple theories.

A theory is an account of social reality that is grounded in empirical data but extends beyond that data. Numerous theoretical perspectives may guide the research process, including but not limited to post-positivism, interpretive, symbolic interactionism, dramaturgy, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, social constructionism, post-structuralism, post-modernism, feminism, intersectionality theory, queer theory, and critical race theory. This is also not an exhaustive list and in most instances each of these theoretical perspectives are general categories for a range of more specific theories. A qualitative research study may also yield the development of a new theory. In these instances, theory develops inductively out of the research process. In other words, the study generates data out of which a theory is built—that theory is grounded in the empirical data from that study but extends beyond that data and can be applied to other situations.

A methodology is plan for how research will proceed—combining methods and theory. The methodology is what the researcher actually does once he or she has combined the different elements of research. The methodology is informed by the philosophical beliefs guiding the research, the selection of research methods, and the use of theory. One’s attention to ethics and their corresponding values system also influences how a study is designed and how methods are employed. Although two studies may use the same research method—for instance, a focus group interview—the researchers’ methodologies may be completely different. In other words, how they proceed with the research, based not only on their data collection tool but also on how they conceive of the use of that tool and thus structure the study, determines their methodology. The level of moderation and/or control a researcher exhibits during focus group interviews can vary greatly. Methodologies are not standardized nor are they typically etched in stone. Not only will methodological approaches to research vary across projects, but, even within a particular project, methodologies are often viewed as flexible and malleable. A qualitative researcher might adjust his or her methodology over the course of a project to facilitate new learning or new insights or to adapt to unanticipated challenges, obstacles, or opportunities. The malleability of qualitative methodologies is a strength of this approach to knowledge generation.

It is important to note that although I have reviewed methods for data collection as a part of methodology, there are also methods or strategies for qualitative data analysis, interpretation, representation, and dissemination of research findings. Similar to data collection tools and theories, these too are diverse, making the methodological possibilities rich.

Ethics: Beliefs and Practices

Ethics is an area that bridges the philosophical and praxis aspects of research. Ethics play a central role in any research practice. Typically, when we think about ethics in social research, particularly when working with human subjects, we are referring to issues such as preventing harm to the people or settings involved in the study, avoiding exploitation of research participants (with added attention in the case of vulnerable populations), disclosure of the nature of the study and how the findings will be used, the voluntary nature of participation, and confidentiality. Additionally, qualitative researchers have an ethical obligation to carefully consider how research participants are portrayed and to act sensitively.

Additional ethical issues are linked to a researcher’s ontological, epistemological, and practical imperatives, which together form a researcher’s values system. For instance, the real-world value or public usefulness of the research, the inclusion of underrepresented populations, the treatment of anomalous or contradictory data, and the way that the research findings are distributed to relevant stakeholders—these issues are also connected to ethical practice.

Reflexivity is also a core concept in the qualitative community and refers to one’s attention to how power and bias come to bear during all phases of the research. As D. Soyini Madison suggests, reflexivity is about “the politics of positionality” and acknowledging our power, privileges, and biases throughout the research process (2005, p. 6). The social justice imperative of many qualitative projects is a driver of reflexivity, as are critical and power-sensitive theoretical traditions. I suggest reflexivity is both a philosophical perspective and a way of doing or acting within the context of research, from start to finish (see Table 1.2 ).

Given the wide range of approaches, tools, and values that guide qualitative research, it is a rich and evolving tradition with innumerable possibilities for knowledge building and knowledge sharing. Researchers can build, craft, or construct many different kinds of projects to study a nearly limitless range of topics. For these reasons, many consider qualitative research a craft or form of bricolage.

Who Are Qualitative Researchers?

We are all interpretive bricoleurs stuck in the present working against the past as we move into a politically charged and challenging future. ( Norman K. Denzin, 2010 , p. 15)

The qualitative researcher can be thought of as a bricoleur—someone who comfortably draws on multiple bodies of scholarship, methods, and theories to do her or his work. The term bricoleur is attributed to Levi-Strauss (1966) ; however, Denzin and Lincoln popularized applying the term to the work of qualitative researchers. Thomas A. Schwandt (2001) writes:

As a bricoleur , the qualitative inquirer is capable of donning multiple identities—researcher, scientist, artist, critic, and performer—and engaging in different kinds of bricolage that consist of particular configurations of (or ways of relating) various fragments of inherited methodologies, methods, empirical materials, perspectives, understandings, ways of presentation, situated responsiveness, and so on into a coherent, reasoned approach to a research situation and problem. The bricolage appears to vary depending on one’s allegiance to different notions of interpretation, understanding, representation, and so on drawn from various intellectual and practice traditions. (p. 20) Table 1.2 Summary of key elements of research Element . Philosophical or Praxis . Definition . Paradigm Philosophical Guiding worldview Ontology Philosophical The nature of social reality and what can be known about it Epistemology Philosophical The role of the researcher and researcher/participant relationship Genres Praxis Categories of ways of approaching research Methods Praxis Tools for data collection Theory Praxis Account of social reality that extends beyond data Methodology Praxis A plan for how research will proceed (combining methods, theory, and ethics) Ethics Philosophical and Praxis How one engages with, informs, and protects participants Values System Philosophical and Praxis Usefulness and distribution to the public, inclusion of underrepresented groups Reflexivity Philosophical and Praxis Attention to power, bias, and researcher positionality Element . Philosophical or Praxis . Definition . Paradigm Philosophical Guiding worldview Ontology Philosophical The nature of social reality and what can be known about it Epistemology Philosophical The role of the researcher and researcher/participant relationship Genres Praxis Categories of ways of approaching research Methods Praxis Tools for data collection Theory Praxis Account of social reality that extends beyond data Methodology Praxis A plan for how research will proceed (combining methods, theory, and ethics) Ethics Philosophical and Praxis How one engages with, informs, and protects participants Values System Philosophical and Praxis Usefulness and distribution to the public, inclusion of underrepresented groups Reflexivity Philosophical and Praxis Attention to power, bias, and researcher positionality Open in new tab

Qualitative researchers may draw on scientific, humanistic, artistic, and other disciplinary forms. In this regard, qualitative research can be viewed as a scholarly, practical, and creative pursuit. Researchers need to be able to think analytically, symbolically, imaginatively, and metaphorically ( Saldaña, 2011 ). Moreover, projects often demand innovation, creativity, intuition, flexibility, and responsiveness (adapting to new learning or practical problems). This is a rigorous and often labor-intensive process. Qualitative research commonly requires working with others over an expanse of time and producing large amounts of data for analysis while also demanding sustained attention to ethics and values. It is also a creative process—allowing researchers to experiment, play, adapt, learn, and grow along the way.

Of course, pragmatic considerations come into play when designing a project: funding, time, access to needed participants or textual/preexisting data sources, and the researcher’s previous experience, skills, and personal preferences. Unfortunately, qualitative researchers are more often limited by practical issues than by their imaginative capabilities.

Despite these challenges, qualitative research is also a deeply rewarding process that may result in new learning about topics of import, increased self-awareness, the forging of meaningful relationships between co-creators of knowledge, the production of public scholarship, and the impetus for social change.

The Contents of This Handbook

As noted in the preface, no handbook can be all things to all people. It’s impossible to cover the entire field, and so I have approached the content with practicality in mind: what one learning about and/or embarking on qualitative research most needs to know, peppered with advanced material and prospective reviews intended to be of value to even the most experienced researchers.

Part 1 of this handbook, “The Qualitative Tradition,” offers a historical review of the field. Specifically, Part 1 presents an overview of the history of qualitative research in the social sciences and the ethical substructure of qualitative research practice.

In Chapter 2 , “Historical Overview of Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences,” Svend Brinkmann, Michael Hviid Jacobsen, and Søren Kristiansen provide a detailed history of qualitative research in the social sciences. As they note, this history is a complicated task because there is no agreed-upon version but rather a variety of perspectives. Accordingly, these authors present six histories of qualitative research: the conceptual history, the internal history, the marginalizing history, the repressed history, the social history, and the technological history. They also suggest that writing about history is necessarily tied up with writing about the future and thus conclude their contribution with a vision of the field. In Chapter 3 , “The History of Historical-Comparative Methods in Sociology,” Chares Demetriou and Victor Roudometof present an overview of the historical trajectory of comparative-historical sociology while considering the development of specific methodological approaches. Next is Anna Traianou’s chapter, “The Centrality of Ethics in Qualitative Research.” Attention to the ethical substructure of research is central to any qualitative practice and thus is given priority as the closing chapter in Part 1 . Traianou details the main ethical issues in qualitative practice, bearing in mind the changing sociohistorical climate in which research is carried out.

Part 2 of this handbook, “Approaches to Qualitative Research,” presents an array of philosophical approaches to qualitative research (all of which have implications for research praxis). Because qualitative research is a diverse tradition, it is impossible to adequately cover all of the approaches researchers may adopt. Nevertheless, Part 2 provides both an overview of the key approaches to qualitative research and detailed reviews of several commonly used approaches.

Part 2 opens with Renée Spencer, Julia M. Pryce, and Jill Walsh’s chapter, “Philosophical Approaches to Qualitative Research,” which provides a general view of the philosophical approaches that typically guide qualitative practice. They review post-positivism, constructivism, critical theory, feminism, and queer theory and offer a brief history of these approaches, considering the ontological, epistemological, and axiological assumptions on which they rest, and they detail some of their distinguishing features. They also identify three overarching, interrelated, and contested issues with which the field is being confronted: retaining the rich diversity that has defined the field, the articulation of recognizable standards for qualitative research, and the commensurability of differing approaches.

After the overview in Chapter 5 , we turn to in-depth treatments of specific approaches to qualitative research. In Chapter 6 , “Applied Interpretive Approaches,” Sally E. Thorne turns to the applied world of qualitative practice. Thorne considers how many applied scholars have been departing from established method to articulate approaches better suited to the questions of the applied world. This chapter considers the evolving relationship between the methods and their disciplinary origins and current trends in the direction of the applied interpretive qualitative project. Interpretive description is used as a methodological case in point to illustrate the kinds of departures that applied approaches are taking from their theoretical roots as they begin to advance knowledge development within applied contexts.

Chapter 7 , “The Grounded Theory Method” by Antony Bryant, reviews grounded theory, which, as Bryant notes, is itself a somewhat misleading term because it actually refers to a method that facilitates the development of new theoretical insights. Bryant’s suggestion about the complexity of the term itself is duly noted because this chapter could easily have been placed in Part 3 of this handbook. However, because grounded theory can be used in conjunction with more than one method of data collection, I have placed it in Part 2 as an approach to research. This chapter provides background information about the development of grounded theory as well as its main features, procedures outputs, and evaluation criteria.

The final three chapters in Part 2 tackle power-sensitive or social justice approaches to qualitative research that have emerged in the context of activist and scholarly work. In Chapter 8 , “Feminist Qualitative Research: Toward Transformation of Science and Society,” Maureen C. McHugh offers an in-depth treatment of feminist qualitative research, described in terms of its purposes of addressing women’s lives, advocacy for women, analysis of gender oppression, and transformation of society. The chapter covers topics including the feminist critiques of social science research, the transformation of science from empiricism to post-modernism (including intersectionality and double consciousness), reflexivity, collaboration, power analysis, advocacy, validity, and voice. Several qualitative approaches to research are described in relation to feminist research goals, with illustrations of feminist research. In Chapter 9 , “Critical Approaches to Qualitative Research,” Kum-Kum Bhavnani, Peter Chua, and Dana Collins reflect on critical strategies in qualitative research and examine the meanings and debates associated with the term “critical.” The authors contrast liberal and dialectical notions and practices in relations to social analysis and qualitative research. The chapter also explores how critical social research may be synonymous with critical ethnography in relation to issues of power, positionality, representation, and the production of situated knowledges. It uses Bhavnani’s (1993) framework to draw on Dana Collin’s research as a specific case to suggest how the notion of the “critical” relates to ethnographic research practices: ensuring feminist and queer accountability, resisting reinscription, and integrating lived experience. In Chapter 10 , “Decolonizing Research Practice: Indigenous Methodologies, Aboriginal Methods, and Knowledge/Knowing,” Mike Evans, Adrian Miller, Peter Hutchinson, and Carlene Dingwall review Indigenous approaches to research that are fundamentally rooted in the traditions and knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples themselves. The authors suggest Indigenous methodologies and methods have become both systems for generating knowledge and ways of responding to the processes of colonization. They describe two approaches drawn from the work of two Indigenous scholars with their communities in Australia and Canada. They hope this work leads not only to better, more pertinent research that is well disseminated but also to improvement in the situations of Indigenous communities and peoples.

The third section of this handbook, “Narrative Inquiry, Field Research, and Interview Methods,” provides chapters on a range of methods for collecting data directly from people (groups or individuals) or by systematically observing people engaged in activities in natural settings.

Part 3 begins with Chapter 11 , “Practicing Narrative Inquiry,” by Arthur P. Bochner and Nicholas A. Riggs. Arguably, this is a chapter that could have appeared just as easily in Part 2 because narrative is as much an approach to research as a method, or in Part 4 because narrative inquiry can be employed in the context of text- or arts-based research, or even in Part 6 as an approach to analysis. This chapter focuses on the development of the turn toward narrative in the human sciences. The authors trace the rise of narrative inquiry as it evolved in the aftermath of the crisis of representation in the social sciences, locating the explosion of interest in stories and storytelling in changing population demographics and the debunking of venerable notions about scientific knowledge. They show how narrative inquiry offered an opportunity to humanize the human sciences, placing people, meaning, and personal identity at the center of inquiry; inviting the development of reflexive, relational, dialogic, and interpretive methodologies; and drawing attention to the need to focus not only on the actual but also on the possible and the good. The chapter attempts to synthesize the changing methodological orientations of qualitative researchers associated with narrative inquiry, as well as their ethical commitments. In the second half of the chapter, the focus shifts to the divergent standpoints of small-story and big-story researchers; the differences between narrative analysis and narratives-under-analysis; and various narrative practices that seek to help people form better relationships, overcome oppressive canonical identities, amplify or reclaim moral agency, and cope better with contingencies and difficulties experienced over the course of life.

