What Influences Saturation? Estimating Sample Sizes in Focus Group Research
By M. Hennink, B. Kaiser, Mary Beth Weber. Qualitative Health Research, 2019
960 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Saturation is commonly used to determine sample sizes in qualitative research, yet there is little guidance on what influences saturation. We aimed to assess saturation and identify parameters to estimate sample sizes for focus group studies in advance of data collection. We used two approaches to assess saturation in data from 10 focus group discussions. Four focus groups were sufficient to identify a range of new issues (code saturation), but more groups were needed to fully understand these issues (meaning saturation). Group stratification influenced meaning saturation, whereby one focus group per stratum was needed to identify issues; two groups per stratum provided a more comprehensive understanding of issues, but more groups per stratum provided little additional benefit. We identify six parameters influencing saturation in focus group data: study purpose, type of codes, group stratification, number of groups per stratum, and type and degree of saturation.
Subfields: Education, Sociology and Political Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a0d27dfb113fdef293d901a27f0c1dd13bd65550
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Citations in the corpus
- Saturation controversy in qualitative research: Complexities and underlying assumptions. A literature review (2020, methodology): “Hennink et al. (2019) suggests six parameters influencing saturation in focus groups: study purpose, type of codes, group stratification, the number of groups per stratum, type and degree of saturation.”