Chapter 12 , “Ethnography,” by Anthony Kwame Harrison, presents a new take on a classic method of qualitative research. Embracing the trope of ethnography-as-narrative, this chapter uses the mythic story of Bronislaw Malinowski’s—the reputed “founding father” of the ethnographic approach—early career and fieldwork as a vehicle through which to explore key aspects of ethnography’s history and development into a distinct form of qualitative research. Through a series of intervallic steps—in and out of Malinowski’s path from Poland to the “Cambridge School” and eventually to the western Pacific—Harrison traces the legacy of ethnography to its current position as a critical, historically informed, and unfailingly evolving research endeavor. Harrison suggests that, as a method continually reflected on and revised, ethnography is boundless.

In Chapter 13 , “The Purposes, Practices, and Principles of Autoethnographic Research,” Carolyn Ellis and Tony E. Adams define autoethnography according to their practice of the method, and they describe its history and emergence within qualitative social research and within psychology. They propose general guiding principles for those seeking to do autoethnography, such as using personal experience, acknowledging existing research, understanding and critiquing cultural experience, using insider knowledge, breaking silence, and maneuvering through pain, confusion, anger, and uncertainty. They present autoethnography as a process and as a product, one that can take a variety of representational forms. After offering ways to evaluate and critique autoethnography, they conclude with a discussion of autoethnography as an orientation to the living of life and an approach that has the potential of making life better—for the writer, reader, participant, and larger culture.

Switching gears from generating data from one’s own experiences to interviewing others, the next three chapters detail different methods of interview. Chapter 14 , “Unstructured and Semistructured Interviewing,” by Svend Brinkmann, provides an introduction to qualitative interviewing as a social practice with a cultural history. Issues addressed include different levels of structure, numbers of participants, media of interviewing, and also interviewer styles. A more detailed exposition of semistructured life world interviewing is offered, as Brinkmann suggests this is arguably the standard form of qualitative interviewing today. The next chapter is “Oral History Interviewing: Issues and Possibilities” by Valerie J. Janesick. As she explains, oral history resides in storytelling and involves the collection of stories, statements, and reminiscences of a person or persons who have firsthand knowledge of any number of experiences. Oral history offers qualitative researchers a way to capture the lived experiences of participants. The techniques of oral history may include interviews, document analysis, photographs, and video. Three major issues that emerge are those of social justice, arts-based approaches to oral history, and transdisciplinarity. Janesick notes that, in the current climate, there are endless possibilities in terms of using digital techniques for data presentation, data analysis, and dissemination. In Chapter 16 , “Focus Group Research: Retrospect and Prospect,” by George Kamberelis and Greg Dimitriadis, we turn to a method of group interviewing. First, the authors highlight the historical origins, tensions, and continuities/discontinuities of focus group research. Second, they suggest that focus group research embodies three primary, related functions: an inquiry function, a pedagogical function, and a political function. Third, they explore issues including mitigating the researcher’s authority; disclosing the constitutive power of discourse; approximating the natural; filling in knowledge gaps and saturating understanding; drawing out complexity, nuance, and contradiction; disclosing eclipsed connections; and creating opportunities for political activism. Fourth, they discuss contemporary threats to focus group work, and they conclude with what they see as new research frontiers for focus group research, especially in relation to new information technologies.

Part 3 concludes with Erica Tucker’s chapter “Museum Studies” which, as an entire area of study, arguably could have been placed in other sections of the handbook (such as the next section on multimethod research). However, given that museum studies often involve ethnographic observations in natural settings, I conclude Part 3 with this chapter. Tucker reviews the major research methods used to study museums, including gallery analyses and interviews with museum visitors, professionals, and stakeholders, as well as ethnographic fieldwork. Drawing from a range of case studies conducted by museum practitioners, anthropologists, historians, and other museum studies scholars, the author explores how these qualitative methods can be adapted to the study of exhibits, programs, and museums as knowledge-generating institutions. Approaches to research design, data analyses, and representation are also examined.

The next section of the handbook, “Text, Arts-Based, and Internet Methods,” considers how qualitative researchers work with nonliving data or through mediated forms. Although these methods are at times considered unobtrusive (because the data exist independent of the research; e.g., in the case of content analyzing newspapers), there are also many participatory approaches that are considered (such as participatory arts-based research).

Chapter 18 , “Content Analysis,” by Lindsay Prior, focuses on the ways in which content analysis can be used to investigate and describe interview and textual data. The author considers the method in both qualitative and quantitative social research. Examples of four different kinds of data are subjected to content analysis. Using a distinctive style of content analysis that calls on the notion of semantic networks, Prior shows how the method can be used either independently or in conjunction with other forms of inquiry (including various styles of discourse analysis) to analyze data and also how it can be used to verify and underpin claims that arise out of analysis. The chapter ends with an overview of the different ways in which the study of “content”—especially the study of document content—can be positioned in social scientific research projects.

Chapter 19 , “Photography as a Research Method,” by Gunilla Holm, reviews the development of photography as a research method in social sciences. Holm describes the different types of photographs used, such as archival photographs, photographs taken by the researcher, and photographs taken by participants. The uses of different approaches to obtain photographs and issues of interest concerning each approach are presented. The most common approaches to analyze photographs, such as content analysis, discourse analysis, and ethnographic analysis, are described. Questions surrounding interpretation and ethical practice are also considered.

Chapter 20 , “Arts-Based Research Practice: Merging Social Research and the Creative Arts,” by Gioia Chilton and Patricia Leavy, offers an overview of the emerging genre of arts-based research (ABR). ABR adapts the tenets of the creative arts in social research in order to approach research questions in new ways, ask new questions, and make research findings publicly accessible, evocative, and engaged. The authors provide a retrospective and prospective overview of the field, including a review of the some of the pioneers of ABR, methodological principles, robust examples of ABR within different artistic genres, assessment criteria, and the future of the field.

The final chapter in this section of the handbook is “Qualitative Approaches in Internet-Mediated Research: Opportunities, Issues, Possibilities” by Claire Hewson. Internet-mediated research (IMR) has grown expansively over the past decade, in both its scope and range of methodological possibilities and in its breadth of penetration across disciplines and research domains. However, the use of IMR approaches to support qualitative research has lagged behind its application in supporting quantitative methods. This chapter discusses the possibilities and scope for using IMR methods in qualitative research and considers some of the issues and debates that have led some qualitative researchers to be reluctant to consider this approach as a viable alternative to traditional offline methods. Hewson adopts an optimistic stance on the potential for qualitative IMR and outlines a range of possible methods and strategies, punctuated with examples of successful (as well as less successful) studies. The chapter also covers practical issues and offers a commentary on the possible future of IMR.

Part 5 of the handbook, “Multimethod, Mixed Method, and Participatory Designs,” focuses on approaches to research that typically rely on the use of more than one method of data collection and/or the participation of nonacademic stakeholders. Several of the chapters in this section could easily have been placed in Part 2 of the handbook because they can be viewed as “approaches” to research. Again, this illustrates how fluid the field of qualitative research is, with its overlaps in definitions and practice. Notwithstanding the suggestion that some of these chapters cover broad approaches to research, I have placed them in this section of the handbook because they generally involve the use of more than one method.

Chapter 22 , “Case Study Research: In-Depth Understanding in Context,” by Helen R. Simons, explores case study as a major approach to research and evaluation. After first noting various contexts in which case studies are commonly used, the chapter focuses on case study research directly. Strengths and potential problematic issues are outlined, as are key phases of the process. The chapter emphasizes how important it is to design the case, to collect and interpret data in ways that highlight the qualitative, to have an ethical practice that values multiple perspectives and political interests, and to report creatively to facilitate use in policy making and practice. Finally, the chapter explores how to generalize from the singular case. Concluding questions center on the need to think more imaginatively about design and the range of methods and forms of reporting available to persuade audiences to value qualitative ways of knowing in case study research.

In Chapter 23 , “Program Evaluation,” Paul R. Brandon and Anna L. Ah Sam offer a detailed overview of program evaluation situated in the historical context in which this practice has developed. The chapter includes discussion regarding the choice of methods, some of which are used primarily within evaluation approaches to conducting evaluation; the aspects of programs that evaluators typically address; the concept of value; the differences between evaluation and social science research; research on evaluation topics; and the major evaluation issues and concerns that have dominated discussion in the literature.

The following two chapters cover approaches to research that involve community participation. Chapter 24 “Community-Based Research: Understanding the Principles, Practices, Challenges, and Rationale,” by Margaret R. Boyd, reviews the inclusion of community members in research practice. This chapter is an introduction to the historical roots and subdivisions within community-based research (CBR) and discusses the core principles and skills useful when designing and working with community members in a collaborative, innovative, and transformative research partnership. The rationale for working within this research paradigm is discussed as are the challenges researchers and practitioners face when conducting CBR. Boyd suggests CBR challenges the traditional research paradigm by recognizing that complex social problems must involve multiple stakeholders in the research process—not as subjects but as co-investigators and co-authors. It is an “orientation to inquiry” rather than a methodology and reflects a transdisciplinary paradigm by including academics from many different disciplines, community members, activists, and often students in all stages of the research process. As the scholarship and practice of this form of research has increased dramatically over the past twenty years, this chapter looks at both new and emerging issues, as well as at founding questions that continue to draw debate in the contemporary discourse. In Chapter 25 , “Lineages: A Past, Present, and Future of Participatory Action Research,” Sarah Zeller-Berkman provides a historical overview of participatory action research (PAR). Like CBR, this is a social justice–oriented approach to research that transcends method but relies on a variety of qualitative methods. Zeller-Berkman writes that PAR in the twenty-first century asserts a democratization of who has the right to create knowledge, research social conditions, engage in participatory processes, and take action. People using PAR generally believe that knowledge has and will continue to be a source of power. Participatory research is an attempt to shift the balance of power back in favor of people who have historically been denied representational power.

The next chapter in the handbook covers the methodological work being done in the content area of disaster research. 4 In “Qualitative Disaster Research,” Brenda D. Phillips provides an overview of the history of qualitative disaster research since the 1920s. Challenges associated with conducting disaster research, particularly field-based studies, are presented. The chapter also discusses ethical challenges related to homeland security and the emotional impacts of disaster research on humans. Sections then lay out issues specific to the life cycle of disasters (preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery), data gathering techniques commonly used (interviews, documents, observations, visual data), and strategies for data analysis. A final section links efforts to strengthen the trustworthiness and credibility of qualitative research to disaster studies.

The final chapter in this section of the handbook covers mixed-methods research. In Chapter 27 , “Conducting Mixed-Methods Research: Using Dialectical Pluralism and Social Psychological Strategies,” R. Burke Johnson, Tony Onwuegbuzie, Susan Tucker, and Marjorie L. Icenogle first summarize the philosophy of dialectical pluralism (DP). Ontologically, DP views reality as plural and changing. Epistemologically, DP follows a dialectical, dialogical, hermeneutical approach to listening, interacting, and learning from “the other.” Theoretically, DP integrates concepts especially from Rawls (e.g., procedural justice, reasonable pluralism, overlapping consensus, realistic utopia), Dewey (e.g., deliberative democracy, community, inquiry, growth), and Habermas (e.g., communicative rationality, deliberative democracy, discourse ethics, knowledge, public sphere). From empirical research, the authors draw on concepts and findings from social psychological literatures such as conflict management, negotiation, small-group psychology, group counseling, group dynamics, political diplomacy, deliberative democracy, and workplace justice. Dialectal pluralism requires purposeful construction of teams that include multiple/different values and perspectives and stakeholders from the most disadvantaged affected groups. The group process operates from the position of equal power, the use of social psychological strategies, and the working toward win-win solutions.

Part 6 of the handbook, “Analysis, Interpretation, Representation, and Evaluation,” covers a range of topics, including the analysis and interpretation of qualitative data, writing up qualitative research, and issues pertaining to evaluation.

The first two chapters in this section review qualitative data analysis. Chapter 28 , “Coding and Analysis Strategies,” by Johnny Saldaña, provides an overview of selected qualitative data analytic strategies, with a particular focus on codes and coding. Preparatory strategies for a qualitative research study and data management are first outlined. Six coding methods are then profiled using comparable interview data: process coding, in vivo coding, descriptive coding, values coding, dramaturgical coding, and versus coding. Strategies for constructing themes and assertions from the data then follow. Analytic memo writing is woven throughout the preceding as a method for generating additional analytic insight. Next, display- and arts-based strategies are provided, followed by recommended qualitative data analytic software programs and a discussion on verifying the researcher’s analytic findings. Chapter 29 , “Computer-Assisted Analysis of Qualitative Research,” by Christina Silver and Ann F. Lewins, picks up on the discussion of qualitative data analytic software programs (although it should be noted that this chapter also considers how technology can be used in data collection). Silver and Lewins focus on the current state of technological support for qualitative research practice. The chapter focuses on technology and how it assists three main aspects of qualitative research: data collection, preparation, and/or transcription; bibliographic management and systematic literature reviews; and data management and analysis. The main body of the chapter discusses the functionality, role, and implications of Computer Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysiS (CAQDAS) tools. Three recent trends in computer assistance are emphasized: support for visual analysis, support for mixed-methods approaches, and online solutions.

Moving from data analysis to interpretation, Chapter 30 , “Interpretation Strategies: Appropriate Concepts,” by Allen Trent and Jeasik Cho, presents a wide range of concepts related to interpretation in qualitative research. The chapter examines the meaning and importance of interpretation in qualitative inquiry and explores the ways methodology, data, and the self/researcher as instrument interact and impact interpretive processes. Additionally, the chapter presents a series of strategies for qualitative researchers engaged in the process of interpretation. The chapter closes by presenting a framework for qualitative researchers designed to inform their interpretations. The framework includes attention to the key qualitative research concepts transparency, reflexivity, analysis, validity, evidence, and literature. Four questions frame the chapter: What is interpretation and why are interpretive strategies important in qualitative research? How do methodology, data, and the researcher/self impact interpretation in qualitative research? How do qualitative researchers engage in the process of interpretation? And, in what ways can a framework for interpretation strategies support qualitative researchers across multiple methodologies and paradigms?

Chapter 31 , “Writing Up Qualitative Research,” by Jane Gilgun, provides guidelines for writing journal articles based on qualitative approaches. The guidelines are a part of the tradition of the Chicago School of Sociology and the author’s experience as an author and reviewer. The guidelines include understanding experiences in context, immersion, interpretations grounded in accounts of informants’ lived experiences, and conceiving of research as action-oriented. Gilgun suggests excellent write-ups have “grab”; that is, accounts that jump off the page and convey a sense of lived experiences. Although most of the chapter addresses the writing of conventional research reports, there is some coverage of writing articles that report findings resulting from ethnographies, autoethnographies, performances, poetry, and photography and other media.

The final chapter in this section of the handbook, “Evaluating Qualitative Research,” by Jeasik Cho and Allen Trent, addresses a wide range of theories and practices related to the evaluation of qualitative research (EQR). The authors present six categories of EQR: (1) a positivist category; (2) Lincoln and Guba’s alternative category; (3) a “subtle-realist” category developed by Hammersley, Atkinson, and Seale; (4) a general EQR category; (5) a category of post-criteriology; and (6) a post-validity category. The authors offer several evaluation strategies for EQR by providing a variety of examples. They also discuss a path forward for EQR. They conclude with a holistic view of EQR needed to collectively construct/confront inner and outer challenges to qualitative paradigms in the twenty-first century.

The final section of the handbook, “Conclusion: Politics and The Public,” offers some final thoughts about the politics of qualitative research, the importance of public scholarship, and the future of qualitative research in a transdisciplinary context.

In Chapter 33 , “The Politics of Research,” Michael D. Giardina and Joshua I. Newman critically interrogate the politics of research currently dominating US higher education, a politics that is shaped as much by theoretical and methodological questions and debates as it is by prevailing social, cultural, political, and economic forces. The authors’ arguments are guided by four primary questions: How and to what do the cultural and political priorities of the free-marketized, corporate university impact, direct, or confound the conduct of research? How and to what extent does politics situate methodologies? How and to what extent is the research act impinged on by such particularities as institutional review boards, national funding councils, scholarly journals, and the promotion and tenure process? And, how and where do we as academics fit into this new research climate? Giardina and Newman also provide a series of practical recommendations for professors and students alike who seek to actively confront and challenge the academic–industrial complex.

The closing chapter, “A Brief Statement on the Public and the Future of Qualitative Research,” offers some final comments about the future of qualitative research. I suggest that there is a widespread move from a disciplinary to a transdisciplinary research structure in which problems of importance are at the center of research practices (see Leavy, 2011 ). Within this context, qualitative researchers are well positioned to advance because of their ability to develop responsive and flexible research designs and present their work in multiple formats. Furthermore, I note how the broader move toward public scholarship is propelling both the practice of qualitative research and the teaching of qualitative methods.

Thank you to Dr. Tony Adams for providing his thoughtful and most helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this chapter.

There is qualitative work that can be pointed to in the late 1800s and early 1900s. However, it was the use of ethnography and related methods in the 1920s by researchers at the University of Chicago who were primarily studying urbanization (popularly deemed “The Chicago School of Sociology”) that prompted the use of qualitative methods in sociology departments around the United States. In the 1960s, the qualitative tradition fully emerged.

Chapter 2 of this handbook, “Historical Overview of Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences,” by Brinkmann, Jacobsen, and Kristiansen, provides a rich discussion of the history of qualitative research in relation to quantitative research.

There has been little documentation of the methodological work done in this field and therefore this chapter represents a significant contribution to the literature on both qualitative research and disaster studies.

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Criteria for Good Qualitative Research: A Comprehensive Review

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Published: 18 September 2021
Volume 31 , pages 679–689, ( 2022 )

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Drishti Yadav ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2974-0323 1

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This review aims to synthesize a published set of evaluative criteria for good qualitative research. The aim is to shed light on existing standards for assessing the rigor of qualitative research encompassing a range of epistemological and ontological standpoints. Using a systematic search strategy, published journal articles that deliberate criteria for rigorous research were identified. Then, references of relevant articles were surveyed to find noteworthy, distinct, and well-defined pointers to good qualitative research. This review presents an investigative assessment of the pivotal features in qualitative research that can permit the readers to pass judgment on its quality and to condemn it as good research when objectively and adequately utilized. Overall, this review underlines the crux of qualitative research and accentuates the necessity to evaluate such research by the very tenets of its being. It also offers some prospects and recommendations to improve the quality of qualitative research. Based on the findings of this review, it is concluded that quality criteria are the aftereffect of socio-institutional procedures and existing paradigmatic conducts. Owing to the paradigmatic diversity of qualitative research, a single and specific set of quality criteria is neither feasible nor anticipated. Since qualitative research is not a cohesive discipline, researchers need to educate and familiarize themselves with applicable norms and decisive factors to evaluate qualitative research from within its theoretical and methodological framework of origin.

Good Qualitative Research: Opening up the Debate

Beyond qualitative/quantitative structuralism: the positivist qualitative research and the paradigmatic disclaimer.

What is Qualitative in Research

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

“… It is important to regularly dialogue about what makes for good qualitative research” (Tracy, 2010 , p. 837)

To decide what represents good qualitative research is highly debatable. There are numerous methods that are contained within qualitative research and that are established on diverse philosophical perspectives. Bryman et al., ( 2008 , p. 262) suggest that “It is widely assumed that whereas quality criteria for quantitative research are well‐known and widely agreed, this is not the case for qualitative research.” Hence, the question “how to evaluate the quality of qualitative research” has been continuously debated. There are many areas of science and technology wherein these debates on the assessment of qualitative research have taken place. Examples include various areas of psychology: general psychology (Madill et al., 2000 ); counseling psychology (Morrow, 2005 ); and clinical psychology (Barker & Pistrang, 2005 ), and other disciplines of social sciences: social policy (Bryman et al., 2008 ); health research (Sparkes, 2001 ); business and management research (Johnson et al., 2006 ); information systems (Klein & Myers, 1999 ); and environmental studies (Reid & Gough, 2000 ). In the literature, these debates are enthused by the impression that the blanket application of criteria for good qualitative research developed around the positivist paradigm is improper. Such debates are based on the wide range of philosophical backgrounds within which qualitative research is conducted (e.g., Sandberg, 2000 ; Schwandt, 1996 ). The existence of methodological diversity led to the formulation of different sets of criteria applicable to qualitative research.

Among qualitative researchers, the dilemma of governing the measures to assess the quality of research is not a new phenomenon, especially when the virtuous triad of objectivity, reliability, and validity (Spencer et al., 2004 ) are not adequate. Occasionally, the criteria of quantitative research are used to evaluate qualitative research (Cohen & Crabtree, 2008 ; Lather, 2004 ). Indeed, Howe ( 2004 ) claims that the prevailing paradigm in educational research is scientifically based experimental research. Hypotheses and conjectures about the preeminence of quantitative research can weaken the worth and usefulness of qualitative research by neglecting the prominence of harmonizing match for purpose on research paradigm, the epistemological stance of the researcher, and the choice of methodology. Researchers have been reprimanded concerning this in “paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences” (Lincoln & Guba, 2000 ).

In general, qualitative research tends to come from a very different paradigmatic stance and intrinsically demands distinctive and out-of-the-ordinary criteria for evaluating good research and varieties of research contributions that can be made. This review attempts to present a series of evaluative criteria for qualitative researchers, arguing that their choice of criteria needs to be compatible with the unique nature of the research in question (its methodology, aims, and assumptions). This review aims to assist researchers in identifying some of the indispensable features or markers of high-quality qualitative research. In a nutshell, the purpose of this systematic literature review is to analyze the existing knowledge on high-quality qualitative research and to verify the existence of research studies dealing with the critical assessment of qualitative research based on the concept of diverse paradigmatic stances. Contrary to the existing reviews, this review also suggests some critical directions to follow to improve the quality of qualitative research in different epistemological and ontological perspectives. This review is also intended to provide guidelines for the acceleration of future developments and dialogues among qualitative researchers in the context of assessing the qualitative research.

The rest of this review article is structured in the following fashion: Sect. Methods describes the method followed for performing this review. Section Criteria for Evaluating Qualitative Studies provides a comprehensive description of the criteria for evaluating qualitative studies. This section is followed by a summary of the strategies to improve the quality of qualitative research in Sect. Improving Quality: Strategies . Section How to Assess the Quality of the Research Findings? provides details on how to assess the quality of the research findings. After that, some of the quality checklists (as tools to evaluate quality) are discussed in Sect. Quality Checklists: Tools for Assessing the Quality . At last, the review ends with the concluding remarks presented in Sect. Conclusions, Future Directions and Outlook . Some prospects in qualitative research for enhancing its quality and usefulness in the social and techno-scientific research community are also presented in Sect. Conclusions, Future Directions and Outlook .

For this review, a comprehensive literature search was performed from many databases using generic search terms such as Qualitative Research , Criteria , etc . The following databases were chosen for the literature search based on the high number of results: IEEE Explore, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. The following keywords (and their combinations using Boolean connectives OR/AND) were adopted for the literature search: qualitative research, criteria, quality, assessment, and validity. The synonyms for these keywords were collected and arranged in a logical structure (see Table 1 ). All publications in journals and conference proceedings later than 1950 till 2021 were considered for the search. Other articles extracted from the references of the papers identified in the electronic search were also included. A large number of publications on qualitative research were retrieved during the initial screening. Hence, to include the searches with the main focus on criteria for good qualitative research, an inclusion criterion was utilized in the search string.

From the selected databases, the search retrieved a total of 765 publications. Then, the duplicate records were removed. After that, based on the title and abstract, the remaining 426 publications were screened for their relevance by using the following inclusion and exclusion criteria (see Table 2 ). Publications focusing on evaluation criteria for good qualitative research were included, whereas those works which delivered theoretical concepts on qualitative research were excluded. Based on the screening and eligibility, 45 research articles were identified that offered explicit criteria for evaluating the quality of qualitative research and were found to be relevant to this review.

Figure 1 illustrates the complete review process in the form of PRISMA flow diagram. PRISMA, i.e., “preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses” is employed in systematic reviews to refine the quality of reporting.

PRISMA flow diagram illustrating the search and inclusion process. N represents the number of records

Criteria for Evaluating Qualitative Studies

Fundamental criteria: general research quality.

Various researchers have put forward criteria for evaluating qualitative research, which have been summarized in Table 3 . Also, the criteria outlined in Table 4 effectively deliver the various approaches to evaluate and assess the quality of qualitative work. The entries in Table 4 are based on Tracy’s “Eight big‐tent criteria for excellent qualitative research” (Tracy, 2010 ). Tracy argues that high-quality qualitative work should formulate criteria focusing on the worthiness, relevance, timeliness, significance, morality, and practicality of the research topic, and the ethical stance of the research itself. Researchers have also suggested a series of questions as guiding principles to assess the quality of a qualitative study (Mays & Pope, 2020 ). Nassaji ( 2020 ) argues that good qualitative research should be robust, well informed, and thoroughly documented.

Qualitative Research: Interpretive Paradigms

All qualitative researchers follow highly abstract principles which bring together beliefs about ontology, epistemology, and methodology. These beliefs govern how the researcher perceives and acts. The net, which encompasses the researcher’s epistemological, ontological, and methodological premises, is referred to as a paradigm, or an interpretive structure, a “Basic set of beliefs that guides action” (Guba, 1990 ). Four major interpretive paradigms structure the qualitative research: positivist and postpositivist, constructivist interpretive, critical (Marxist, emancipatory), and feminist poststructural. The complexity of these four abstract paradigms increases at the level of concrete, specific interpretive communities. Table 5 presents these paradigms and their assumptions, including their criteria for evaluating research, and the typical form that an interpretive or theoretical statement assumes in each paradigm. Moreover, for evaluating qualitative research, quantitative conceptualizations of reliability and validity are proven to be incompatible (Horsburgh, 2003 ). In addition, a series of questions have been put forward in the literature to assist a reviewer (who is proficient in qualitative methods) for meticulous assessment and endorsement of qualitative research (Morse, 2003 ). Hammersley ( 2007 ) also suggests that guiding principles for qualitative research are advantageous, but methodological pluralism should not be simply acknowledged for all qualitative approaches. Seale ( 1999 ) also points out the significance of methodological cognizance in research studies.

Table 5 reflects that criteria for assessing the quality of qualitative research are the aftermath of socio-institutional practices and existing paradigmatic standpoints. Owing to the paradigmatic diversity of qualitative research, a single set of quality criteria is neither possible nor desirable. Hence, the researchers must be reflexive about the criteria they use in the various roles they play within their research community.

Improving Quality: Strategies

Another critical question is “How can the qualitative researchers ensure that the abovementioned quality criteria can be met?” Lincoln and Guba ( 1986 ) delineated several strategies to intensify each criteria of trustworthiness. Other researchers (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016 ; Shenton, 2004 ) also presented such strategies. A brief description of these strategies is shown in Table 6 .

It is worth mentioning that generalizability is also an integral part of qualitative research (Hays & McKibben, 2021 ). In general, the guiding principle pertaining to generalizability speaks about inducing and comprehending knowledge to synthesize interpretive components of an underlying context. Table 7 summarizes the main metasynthesis steps required to ascertain generalizability in qualitative research.

Figure 2 reflects the crucial components of a conceptual framework and their contribution to decisions regarding research design, implementation, and applications of results to future thinking, study, and practice (Johnson et al., 2020 ). The synergy and interrelationship of these components signifies their role to different stances of a qualitative research study.

Essential elements of a conceptual framework

In a nutshell, to assess the rationale of a study, its conceptual framework and research question(s), quality criteria must take account of the following: lucid context for the problem statement in the introduction; well-articulated research problems and questions; precise conceptual framework; distinct research purpose; and clear presentation and investigation of the paradigms. These criteria would expedite the quality of qualitative research.

How to Assess the Quality of the Research Findings?

The inclusion of quotes or similar research data enhances the confirmability in the write-up of the findings. The use of expressions (for instance, “80% of all respondents agreed that” or “only one of the interviewees mentioned that”) may also quantify qualitative findings (Stenfors et al., 2020 ). On the other hand, the persuasive reason for “why this may not help in intensifying the research” has also been provided (Monrouxe & Rees, 2020 ). Further, the Discussion and Conclusion sections of an article also prove robust markers of high-quality qualitative research, as elucidated in Table 8 .

Quality Checklists: Tools for Assessing the Quality

Numerous checklists are available to speed up the assessment of the quality of qualitative research. However, if used uncritically and recklessly concerning the research context, these checklists may be counterproductive. I recommend that such lists and guiding principles may assist in pinpointing the markers of high-quality qualitative research. However, considering enormous variations in the authors’ theoretical and philosophical contexts, I would emphasize that high dependability on such checklists may say little about whether the findings can be applied in your setting. A combination of such checklists might be appropriate for novice researchers. Some of these checklists are listed below:

The most commonly used framework is Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) (Tong et al., 2007 ). This framework is recommended by some journals to be followed by the authors during article submission.

Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) is another checklist that has been created particularly for medical education (O’Brien et al., 2014 ).

Also, Tracy ( 2010 ) and Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP, 2021 ) offer criteria for qualitative research relevant across methods and approaches.

Further, researchers have also outlined different criteria as hallmarks of high-quality qualitative research. For instance, the “Road Trip Checklist” (Epp & Otnes, 2021 ) provides a quick reference to specific questions to address different elements of high-quality qualitative research.

Conclusions, Future Directions, and Outlook

This work presents a broad review of the criteria for good qualitative research. In addition, this article presents an exploratory analysis of the essential elements in qualitative research that can enable the readers of qualitative work to judge it as good research when objectively and adequately utilized. In this review, some of the essential markers that indicate high-quality qualitative research have been highlighted. I scope them narrowly to achieve rigor in qualitative research and note that they do not completely cover the broader considerations necessary for high-quality research. This review points out that a universal and versatile one-size-fits-all guideline for evaluating the quality of qualitative research does not exist. In other words, this review also emphasizes the non-existence of a set of common guidelines among qualitative researchers. In unison, this review reinforces that each qualitative approach should be treated uniquely on account of its own distinctive features for different epistemological and disciplinary positions. Owing to the sensitivity of the worth of qualitative research towards the specific context and the type of paradigmatic stance, researchers should themselves analyze what approaches can be and must be tailored to ensemble the distinct characteristics of the phenomenon under investigation. Although this article does not assert to put forward a magic bullet and to provide a one-stop solution for dealing with dilemmas about how, why, or whether to evaluate the “goodness” of qualitative research, it offers a platform to assist the researchers in improving their qualitative studies. This work provides an assembly of concerns to reflect on, a series of questions to ask, and multiple sets of criteria to look at, when attempting to determine the quality of qualitative research. Overall, this review underlines the crux of qualitative research and accentuates the need to evaluate such research by the very tenets of its being. Bringing together the vital arguments and delineating the requirements that good qualitative research should satisfy, this review strives to equip the researchers as well as reviewers to make well-versed judgment about the worth and significance of the qualitative research under scrutiny. In a nutshell, a comprehensive portrayal of the research process (from the context of research to the research objectives, research questions and design, speculative foundations, and from approaches of collecting data to analyzing the results, to deriving inferences) frequently proliferates the quality of a qualitative research.

Prospects : A Road Ahead for Qualitative Research

Irrefutably, qualitative research is a vivacious and evolving discipline wherein different epistemological and disciplinary positions have their own characteristics and importance. In addition, not surprisingly, owing to the sprouting and varied features of qualitative research, no consensus has been pulled off till date. Researchers have reflected various concerns and proposed several recommendations for editors and reviewers on conducting reviews of critical qualitative research (Levitt et al., 2021 ; McGinley et al., 2021 ). Following are some prospects and a few recommendations put forward towards the maturation of qualitative research and its quality evaluation:

In general, most of the manuscript and grant reviewers are not qualitative experts. Hence, it is more likely that they would prefer to adopt a broad set of criteria. However, researchers and reviewers need to keep in mind that it is inappropriate to utilize the same approaches and conducts among all qualitative research. Therefore, future work needs to focus on educating researchers and reviewers about the criteria to evaluate qualitative research from within the suitable theoretical and methodological context.

There is an urgent need to refurbish and augment critical assessment of some well-known and widely accepted tools (including checklists such as COREQ, SRQR) to interrogate their applicability on different aspects (along with their epistemological ramifications).

Efforts should be made towards creating more space for creativity, experimentation, and a dialogue between the diverse traditions of qualitative research. This would potentially help to avoid the enforcement of one's own set of quality criteria on the work carried out by others.

Moreover, journal reviewers need to be aware of various methodological practices and philosophical debates.

It is pivotal to highlight the expressions and considerations of qualitative researchers and bring them into a more open and transparent dialogue about assessing qualitative research in techno-scientific, academic, sociocultural, and political rooms.

Frequent debates on the use of evaluative criteria are required to solve some potentially resolved issues (including the applicability of a single set of criteria in multi-disciplinary aspects). Such debates would not only benefit the group of qualitative researchers themselves, but primarily assist in augmenting the well-being and vivacity of the entire discipline.

To conclude, I speculate that the criteria, and my perspective, may transfer to other methods, approaches, and contexts. I hope that they spark dialog and debate – about criteria for excellent qualitative research and the underpinnings of the discipline more broadly – and, therefore, help improve the quality of a qualitative study. Further, I anticipate that this review will assist the researchers to contemplate on the quality of their own research, to substantiate research design and help the reviewers to review qualitative research for journals. On a final note, I pinpoint the need to formulate a framework (encompassing the prerequisites of a qualitative study) by the cohesive efforts of qualitative researchers of different disciplines with different theoretic-paradigmatic origins. I believe that tailoring such a framework (of guiding principles) paves the way for qualitative researchers to consolidate the status of qualitative research in the wide-ranging open science debate. Dialogue on this issue across different approaches is crucial for the impending prospects of socio-techno-educational research.

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Yadav, D. Criteria for Good Qualitative Research: A Comprehensive Review. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 31 , 679–689 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-021-00619-0

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Original research article, older adults' experiences of wellbeing during the covid-19 pandemic: a comparative qualitative study in italy and switzerland.

1 Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
2 Swiss Center of Expertise in Life Course Research (LIVES), Geneva, Switzerland
3 Faculty of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HETSL/HES-SO), Lausanne, Switzerland

Background: Particularly at the beginning of the pandemic, adults aged 65 and older were portrayed as a homogeneously vulnerable population due to the elevated health risks associated with contracting the COVID-19 disease. This portrayal, combined with travel restrictions, closures of economic sectors, country-wide lockdowns, and suggestions by governmental authorities to limit social contact, had important implications for the wellbeing of older individuals. However, older adults are a heterogeneous population who relies on different resources to cope with stressful periods, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, countries also employed different measures to contain the virus. Research thus far has focused on the short-term consequences of the pandemic, but studies have yet to address its long-term consequences.

Objectives: We explore older adults' lived experiences nearly 2 years after the pandemic onset. Moreover, we focus on the bordering countries of Switzerland and Italy, who employed contrasting containment measures. This paper analyzes (1) How the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the experiences of wellbeing of older adults in these regions and (2) How older adults coped with the stressors brought about by the pandemic, in particular social distancing.

Methods: The paper draws on 31 semi-structured interviews with 11 Swiss natives residing in Switzerland, 10 Italian migrants residing in Switzerland, and 10 Italian natives residing in Italy. Interviews were conducted from December 2021 to March 2022.

Results: Coping mechanisms of the three groups related to acceptance, hobbies, cognitive reframing, telephone use, vaccine use and social distancing. However, results show heterogeneous experiences of wellbeing, with Swiss natives sharing more positive narratives than the other two groups. Moreover, Italian migrants and Italian natives expressed the long-term negative consequences of the pandemic on their experienced wellbeing.

1 Introduction

In March of 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, making it an international public health problem ( WHO, 2020 ). Beyond physical illness, the pandemic disrupted millions of lives around the globe through closures of schools, shops, and borders; it separated individuals from friends and family, and it caused job losses and financial strain ( Hiscott et al., 2020 ). However, in the public discourse it was especially older adults who were portrayed as a homogeneously vulnerable and frail group ( Jordan et al., 2020 ; Ayalon et al., 2021 ; Maggiori et al., 2022 ). Indeed, older people had higher mortality rates than younger ones ( Dadras et al., 2022 ). They also suffered from decreased physical activity due to social distancing measures, impacting their physical health ( Oliveira et al., 2022 ). Moreover, in comparison to pre-pandemic levels, older adults reported higher rates of anxiety and depression ( Webb and Chen, 2022 ; Segerstrom et al., 2023 ) and lower subjective wellbeing ( Maggiori et al., 2022 ).

However, compared to their younger counterparts, older adults also reported less pandemic-related stress, less social isolation, less life changes ( Birditt et al., 2021 ), and lower rates of anxiety and depression ( Webb and Chen, 2022 ). Furthermore, older adults' resilience was shown through their ability to develop coping strategies to maintain a certain level of subjective and psychological wellbeing ( Finlay et al., 2021 ; Fuller and Huseth-Zosel, 2021 ; Bustamante et al., 2022 ; Facal et al., 2022 ; Mau et al., 2022 ).

Nonetheless, the ability to cope with the stressors brought about by the pandemic was influenced by factors on the micro-, meso-, and macro- levels. On the micro-level, studies have revealed that characteristics like being in good health, previous experiences of adversity, stable financial status, and social networks positively affected individuals' ability to cope with the pandemic ( Guzman et al., 2023 ), while having a migration background was associated with increased pandemic-related worry ( Ludwig-Dehm et al., 2023 ) and loneliness ( Pan et al., 2021 ). At the meso-level, neighborhood parks and nature were positively related to mental and physical health ( Bustamante et al., 2022 ; Guzman et al., 2023 ). At the macro-level, stricter physical distancing measures mandated by governments were associated with worse mental health ( Mendez-Lopez et al., 2022 ). The heterogeneity of older adults' characteristics, resources, and lived experiences, as well as the differences in countries' containment measures thus call for research further exploring how older adults coped with the pandemic in different contexts.

Most studies to date focus on older individuals' wellbeing during the first lockdown in the spring of 2020 ( Seifert and Hassler, 2020 ; Cipolletta and Gris, 2021 ; Falvo et al., 2021 ; Finlay et al., 2021 ; Fuller and Huseth-Zosel, 2021 ; McKinlay et al., 2021 ; Whitehead and Torossian, 2021 ; Bustamante et al., 2022 ; Facal et al., 2022 ; Gonçalves et al., 2022 ; Kremers et al., 2022 ) or during the first year following the pandemic onset ( Fiocco et al., 2021 ; Atzendorf and Gruber, 2022 ; Brooks et al., 2022 ; Cohn-Schwartz et al., 2022 ; Derrer-Merk et al., 2022a ; Garner et al., 2022 ; Maggiori et al., 2022 ; Mau et al., 2022 ; Donizzetti and Capone, 2023 ). However, few studies have been published thus far addressing the second year of the pandemic and its long-term impact on older adults' wellbeing ( Gallè et al., 2021 ; König and Isengard, 2023 ). Moreover, studies have analyzed the pandemic's impact on the physical health of migrants of all ages in comparison to native-born populations in Western Europe ( Canevelli et al., 2020 ; Aldea, 2022 ; Khlat et al., 2022 ), but to the best of our knowledge, none have addressed the differences in the lived experiences of wellbeing among older migrant and native populations with a focus on coping strategies. Furthermore, there is a paucity of literature comparing the experiences of wellbeing and coping strategies between countries that implemented contrasting COVID-19 containment measures.

We aim to bridge this gap by comparing the experiences of older adults in Italy and Switzerland – countries that implemented different COVID-19 containment measures – nearly 2 years after the pandemic onset. Specifically, we study older Swiss natives residing in Switzerland, older Italian natives residing in Italy, and older Italian migrants residing in Switzerland. This allows us to explore the experiences of wellbeing of older adults who lived under strict restriction measures, namely Italian residents, to those of adults who lived under more relaxed measures, namely Swiss natives and Italian migrants living in Switzerland. Furthermore, comparing Swiss natives and Italian migrants allows us to analyze the experiences of two groups who lived the pandemic in the same context, yet who have had different life courses. More particularly, because older Italian migrants in Switzerland often have attachments to Italy and take part in transnational practices ( Ludwig-Dehm et al., 2023 ), their inclusion in the study allows us to explore how the situation in their country of origin impacted their COVID-19 experiences from abroad.

This paper aims to analyze (1) How the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the experiences of wellbeing of older adults in Switzerland and Italy and (2) How older adults coped with the stressors brought about by the pandemic, in particular social distancing.

2 Contextual background: the Swiss and Italian contexts

Despite the geographical proximity between Switzerland and Italy, the two countries implemented quite different containment measures as a response to the virus.

Compared to other European countries, on average Switzerland implemented less stringent containment measures throughout the pandemic, despite being just as impacted ( Pleninger et al., 2022 ). The first phase of the pandemic, classified by the Federal Council as an “extraordinary situation,” lasted from March 16 to June 19, 2020 ( Sager and Mavrot, 2020 ; Maggiori et al., 2022 ; Pleninger et al., 2022 ). From March 16 until April 26, the Swiss government gradually imposed measures closing borders, canceling cultural and sports events, banning all public and private manifestations, closing schools, restaurants, bars, as well as shops and services deemed to be unessential, and banning gatherings of more than five people. Older adults in particular were advised to stay at home and to avoid in-person social interactions with members outside their household. From April 26, 2020 containment measures were slowly eased, and on June 19, 2020, the classification of the pandemic changed from “extraordinary” to “special” ( Sager and Mavrot, 2020 ; Pleninger et al., 2022 ).

During the next 2 years, Switzerland saw a series of tightening and easing of containment measures, which included regulations on mandatory vaccines or COVID-19 tests to access bars and restaurants, and mandatory masks to be worn in shops and public transport. All restrictions were then lifted on April 1, 2022 ( FOPH, 2022 ).

Throughout the pandemic up until the data collection for this article – between December 2021 and March 2022 – the Swiss government largely relied on cooperation from the public. Although in certain periods shops, restaurants, and schools were closed, Swiss residents still enjoyed a certain amount of freedom to move and have social gatherings, albeit limited. Overall, it was left up to the individuals to regulate their behaviors within certain limits.

The Italian government, on the other hand, imposed more stringent measures throughout the pandemic. Late January 2020, the government declared a national emergency, and in February 2020, Italy was the epicenter of the health crisis in Europe ( Ferrante, 2022 ). The Italian government quickly established lockdown “red” zones in certain areas of Northern Italy, which led to the closure of schools and restrictions of movement: residents could leave their areas of residence only for necessities like work, health reasons or family emergencies, or grocery shopping. These restrictions were applied in waves to the entire country, and on March 11 the government imposed a national lockdown, also named the “stay at home” decree ( Bull, 2021 ). This entailed closure of borders, schools, restaurants and bars, and all nonessential shops and services. Travel between regions was prohibited and residents' movement was only allowed for essential reasons. The first Italian lockdown ended on May 3, 2020, after which most shops, restaurants, bars, and services gradually reopened while maintaining COVID-19 safety protocols ( Bosa et al., 2021 ).

During the next 2 years, Italy also experienced a series of loosening and tightening of restrictions, but these were often more stringent than the ones imposed in Switzerland. For instance, during the second wave of the pandemic, which took place in autumn of 2020 and winter of 2021, curfews from 11 pm to 5 am were mandated and restaurants and bars had to close at 6 pm. During this time, Italian residents were strongly recommended to leave their homes only for work or health reasons, and these restrictions were gradually eased by mid-2021 ( SkyTG24, 2020 ; Bosa et al., 2021 ). In April 2022, Italy declared an end to the state of emergency, and thereafter lifted all restrictions ( Amanto, 2022 ).

Both Italy and Switzerland were successful in containing the spread of the virus ( Ferrante, 2022 ; Pleninger et al., 2022 ), but at what cost to people's wellbeing?

3 A theoretical framework to understand wellbeing and coping strategies among older adults

3.1 wellbeing.

Research on wellbeing largely encompasses two forms: objective wellbeing and subjective wellbeing. The first refers to objective indicators like income, health, and living conditions. The second refers to individuals' experiences of wellbeing and to their evaluations of their lives. It is often measured with indicators like positive and negative affect, happiness, life satisfaction, and satisfaction with various life domains like social relationships, financial situation, and neighborhood conditions ( Bartram, 2012 ; Diener, 2012 ; Veenhoven, 2012 , 2017 ). In this paper, we use the term wellbeing to refer to the latter concept – to individuals' subjective experiences of wellbeing.

Some objective indicators are indeed correlated to subjective indicators – being in good health, for instance is positively associated with life satisfaction ( Helliwell, 2003 ; Deaton, 2008 ; Clark et al., 2018 ) and, to a certain extent, so is income ( Clark et al., 2008 ; Clark, 2011 ; De Jong, 2015 ). Studies have also debated to what extent wellbeing is dependent on genes and individual personality traits ( Bartels, 2015 ; Røysamb et al., 2018 ), and to what extent it is dependent on external factors like social contexts and life events ( Helliwell and Putnam, 2004 ). But overall, the consensus is that wellbeing is influenced by both genetic and environmental characteristics ( Røysamb et al., 2014 ; Luhmann et al., 2021 ).

Most studies employ a quantitative approach and explore a wide array of determinants of wellbeing, ranging from age, to health, to income and education, to relationships and divorce, to social norms and institutions, and so on ( Clark et al., 2018 ). Qualitative studies on wellbeing are less common ( Bartram, 2012 ), but they valuably provide information on participants' perceptions, views and beliefs that are unaffected by researchers' pre-determined ideologies ( Delle Fave et al., 2011 ). Especially in a context like that of the COVID-19 pandemic – a disruptive process that homogeneously categorized an entire group as vulnerable and forced individuals world-wide to reorganize their lives – a qualitative approach allows for nuanced, in-depth analyses of people's experiences of wellbeing (and vulnerability).

3.2 Older adults' vulnerability

Independently of the pandemic context, older adults are often characterized as particularly frail and vulnerable ( Fried et al., 2001 ; Clegg et al., 2013 ). This is often due the age-related decline in physiological and psychological systems, which renders this population vulnerable to falls, hospitalization, or sudden health changes triggered by minor events, and makes them more reliant on others for care ( Fried et al., 2001 ; Clegg et al., 2013 ). But vulnerability in old age is not a dichotomous state of vulnerable vs. not vulnerable, as was suggested in the public discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the life-course approach employed by Spini et al. (2017) , vulnerability is defined as:

“a weakening process and a lack of resources in one or more life domains that, in specific contexts, exposes individuals or groups to (1) negative consequences related to sources of stress, (2) an inability to cope effectively with stressors, and (3) an inability to recover from stressors or to take advantage of opportunities by a given deadline.” ( Spini et al., 2017 , p. 8)

It is a dynamic process between stress and resources that occurs at the intersection of different areas of life (like health, work, family, etc.), and on several levels (macro-, meso-, or micro-levels) throughout the life course ( Spini et al., 2017 ). When faced with a stressful situation like the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals must rely on the resources they accumulated throughout the life course – referred to as reserves ( Cullati et al., 2018 ) – in order to cope with life adversities. These reserves include, but are not limited to, physical and mental health, economic savings, cultural capital resulting from education, social networks, and emotional and cognitive reserves ( Cullati et al., 2018 ). It is in times of shocks that these reserves become the most important and mediate the impact of stressors on individuals' wellbeing; it is also during these adverse periods that inequalities between individuals' reserves become the most apparent ( Widmer, 2022 ), leading to situations of vulnerability.

In old age, physical reserves diminish, and older adults' ability to fight infectious diseases decreases, putting them in a vulnerable situation ( Bajaj et al., 2021 ). However, physical reserves are related to events and conditions throughout the lifespan. For example, the combination of disadvantageous childhood socioeconomic conditions, coupled with adverse adult socioeconomic conditions, increase the probability of chronic health diseases ( Galobardes et al., 2007 ). Aging adults are thus not all equally vulnerable to the risks associated with COVID-19; their vulnerability is associated to a wide variety of life-course experiences and factors, only some of which directly related to age ( Oris et al., 2020 ; Sneed and Krendl, 2022 ).

3.3 Pandemic impact on older adults' wellbeing

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have studied different measures related to wellbeing, like loneliness, social isolation, worry, anxiety, and others. This section draws on the literature focusing on various experiences of wellbeing during the pandemic among older adults.

Following the implementation of virus containment and social distancing measures, many countries reported an increase in loneliness among older adults in comparison to pre-pandemic levels ( Luchetti et al., 2020 ; Seifert and Hassler, 2020 ; Holaday et al., 2021 ; Macdonald and Hülür, 2021 ; Rodney et al., 2021 ; Van Tilburg et al., 2021 ; Zaninotto et al., 2022 ; see also literature review by Su et al., 2023 ). Feelings of loneliness were particularly prevalent among older adults with no children, lower-income individuals, those living alone, and those reporting depressive symptoms ( Seifert and Hassler, 2020 ; O'Shea et al., 2021 ), which highlights the role of resources and reserves in mediating the pandemic's impact on wellbeing.

Furthermore, older adults in countries all around the world experienced higher levels of stress, worry, anxiety, and depression in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. These negative mental health outcomes were more common among older single adults, among older adults of lower socioeconomic groups ( Kola et al., 2021 ; Webb and Chen, 2022 ; Wettstein et al., 2022a ; Zaninotto et al., 2022 ), among those with poor self-rated health ( Wettstein et al., 2022a ), and among those who were already socially isolated prior to the pandemic ( Macleod et al., 2021 ). Social isolation is correlated to declining physical and mental health, increased mortality, and lower quality of life, and the social distancing measures introduced by the pandemic exacerbated these risks ( Macleod et al., 2021 ).

Most studies published to date, in May 2023, concentrate on the initial weeks of the pandemic and largely focus on singular countries. Atzendorf and Gruber (2022) 's research, however, focused on the weeks following the first wave, between June and August 2020 and used SHARE data to analyze the medium-term consequences of the first pandemic wave across 25 European countries and Israel. They found that older adults in countries with high death rates and stringent measures were at increased risk of feeling depressed or lonely. Similarly, Mendez-Lopez et al. (2022) used the same data and revealed that countries' greater stringency in physical distancing measures was associated with worse mental health. This is particularly pertinent for this paper, as both Italy and Switzerland were badly hit by the pandemic ( Ferrante, 2022 ; Pleninger et al., 2022 ), but they differed in containment strategies: while Italian residents were severely limited in their mobility, Swiss residents benefitted from a certain amount of freedom. Atzendorf and Gruber (2022) revealed that Italian older adults reported increased feelings of loneliness and depression after the pandemic onset to a greater extent than Swiss older adults.

The only study to date analyzing older adults' wellbeing during the two years following the pandemic onset showed that most older Europeans did not feel lonely before or during the pandemic. However, for some, feelings of loneliness increased, particularly among the less educated, those living alone, and those isolated at home ( König and Isengard, 2023 ).

Moreover, the characterization of older adults as a homogeneous, exceptionally vulnerable population ( Petretto and Pili, 2020 ; Seifert, 2021 ) engendered negative self-perceptions of aging ( Losada-Baltar et al., 2021 ; Seifert, 2021 ), which have been associated with loneliness and psychological distress among older adults ( Losada-Baltar et al., 2021 ). Their homogenous representation and the resulting ageist narrative also led to feelings of anger, increased anxiety, and perceptions of loss of autonomy and individualism by this older population ( Derrer-Merk et al., 2022a , b ).

Although research has documented the negative impact of the pandemic on older adults, studies have also suggested that in some ways, older adults did not suffer as much as their younger counterparts, as documented in the literature review by Seckman (2023) . Older adults in the United States reported less pandemic-related stress, less social isolation ( Birditt et al., 2021 ), and greater emotional wellbeing ( Carstensen et al., 2020 ) than younger adults. The same result was found among Chinese adults ( Jiang, 2020 ). Similarly, in Italy older adults reported less loneliness compared to younger age groups ( Luchetti et al., 2020 ).

Independently of the pandemic context, older migrants are more vulnerable to loneliness and social isolation due to language and cultural barriers, low social capital, and dependence on children for support ( Neville et al., 2018 ; Sidani et al., 2022 ). Moreover, older migrants often occupy disadvantaged socioeconomic positions and are in worse health than natives in the host country ( Bolzman and Vagni, 2018 ; WHO, 2018 ). The pandemic and the related reduced social contacts may have thus rendered older migrants particularly vulnerable to social isolation, loneliness and negative mental health outcomes ( Pan et al., 2021 ; Sidani et al., 2022 ). In fact, a study on older Chinese migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands revealed that reduced social participation and financial insecurity increased migrants' loneliness levels ( Pan et al., 2021 ).

Furthermore, migrants often engage in transnational practices, linking them in various ways to their country of origin ( Ciobanu and Ludwig-Dehm, 2020 ). The pandemic restrictions changed some of these transnational practices through travel bans and border closures ( Nehring and Hu, 2022 ), which may influence older migrants' wellbeing. A survey conducted within the same research project as this paper, found that Italian migrants in Switzerland reported higher levels of worry about the COVID-19 pandemic than Swiss natives, and this difference is largely explained by engagement in transnational practices ( Ludwig-Dehm et al., 2023 ).

Despite the increasing proportion of older migrants in Europe ( UNDESA, 2020 ), research on the impact of the pandemic on older migrants' wellbeing is scarce.

3.4 Coping strategies of older adults

Research has shown that aging adults are capable of adapting and coping to various events and circumstances ( Klausen, 2020 ; Settersten et al., 2020 ). Coping refers to the cognitive and behavioral efforts one carries out to prevent, tolerate, or diminish certain situations ( Lazarus and Folkman, 1984 ; Carver, 2013 ; Biggs et al., 2017 ), and studies have found that older adults are particularly able to engage in such behaviors to diminish stressors ( Yancura and Aldwin, 2008 ; Carstensen et al., 2020 ). Coping strategies are often grouped into emotion-focused and problem-focused strategies ( Lazarus and Folkman, 1984 ; Aldwin and Revenson, 1987 ; Biggs et al., 2017 ). The first refers to strategies intended to regulate one's emotional reactions to the problem, while the latter refers to behaviors and cognitions aimed at directly managing or solving a problem ( Yancura and Aldwin, 2008 ; Biggs et al., 2017 ). This includes strategies aimed at avoiding thinking about the problem – like keeping oneself busy – as well as strategies aimed at finding the positive aspects of a stressful situation ( Aldwin and Yancura, 2004 ).

Older adults' ability to engage in these strategies can be partly explained by Carstensen's (2021) Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, which posits that social and emotional goals change depending on the perception of how much time one has left to live. As one grows older or approaches the end of their life due to illnesses or frailty, goals shift and people tend to value smaller and more meaningful social networks, they tend to spend more time with close partners, and they use cognitive resources to process more positive information ( Carstensen, 2021 ).

Another aspect related to older adults' coping abilities concerns the aforementioned reserves accumulated throughout the life-course. Accumulation of social resources, cultural and economic capital, health reserves, and the acquisition of coping skills allow older adults to endure stressful situations or, on the contrary, the lack of such reserves can penalize them ( Grundy, 2006 ; Cullati et al., 2018 ; Settersten et al., 2020 ).

In addition to the wellbeing consequences for older adults, studies have addressed the coping mechanisms developed by this population throughout the first wave of the pandemic. In a qualitative study, Gonçalves et al. (2022) interviewed older adults in Brazil, the United States, Italy, and Portugal, and revealed that social isolation engendered feelings of restriction in terms of interaction with friends and family and ability to participate in leisure activities. At the same time, older adults were also able to cope with the situation by dedicating their time to hobbies, using technological resources to stay close to friends and family, or involving themselves in religious and spiritual activities. Despite the different cultures and contexts of this study's participants, researchers found homogeneity in their coping mechanisms. Several studies confirmed these findings with different samples of older U.S. American adults ( Finlay et al., 2021 ; Fuller and Huseth-Zosel, 2021 ; Whitehead and Torossian, 2021 ), and Bustamante et al. (2022) revealed that time spent in parks and outdoor spaces boosted physical, mental, and social wellbeing.

Similarly, Mau et al. (2022) found that for older Danish adults, adapting to the situation by reframing their mindset, finding ways to maintain social contacts and a sense of community, and staying active were important coping behaviors that helped them maintain a good level of wellbeing. In Italy, older adults experienced the first pandemic wave in heterogeneous ways: those who felt alone pre-pandemic expressed that isolation had a negative impact on their wellbeing. Others were able to cope with the situation by exploring hobbies and maintaining contacts with friends and family through telephone use ( Cipolletta and Gris, 2021 ).

However, the only study on older migrants' wellbeing and coping strategies by Pan et al. (2021) found that neither problem-focused coping strategies, nor emotion-focused coping protected against increased loneliness during the pandemic.

These studies reveal that, at least for the first half of 2020, older adults employed coping mechanisms to endure the pandemic, but we still know little of their experiences after the first COVID-19 wave. A longitudinal qualitative study on Canadian older persons explored their experiences over a 10-month period from May 2020 to February 2021 ( Brooks et al., 2022 ). It found that the longevity of pandemic restrictions was partially responsible for older adults' declines in wellbeing. Simultaneously, participants used similar coping mechanism employed during the first pandemic wave to maintain their wellbeing: they stayed active, found ways to stay in contact with friends and family, and adopted positive mindsets.

Nonetheless, cross-country research on the experiences of wellbeing among older adults, and more particularly in the years following the pandemic onset, is still scarce. We therefore aim to bridge this gap by exploring the lived experiences and coping mechanisms of older individuals in two countries that had contrasting COVID-19 containment measures like Italy and Switzerland. Furthermore, we analyze how having connections to both countries, as is the case of Italian migrants in Switzerland, influences the lived experiences of these individuals.

4 Data and methods

Our study focuses on three groups of older adults (65+): (1) Swiss natives, defined as individuals who were born in Switzerland and whose parents were also born in Switzerland, (2) Italian international migrants from the south of Italy, defined as individuals who were born in southern Italy, whose parents were also born in Italy, and who migrated to Switzerland, and (3) Italian natives, defined as those who were born in the south of Italy, resided in the south of Italy at the time of the research, and whose parents were also born in Italy. There are several reasons for the inclusion of these specific groups in our study. First, Italians constitute one of the largest cohorts of foreign nationals aged 65 and above residing in Switzerland ( FSO, 2020 ). Second, a significant part of older Italians migrated to Switzerland between the 1950s and 1970s, with the majority originating from economically disadvantaged regions of Southern Italy ( Wessendorf, 2007 ). They primarily migrated for financial reasons or to reunite with family who had relocated as labor migrants ( Bolzman et al., 2004 ; Riaño and Wastl-Walter, 2006 ), and we therefore analyze older adults with a very specific migration background. Third, by comparing migrants from Southern Italy to natives from the same regions, we can explore the lived experiences of individuals who were raised in similar social contexts.

The sample for this paper is derived from an original quantitative survey conducted between June and November 2020 in the project TransAge: “Transnational aging among older migrants and natives: A strategy to overcome vulnerability.” Respondents to the qualitative interviews had already participated to the TransAge survey and had agreed to be further contacted for a follow-up interview. In total, 31 individuals participated to the study, of which 11 were Swiss natives, 10 were Italian migrants residing in Switzerland, and 10 were Italian natives residing in Italy.

To ensure diversity of wellbeing experiences among each of the three groups, we attempted to recruit individuals with low and high levels of life satisfaction. To do so, we based ourselves on Diener's Satisfaction with Life Scale ( Diener et al., 1985 ), included in the TransAge questionnaire. More specifically, we focused on the scale item “I am satisfied with my life.” In the survey, participants were asked to indicate the strength of their agreement with this statement on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree). We thus contacted a roughly equal number of participants who stated being satisfied with their lives (scores 6 or 7) and participants who were less satisfied (scores 5 or less). Simultaneously, we checked the general life satisfaction scores drawing on the 5-item scale to assure coherence between the single-item and the total score ( Diener et al., 1985 ).

The first author conducted semi-structured one-to-one interviews with the 31 community-dwelling older adults between December 2021 and March 2022, during the fifth wave of COVID-19, when social distancing was still strongly advised. Consequently, all interviews were done by telephone, 1 except for one participant who preferred to meet in person. Participation in the study was voluntary, and all participants gave oral consent to be interviewed and recorded. Interviews lasted an average of 45 min, and they were conducted in French or Italian. They were audio-recorded and subsequently transcribed verbatim and anonymized. Participant quotes in this paper were translated into English by the first author, and every participant was given a pseudonym.

Participants were asked open-ended questions that prompted them to reflect on their experiences throughout the pandemic. First, they were asked to describe their feelings at the beginning of the pandemic, any impact that the confinement period had on their wellbeing, on their social habits, oron their daily lives. They were also encouraged to share how they coped with this period. They were then asked to reflect on the years after the onset of the sanitary crisis and describe any difficulties they faced and any strategies used to surmount these difficulties. Participants were also invited to share what their daily and social lives looked like at the time of interview, and how they felt about any long-lasting changes they may have experienced.

Interviews were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis using qualitative coding software NVivo. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Geneva.

5.1 Sample description

The 11 Swiss natives and 10 Italian migrants resided in the Swiss cantons of Geneva, Vaud, or Ticino, while the 10 Italian natives resided in the Italian regions of Sicily, Apulia, Sardinia, Abruzzo, Basilicata, or Campania. Participant characteristics by group are shown in Table 1 . In comparison to the larger TransAge quantitative study, there is an over-representation of participants with medium and higher level of education among Italian migrants and natives, which will be taken into consideration in the discussion of the results.

Table 1 . Sample charactertistics.

5.2 Comparative accounts of wellbeing in times of pandemic

When recounting their experiences throughout the first 2 years of the pandemic in Switzerland and Italy, participants across the three groups coupled their narratives, whether positive or negative, with coping strategies they employed to manage the impact of the pandemic on their wellbeing. The themes that we identified correspond to emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping strategies documented in the coping literature ( Lazarus and Folkman, 1984 ; Aldwin and Revenson, 1987 ; Biggs et al., 2017 ). Emotion-focused coping refers to strategies aimed at regulating the emotions that arise because of a stressful situation, which also includes engagement in activities as a way to distract oneself. Problem-focused coping, on the other hand, refers to behaviors and cognitions targeted toward solving or managing a problem ( Yancura and Aldwin, 2008 ). Strategies like social contact through telephone use involves elements of both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping. It refers to emotional support received by friends and family, it can entail concrete help in understanding how to confront an adverse situation, and it is a strategy directed at compensating for decreased in-person contact ( Aldwin and Yancura, 2004 ).

Table 2 shows the behaviors adopted by participants that correspond to these two overarching coping mechanisms. We found that certain strategies adopted during the first lockdown were no longer used at the time of interview. Thus, in Table 2 , we list the themes found in the data by pandemic period.

Table 2 . Coping strategies used at pandemic onset and at time of interview.

During the first months of the pandemic, the primary emotion-focused strategies adopted by older adults in our sample related to acceptance of the health crisis, keeping busy through hobbies and exercise, appreciation of the natural environment, and attitudes aimed at “finding the silver lining,” which involves strategies aimed at trying to find the positive aspects of the problem at hand, and which the literature often refers to as cognitive reframing ( Aldwin and Yancura, 2004 ; Robson and Troutman-Jordan, 2014 ). In terms of problem-focused coping, participants evoked the importance of social distancing measures both during the initial lockdown and at the time of interview, and many later relied on vaccines as a mean to decrease the probability of severe illness.

The subsequent sections are organized as follows: First, we detail, by group, participants' experiences of wellbeing during the first lockdown and the coping strategies they adopted to face this period. Then, we analyze how social distancing measures and decreased social contacts impacted participants in each of the three groups, and we outline participants' social habits and coping strategies at the time of interview.

5.2.1 Wellbeing during the first lockdown

Although participants in all three groups used similar coping strategies throughout the pandemic, their narratives of wellbeing differed.

5.2.1.1 Experiences of Swiss natives

All Swiss native older adults, except for one, described the first confinement period in positive terms and expressed not having been particularly bothered by it. They often associated their wellbeing to being able to keep busy through various hobbies and interests, and by enjoying the natural landscapes around them, as indicated in the following excerpts:

“I think I was very relaxed…I have so many books at home...I have the watercolors, I have so many things to do here, creatively, with my hands or with my head, it doesn't bother me, so...the confinement didn't bother me at all.” (Irène, 77, F, Swiss native) “So, at home, my wife plays the piano. She has a gentleman who comes to the house. Oh yeah, she hasn't had a lesson in a year at home, but she took lessons with Zoom. You know how it is. So, she has a lot of work, piano homework. I did a little bit of crafting. I did a little bit of Spanish with French-Spanish classes.” (Nicolas, 71, M, Swiss native) “We remained a little locked up. But we had…it was a beautiful weather. There was the spring and everything, everything was beautiful. We enjoyed our patio. We got back to reading. We did a lot of stuff like that.” (Lydia, 79, F, Swiss native)

Some Swiss participants mentioned increased telephone use to share moments with friends and family. Others described their wellbeing by comparing themselves to others, thus engaging in cognitive strategies to frame their attitude and outlook on the situation. François, for instance, often spends part of the year in Barcelona, and when talking about his wellbeing, he compares the Swiss restrictions to those of Barcelona. He elaborates:

“We were very lucky because we weren't confined like…in Barcelona. In Switzerland, that wasn't the case. Of course, there were things we couldn't do any more, but there was still a lot for us to do. We could take the car, we could go for a walk. Well, the borders were closed. Well, we didn't suffer, my wife and I…our sons either.” (François, 81, M, Swiss native)

When reflecting on the virus-containment measures, others simply stated that they just had to accept the situation and adapt their behaviors accordingly. Pierre, for example, states:

“You have to adapt. We adapt by respecting the rules, not like people who cheat [by not following the rules]. We respect the rules, but we adapt.” (Pierre, 71, M, Swiss native)

Overall, the first months of the pandemic were described in positive terms by most of Swiss older adults. Most of them portrayed themselves as being in good health and they did not evoke fears related to the virus. However, one Swiss participant expressed the negative impact of this period on his wellbeing. He recounts:

“[We lived this period] quite badly because we were old, very old. The Ticino police chief was more or less telling everybody to put us in the freezer. I mean, not quite like that…he made a statement that caused quite a stir…[The situation] was not very conducive to being cheerful, let's say.” (Gianni, 88, M, Swiss Native)

For Gianni, the government lockdown meant being “stuck at home,” as he says, and relying on institutional support. His quote shows the way he experienced the confinement measures and the public discourse as an older-old person.

5.2.1.2 Experiences of Italian migrants in Switzerland

Similarly to Swiss natives, Italian migrants residing in Switzerland used cognitive strategies to frame the lockdown's impact on their wellbeing. They, too, evoked Switzerland's lenient containment measures as an important aspect that helped them surmount this period, particularly in terms of the freedom it gave them to spend time in nature. Giulia, for example, explains:

“Here in Switzerland, here in Geneva, I didn't feel this need for freedom like in other countries. For me, we were free here. I live near a park, I could take my walk every day. I have a small but very nice little apartment that has visibility on both sides, left and right, so I didn't feel like I was in prison.” (Giulia, 70, F, Italian migrant)

Italian migrants also turned to activities like reading, taking walks, and exercising to keep themselves busy during this period. However, although they lived the pandemic in the same context as the Swiss natives, there was more heterogeneity in Italian migrants' narratives of this containment period. While most stated that they simply accepted the situation and the lockdown did not negatively impact their wellbeing, some expressed feelings of loneliness and isolation. Gabriele (69, M), for example, says he felt isolated from the outside world at the beginning of the pandemic, he described his life during this period as monotonous. However, he kept himself busy by going on walks and exercising.

Others tried to overcome their feelings of loneliness by staying in communication with family, but it was not always helpful. When asked about any difficulties he faced during the lockdown, Alberto explains:

“A little bit of loneliness and missing family, that's it. It weighed on me a little bit. We used to phone my children, but no luck. My children also suffered; my youngest daughter suffered a lot and now we slowly recover.” (Alberto, 77, M, Italian migrant)

Italian migrants in Switzerland still hold transnational ties to their country of origin; a quantitative analysis of the TransAge survey found a higher level of worry about the pandemic among Italian migrants in Switzerland in comparison to Swiss natives ( Ludwig-Dehm et al., 2023 ). We were therefore interested in investigating whether Italian migrants evoked the COVID-19 situation in Italy when describing their own experiences of wellbeing, but none of our participants organically elicited Italy's situation in their narratives. We subsequently asked participants whether they were impacted in any way by the pandemic in Italy, and responses were heterogeneous. A large part expressed not having been impacted at all, others stated that they were sorry for the high numbers of deaths in Italy and they kept in contact with family, but were not particularly affected. Few of our participants, however, disclosed the emotional suffering they experienced due to Italy's high death rates, as demonstrated by the following quotes:

“I felt tremendous suffering […] I followed a lot, every day I was watching the Italian news. And it was, for me it was just – I don't want to say worse than the war, it was a virtual war, people dying without weapons, people dying without the bombs, without being machine-gunned, but they were dying like flies.” (Giulia, 70, F, Italian migrant) “Terrible, I felt really bad, I mean I don't know why we got to that point.” (Sara, 78, F, Italian migrant)

Although Italian migrants and Swiss natives lived the pandemic in the same context and both used similar coping strategies during the first confinement period, interviews show that Italian migrants' experiences were slightly more heterogeneous than Swiss natives', with a few migrants expressing feelings of loneliness and emotional anguish, emotions that were absent in Swiss natives' accounts.

5.2.1.3 Experiences of Italian natives

In comparison to Swiss natives and Italian migrants in Switzerland, most Italian natives residing in Italy expressed feelings of worry, sadness, and fear when recounting their lockdown experiences, but most of them coupled their hardships with feelings of acceptance. Tommaso, for example, recounts:

“To hear on television, from the media, that there are deaths and deaths and deaths, obviously the concern is there. The fear, the terror even, of suffering these negative effects.” (Tommaso 84, M, Italian native)

But later, when discussing the lockdown, he continues:

“I stayed peacefully at home with a nice long beard, growing it out. I accepted it, though, because those were the rules. You had to accept them.” (Tommaso, 84, M, Italian native)

Similarly, Paolino couples the dismay brought on by the pandemic lockdown with feelings of acceptance, as well as behaviors aimed at avoiding contagion. He explains:

“The beginning of the pandemic I accepted it begrudgingly, at home, and I stayed at home despite my habits, because having lived a life always on the move – until now I was always around. That thing, the pandemic, I accepted it, and for 3 months I stayed at home, I would only go get some groceries, the bare minimum.” (Paolino, 86, M, Italian native)

In contrast to Swiss natives and Italian migrants, few Italian natives mentioned having turned to hobbies to fill up their time during the first lockdown. Some mentioned the importance of spending time outside, of having a balcony or a garden. Most of them cited phoning friends and family for emotional support, to pass time, and to update each other on their health, and most declared having used the phone for communication more than pre-COVID times. To respect social distancing rules, one participant even used intercom to communicate with family in the same building; she says:

“We used to talk to each other by intercom and by phone, we all live in the same building, so by intercom, by phone we used to talk to each other, and then if somebody went out, they would walk by the kitchen door, which was made of glass, and then we would see each other.” (Rosa, 71, F, Italian native)

Despite the coping strategies employed by Italian natives, their narratives of the lockdown presented an overarching theme of dejection, which was less present in Italian migrants' experiences and nearly absent in those of the Swiss natives in our sample.

5.2.2 Wellbeing after 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of social contacts

Notwithstanding the different narratives of wellbeing among the three groups, the previous sections indicate that everyone inevitably experienced a decrease in physical social contacts resulting from the COVID-19 containment policies. Given the importance of social networks for individuals' wellbeing ( Helliwell and Putnam, 2004 ; Elgar et al., 2011 ; Amati et al., 2018 ), we aimed to inquire how social distancing regulations impacted participants' perceived wellbeing in the 2 years after the onset of the pandemic.

Our interviews reveal heterogeneous responses to social distancing; nonetheless, regardless of the perceived impact on their wellbeing, most participants employed behavior-focused coping strategies aimed at reducing probability of contagion and illness. These strategies consisted of either vaccination for the participant, social distancing habits, or a combination of the two. In some cases, these strategies were successful in supporting participants' experienced wellbeing. In other cases, they preserved one's physical wellbeing at the cost of their subjective wellbeing.

In the next sections, we explore how each of the three groups was impacted by decreased social contacts, how these sentiments developed throughout the pandemic, and how participants employed the above-mentioned coping strategies at the time of interview.

5.2.2.1 Experiences of Swiss natives

Just like the lockdown did not seem to negatively impact most Swiss older adults in our study, neither did the imposed social distancing measures and related decrease in social contacts. Most of them experienced a slight change of social habits, which entailed seeing friends and family less frequently during the previous 2 years in comparison to pre-COVID times. However, these changes did not have a consequential negative impact for most of our Swiss participants. Social distancing was often described as bothersome or strange, but easily managed. Martin, for example, states:

“Yeah, [the pandemic] restricts our freedom to see – as I'm a pretty tactile person, it's true that it changes me a little bit. Friends, I kiss them less. That's what affects me a little bit more – I have to be less, much less tactile than I was with everyone, to give kisses to the left and to the right. Well, it's a bit weird.” (Martin, 75, Swiss Native)

This quote represents the sentiments expressed by most Swiss natives: they were not completely unaffected, but they were able to adapt to the changes in social habits without important repercussions for their wellbeing. At the time of interview, nearly 2 years after the pandemic onset, most Swiss older adults explained their social habits were similar to their pre-pandemic habits, but they also adopted strategies to be able to fulfill their social desires while avoiding contagion or severe illness. Most Swiss participants mentioned being vaccinated and expressed the importance of listening to scientists' advice on the preventative measures to take. These strategies helped them adjust their behaviors accordingly and feel more protected. Martin, for instance, has resumed seeing friends, but only under certain self-imposed rules. He explains,

“If we see each other, we are all vaccinated. We are not safe from catching it but at least we are less likely to get sick. And then, we avoid those who don't want to be vaccinated or those who are not vaccinated.” (Martin, 75, Swiss native)

However, one Swiss participant shared the negative experiences that followed him and his wife throughout the course of the pandemic. During the lockdown, Gianni expressed being “stuck at home,” and this lack of freedom and decreased social contacts persisted until the time of the interview, 2 years later. He says,

“Now with these problems of…the danger of contagion, and so it makes us less, less mobile, less free to live, right? Basically now, even though the lockdown has not been declared, we try to go out as little as possible, not to mingle with people so we don't get infected.” (Gianni, M, 88, Swiss native)

While most Swiss older adults were able to resume their social lives by adopting behaviors to avoid illness, the social distancing measured employed by Gianni – the oldest among our Swiss participants – allow him to preserve his physical wellbeing at the cost of his subjective wellbeing.

5.2.2.2 Experiences of Italian migrants in Switzerland

In comparison to older Swiss natives, the perceived impact of social distancing measures was more heterogeneous among Italian migrants. At the time of interview, only a minority of participants said they had resumed their pre-pandemic social habits, although most slowly started seeing small groups of friends again. Like in Gianni's case, for many Italian migrants, the social distancing strategies adopted to preserve their physical wellbeing had negative repercussions on their experienced wellbeing. One participant, for example, shared that the fear of contagion remained even after containment restrictions were eased, and his personal relationships suffered. He explains,

“I lost touch with friends, you couldn't get together, you couldn't go shopping, the only thing I could do was go [walk] in the forest. Then, even when the restrictions were eased, it had affected me so much that it was hard to get together. When we got together […] we had a drink and then left. There was always that fear between us.” (Giacomo, 68, M, Italian migrant)

Giacomo looks back at his life before the pandemic with melancholy, but he also elicits the importance of acceptance and reframing one's mindset to surmount the situation. He shares:

“[Before COVID-19] we used to get together on Friday nights, play cards, drink, smoke, and for 2 years we haven't done it and I don't think we're going to start again. It's difficult because people have become distrustful, we've been wounded and we're licking our wounds. Let's put it this way. You have to get over it, direct your life differently and move on. I don't want to stay at home waiting for death.” (Giacomo, 68, M).

Although some participants were wary of resuming social activities at the time of interview, most slowly started seeing friends again while continuing to employ social distancing measures. Giulia, for instance, explains:

“[Before the pandemic] maybe we went to the restaurant once a month, or once every 2 months. But that was a lot. But we haven't done this anymore, and I didn't – and we don't even feel like doing it anymore. Now if we go to a restaurant, we go at noon…and we stand outside on the terrace because we keep being careful.” (Giulia, 70, F, Italian migrant)

Despite the slow return to a social life and the continued safety measures employed, the pandemic had a long-lasting impact on the wellbeing of most Italian older migrants, as evidenced by the following excerpts:

“I feel insecure, maybe because of the pandemic, because of the war that's going on 2 […] I feel insecure and I tell myself I don't need this […] Insecure in the sense that I say, enough of the pandemic; insecure not physically, but in the sense that it destabilizes me [mentally] […] In the sense that I used to be able to imagine the following years and now I can't.” (Sara, 78, F, Italian migrant) “It's 2 years that I lost and that I cannot get back. […] I lost 2 years that I won't get back. I don't even know if I'll be able to – to feel better.” (Giulia, 70, F, Italian migrant).

5.2.2.3 Experiences of Italian natives in Italy

The perceived impact of the social distancing measures was notably detrimental for the experienced wellbeing of Italian natives in Italy. Most cited the lack of social contacts as the primary difficulty faced throughout the pandemic. For many, the fear instilled by the pandemic prevented them from resuming their social activities at the time of interview, despite most participants being vaccinated. This engendered feelings of sadness, anxiety, and loneliness among many Italian participants, as evidence by the following quotes:

“What I dislike is not being able to have company, because I'm all about friendships, company, laughter, and I don't like loneliness. […Before the pandemic] we used to organize trips with an association, so we would spend 15 days together, and every 2 months we would meet in an institution and spend the day together, we would eat together. With girlfriends, we would go out and take a walk in the countryside when we had nice days, and so I miss all of that now.” (Martina, 84, F, Italian native) “Now the fact of going out and putting the mask on […], continually having to disinfect your hands when you go out, when you go get groceries, having to be careful not to get too close to people, [hoping] that in stores there aren't too many people. These – this anxiety that it gives you, that as long as you are at home, it's different. But when you go out for necessities, or go to the hospital for a visit – in short, it's anxiety, that's it. You try to – every person you meet seems to be an enemy.” (Rosa, 72, F, Italian Native) “I have a lot of fear, really a lot, and this has prevented me from going out and also from having a social life. My social life has almost disappeared, because partly the fear, partly my age, and so the result is that while before I used to go to concerts, I used to go to the movies, now we have – my husband and I – we have canceled everything, we don't go anymore, and so there is a lot of sadness.” (Alice, 75, F, Italian native)

Although some expressed feeling safer due to the vaccine, the fear induced by the virus was still present 2 years following the pandemic onset. Many Italian natives described the continued use of their phones to communicate with friends and family – more so than during pre-pandemic times – and this kept them company. Nonetheless, most expressed that while at the beginning they tried to accept the circumstances, the pandemic had started to weigh on them and negatively influence their wellbeing. Only one Italian native shared that the changes in social habits did not have a substantial impact on his wellbeing:

“[The pandemic] did not substantially change my life, nor my family's. Of course, there were occasions when we would have liked – during the holidays, for example – to spend more time with friends. We gave this up, and we think and hope that it was accepted by our friends. In any case, this withdrawal was nothing out the ordinary, so it was nothing irrational. Let's say that it did not affect our life, our wellbeing.” (Lorenzo, 74, M, Italian native)

Yet, even for a person like Lorenzo who estimates that his wellbeing was not lowered by the pandemic, his social habits have changed, which was observed for most of the Italian natives in Italy.

6 Discussion

The objective of this study was to provide insight into older adults' experiences of wellbeing as well as the coping strategies employed to overcome difficulties brought about by the pandemic, in particular social distancing. Our contribution to the existing literature is 4-fold: (1) we explored older adults' lived experiences not only through their recollection of the first months of the pandemic, but also through their narratives of wellbeing and coping 2 years after the pandemic onset, (2) we analyzed the experiences of older migrants, an underrepresented population in wellbeing and COVID-19-related research, (3) we compared the experiences of two groups – Swiss natives and Italian migrants – who lived the pandemic in the same context, and (4) we compared the experiences of older adults who were subject to strict containment measures – as was the case of Italian natives – to those of adults who benefitted from more lax restrictions.

The following section discusses the results of the qualitative interviews, as well as the study limitations and implications for future policy.

While many of our interviews highlight the negative consequences of the pandemic for older adults' wellbeing in Switzerland and Italy, they also emphasize the heterogeneity of older individuals' experiences, as well as their ability to adapt and cope with stressful situations. Swiss natives and Italian migrants lived the pandemic in the same context, one that did not impose strong stay-at-home order and allowed for a certain freedom of movement. Yet, we found pronounced differences in their descriptions of wellbeing, both in the narratives concerning the first lockdown in 2020, and in the narratives addressing the following years, until time of interview.

Most Swiss natives presented positive accounts of the lockdown period; their descriptions were often coupled with coping strategies they employed to address the COVID-19 containment measures. Consistently with previous studies on coping during the pandemic, in the first months of the pandemic Swiss older adults relied on hobbies to keep busy, closeness to nature, acceptance of the sanitary situation, and cognitive strategies to find the silver lining of living through a world-wide crisis ( Finlay et al., 2021 ; Fuller and Huseth-Zosel, 2021 ; Whitehead and Torossian, 2021 ; Brooks et al., 2022 ; Bustamante et al., 2022 ; Mau et al., 2022 ). Most participants described their wellbeing as unaffected even at the time of interview, 2 years after the pandemic onset. Although they described the inevitable decrease in physical contacts as bothersome, most were able to adopt behavioral strategies that involved vaccination and continued social distancing measures that kept them safe while fulfilling their social needs.

Even though Italian migrants experienced the pandemic in the same context as Swiss natives, their accounts of the lockdown and the following years were more heterogeneous. During the first months of the pandemic, they used coping strategies like those of the Swiss natives: they spent their time in nature, kept busy through hobbies, and they, too, positively referred to the freedom they felt due to Switzerland's relaxed containment measures. At this time, only some participants expressed feelings of sadness and loneliness. However, when reflecting on the entirety of the previous 2 years, most participants shared the negative impact of the pandemic on their wellbeing. Although many slowly resumed social activities at the time of interview, they evoked a continued sense of fear, distrust, and dejection. Many of their interviews demonstrated that the social distancing behaviors that allowed them to keep themselves physically safe diminished their wellbeing.

Due to the qualitative nature of this article, it is not possible to firmly assert that the different experiences of wellbeing among Swiss natives and Italian migrants are due to inequalities in reserves. However, we can posit that, at least for some Italian migrants in Switzerland, their ability to cope with the pandemic may have been partly influenced by their lower level of reserves in comparison to those of Swiss natives.

Most Italian migrants in our study migrated to Switzerland in the 1960s and 1970s, as part of the wave of labor migrants who moved from regions of Italy that lacked economic opportunities ( Bolzman and Vagni, 2018 ; Dones and Ciobanu, 2022 ). Quantitative studies have revealed that, compared to older Swiss natives, older Italian migrants in Switzerland have lower education levels, report themselves in worse health, and generally occupied lower-skilled jobs ( Bolzman and Vagni, 2018 ). For many, the migration to Switzerland as labor workers was followed by a lack of opportunities to improve their socio-economic circumstances, leaving them in worse situations in comparison to their Swiss counterparts. These disadvantaged conditions may have engendered psychological stresses that may have accumulated over the life course ( Dannefer, 2003 ; Settersten et al., 2020 ), thereby impacting migrants' ability to build the adequate reserves to successfully cope with life shocks.

In our qualitative sample of Italian migrants there is an overrepresentation of highly educated participants and of participants in a comfortable financial situation, as represented by the measure “making ends meet” in Table 1 ( Dones, 2023 ). However, on average they still have lower education levels than Swiss natives. Moreover, independently of current socioeconomic status, most participants spoke of the poverty and lack of jobs they experienced during their youth in Italy, which ultimately led them to migrate. In addition, when reflecting on other hardships encountered during their lifetimes, most cited the difficulties encountered when they migrated: discrimination, having to learn another language, detachment from family in Italy, and getting accustomed to a foreign country. Along with the disadvantaged socioeconomic conditions some participants experienced throughout the lifespan, most experienced migration-related stressors that, accumulated over the life course, may have impacted their capacity to cope with life shocks and with the pandemic in the same way that Swiss natives did. Moreover, the capacity to act in old age is dependent on the life course and the accumulation of reserves ( Settersten et al., 2020 ), making in this case a difference between the older Swiss and older migrants.

Although Italian migrants did employ similar coping mechanisms, for most, these coping strategies were not successful in combatting the negative impact of the pandemic on their experienced wellbeing. This finding is in line with research by Pan et al. (2021) , which revealed that coping strategies like increased telephone contact and increased participation in individual activities did not protect older Chinese migrants against loneliness.

Another possible explanation for the lower wellbeing expressed by Italian migrants compared to Swiss natives relates to transnational practices and attachment to the home country. Although participants did not mention their attachment to Italy when recounting their pandemic experiences, some did share the negative impact the Italian situation had on their wellbeing. Previous research stemming from the TransAge project has revealed that greater attachment to Italy correlates to greater worry about the COVID-19 pandemic ( Ludwig-Dehm et al., 2023 ), which may have thereby impacted Italian migrants' lived experiences. Similarly, we found one case of transnational attachment among Swiss natives. The ties to Barcelona led François to value the confinement situation in Switzerland.

In comparison to older adults residing in Switzerland, older Italian natives expressed more negative emotions and difficulties when describing both the first COVID-19 lockdown and the subsequent years. Most adopted coping strategies like acceptance and increased telephone use for social contact, but the fear brought about by the virus followed them until the time of interview. This prevented most from resuming social activities, despite being vaccinated, and many expressed continued feelings of sadness, loneliness, and anxiety.

When considering the particularly negative experiences of Italian natives in Italy, we cannot propose that these were related to the various types of reserves accumulated through life, as our participants led heterogeneous life-courses. Indeed, there may be a variety of influencing factors that have the potential to affect the wellbeing of older Italian adults. One of these factors could hypothetically relate to the strict confinement measures employed by the Italian government throughout the first 2 years of the pandemic. Research thus far has revealed that countries' stringency of physical distancing regulations was associated with higher incidence of loneliness and depression among older adults ( Atzendorf and Gruber, 2022 ; Mendez-Lopez et al., 2022 ). Additionally, a study on older adults in Italy showed that restrictive measures significantly impacted the quality of life, psychological wellbeing, and mobility of older adults ( Tosato et al., 2022 ). Although no studies have yet been published on the long-term consequences of strict containment measures, our exploratory results could point to the negative impact of such regulations on older adults' experiences of wellbeing. However, this is simply a theoretical proposition and further studies on the subject are needed to firmly establish a correlation between stringency of confinement regulations and wellbeing.

Moreover, Italian natives relied on telephone communication as a coping mechanism more than the other two groups. While staying in touch with family and friends through phone and other media use has been correlated with life satisfaction during the first semi-lockdown in Switzerland ( Dones et al., 2022 ), studies found that non-personal communication does not substitute face-to-face interactions and it is not a protective strategy against loneliness among older adults ( Pan et al., 2021 ; König and Isengard, 2023 ). Further research should thus address the effectiveness of different coping strategies in times of crisis.

6.1 Limitations, strengths, and suggestions for future research

This study does not come without limitations. Due to the qualitative nature of the research and the relatively small sample size, results cannot be generalized even though saturation of responses was reached. In addition, our study did not explore the experiences of many people who lived alone during the pandemic, a population that might have been particularly at risk of social isolation. Similarly, there is a possibility that older adults with lower levels of wellbeing may not have been willing to participate to the research, although some research participants shared their difficulties and negative experiences of the pandemic. Lastly, to be able to better understand the role of reserves in older adults' experiences of the pandemic, longitudinal, quantitative data would be necessary.

Nonetheless, this article sheds light on several aspects. First, despite the homogeneous representation of older adults as frail and vulnerable ( Petretto and Pili, 2020 ; Ayalon et al., 2021 ; Maggiori et al., 2022 ), the pandemic impact on wellbeing is not the same for all older adults, as demonstrated by emerging studies ( Wettstein et al., 2022a , b ) and by the different experiences of this article's older populations. Second, despite the employment of coping strategies used by all participants, their effectiveness in mediating the long-term impact of the pandemic on experiences of wellbeing differed among groups. Third, the long-term impact of the pandemic and the various containment strategies needs further examination. As the case of Italian migrants in Switzerland shows, some older migrants experienced the beginning of the pandemic in quite positive ways, but their narratives of their situation 2 years after the pandemic onset showed an overall negative effect on their wellbeing.

The share of older adults in Europe continues to increase ( Eurostat, 2023 ), as does the share of older migrants ( UNDESA, 2020 ). The advancements of the last few decades have reduced the dependence of older adults and have increased life expectancy. At the same time, social inequalities and inter-individual diversity make of today's older adults an increasingly heterogeneous group ( Oris et al., 2020 ). The consideration of this heterogeneity should be at the core of not only scientific research, but also of policy interventions, as grouping all older adults under the “vulnerable and frail” umbrella propagates against narratives that can lead to increased psychological distress and negative self-perceptions of aging ( Losada-Baltar et al., 2021 ; Derrer-Merk et al., 2022a , b ).

To account for the diversity in older adults' lives, research on the long-term impact of the pandemic should adopt a life-course approach to further analyze how differing trajectories engender situations of resilience or vulnerability. Given the increase of share of older migrants, their underrepresentation in COVID-19 and wellbeing research, and the possible long-term effects of having a migration background, special consideration should be allotted to them. Moreover, studies should further address the effectiveness of coping strategies among different populations. Lastly, in cases of future health crises, governments should have an increased regard for the negative consequences of stringent confinement measures, as social isolation and physical inactivity among older adults are correlated with increased hospitalization, depression, cognitive impairment, and reduced quality of life ( Cacioppo et al., 2010 ; Cacioppo and Cacioppo, 2014 ; Ozemek et al., 2019 ).

Data availability statement

The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because the qualitative interviews analyzed in this study are not publicly available. For now, they are available from RC on reasonable request. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to RC, oana.ciobanu@hetsl.ch .

Ethics statement

The studies involving humans were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Geneva. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation was not required from the participants or the participants' legal guardians/next of kin because participation in the study was voluntary, and all participants gave oral consent to be interviewed and recorded.

Author contributions

ID drafted the interview guidelines, carried out the data collection and analysis, and was the major contributor in writing the manuscript. RC supervised the project, reviewed and approved the interview guidelines, provided article references, read parts of the interviews, and contributed to the discussion and conclusion. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

This work was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation through the Professorship Grant “Transnational Aging among Older Migrants and Natives: A Strategy to Overcome Vulnerability” (Grant Number PP00P1_179077/1).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: migration, coping, subjective wellbeing, health crisis, vulnerability

Citation: Dones I and Ciobanu RO (2024) Older adults' experiences of wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative qualitative study in Italy and Switzerland. Front. Sociol. 9:1243760. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1243760

Received: 21 June 2023; Accepted: 15 April 2024; Published: 01 May 2024.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2024 Dones and Ciobanu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Iuna Dones, iuna.dones@hesge.ch

This article is part of the Research Topic

Community Series in Mental Illness, Culture, and Society: Dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic, volume VIII

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A case study is one of the most commonly used methodologies of social research. This article attempts to look into the various dimensions of a case study research strategy, the different epistemological strands which determine the particular case study type and approach adopted in the field, discusses the factors which can enhance the effectiveness of a case study research, and the debate ...
How to Write a Qualitative Research Objective
I highly recommend writing your qualitative research objective first, and socializing it before beginning any study. Here's a quick guide: Download a PDF of this chart. Once you have your qualitative research objective, you can make sure that your research questions, and your recruiting criteria all roll up to it.
Module 1.03: Quantitative and Qualitative Research Flashcards
The empirical phase of a qualitative research study involves collecting and preparing data for analysis. TRUE. Rationale: In the third phase of a qualitative research study, data are collected according to protocols and established plans. The data must be coded in order to quantify data for statistical computer analysis.
Social determinants of violence against adolescent married women and
Objective: It is crucial to identify the factors that influence violence against women, one of Iran's most significant health and social issues. Thus, the purpose of this research is to explore the social determinants of violence against adolescent married women and how the women respond to it in the Kurdish areas of Iran via a qualitative approach. Method: The present study was conducted ...
Qualitative Methods in Health Care Research
Significance of Qualitative Research. The qualitative method of inquiry examines the 'how' and 'why' of decision making, rather than the 'when,' 'what,' and 'where.'[] Unlike quantitative methods, the objective of qualitative inquiry is to explore, narrate, and explain the phenomena and make sense of the complex reality.Health interventions, explanatory health models, and medical-social ...
Frontiers
BackgroundThis paper describes a UK-based study, SPICES-Sussex, which aimed to co-produce and implement a community-based cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment and reduction intervention to support under-served populations at moderate risk of CVD. The objectives were to enhance stakeholder engagement; to implement the intervention in four research sites and to evaluate the use of ...
3405: QUIZ 2 modules Flashcards
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Which of the following is a major step in a qualitative research study?, In quantitative and qualitative research, which of the major steps is common to both research methods?, T/F: Qualitative research involves a fairly linear process with researchers planning the steps and following those steps as closely as possible. and more.
Frontiers
Simultaneously, countries also employed different measures to contain the virus. Research thus far has focused on the short-term consequences of the pandemic, but studies have yet to address its long-term consequences. Objectives: We explore older adults' lived experiences nearly 2 years after the pandemic onset. Moreover, we focus on the ...

Chapter 1. Introduction

Why an Open Access Textbook on Qualitative Research Methods?

What is Research?

What is Qualitative Research?

Examples of Qualitative Research

Example 1 : The End Game (ethnography + interviews)

Example 2: Racing for Innocence (Interviews + Content Analysis + Fictional Stories)

Example 3: Amplified Advantage (Mixed Methods: Survey Interviews + Focus Groups + Archives)

How Is This Book Organized?

Chapter Descriptions

Recommended Reading: Other Qualitative Research Textbooks

Patton’s Ten Suggestions for Doing Qualitative Research

How to use and assess qualitative research methods

What is qualitative research?

Why conduct qualitative research?

How to conduct qualitative research?

Data collection

Document study

Observations

Semi-structured interviews

Focus groups

Choosing the “right” method

Data analysis

How to report qualitative research?

How to combine qualitative with quantitative research?

How to assess qualitative research?

Reflexivity

Sampling and saturation

Member checking

Stakeholder involvement

How not to assess qualitative research

Protocol adherence

Sample size

Randomisation

Interrater reliability, variability and other “objectivity checks”

Not being quantitative research

Availability of data and materials

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

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Neurological Research and Practice

1 Introduction

What Is Qualitative Research?

The Elements of Research

The Philosophical Substructure of Qualitative Research

Praxis: Approaches, Methods, and Theories in Action

Ethics: Beliefs and Practices

Who Are Qualitative Researchers?

The Contents of This Handbook

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Criteria for Good Qualitative Research: A Comprehensive Review

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Good Qualitative Research: Opening up the Debate

What is Qualitative in Research

Introduction

Criteria for Evaluating Qualitative Studies

Qualitative Research: Interpretive Paradigms

Improving Quality: Strategies

How to Assess the Quality of the Research Findings?

Quality Checklists: Tools for Assessing the Quality

Conclusions, Future Directions, and Outlook

Prospects : A Road Ahead for Qualitative Research

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1 Introduction

2 Contextual background: the Swiss and Italian contexts