Using Sociograms to Enhance Power and Voice in Focus Groups.

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the use of sociograms in our focus groups with homeless sheltered mothers and to assess facilitator influence and the distribution of power influence. DESIGN AND SAMPLE: An exploratory, descriptive qualitative design that utilizes both focus groups and sociograms. Two focus groups were conducted in December 2009 (N = 7) and January 2010 (N = 4). Data analysis included a content analysis and a process analysis using sociograms to graphically represent group participant dynamics. RESULTS: Use of the sociogram provided a means to assess the influence of the facilitator as well as quantify the degree to which group participants' voices are included. CONCLUSION: Using sociograms provides a viable mechanism to complement content analysis and increase the methodological rigor of focus groups in health care research.

Exploration of Social, Environmental, and Familial Influences on the Sexual Health Practices of Urban African American Adolescents.

Despite efforts to examine social influences and provide interventions that lead to safer sexual practices for African American (AA) adolescent girls, statistics have demonstrated this population continues to have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV when compared with adolescent girls of other races. Guided by the principles of Black Feminist Thought and Photovoice and focus group methodology, this descriptive study aimed to discover the social realities influencing a group of eight AA adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years. Data from individual interviews and a focus group session were collected from November 11, 2012, to February 1, 2013. Analysis of selected photographs, interviews, and focus group conversations through a feminist lens suggests AA adolescents of low socioeconomic status continue to foster racial and mental inferiority stereotypes by using their sexuality as a bargaining tool for acceptance, value, and even love.

Voices from the street: exploring the realities of family homelessness.

Homelessness threatens the health and well-being of thousands of families in the United States, yet little is known about their specific needs and how current services address them. To fill this knowledge gap, we explored the experiences of homelessness families in Detroit, Michigan. We targeted homeless mothers and their caseworkers for study to see if the perceptions of needs and services were in alignment. Using focus groups and content analysis, we identified four overarching themes that illustrate homeless mothers' experience with homelessness. We then analyzed data from caseworkers to look specifically for similarities and differences in their perceptions. Key findings included reports of family histories of violence, poverty, social isolation, and a lack of informal support as contributing to homelessness. The differing perspectives of mothers and their caseworkers regarding how best to move forward highlight how current programs and services may not be meeting the needs of this growing and vulnerable cohort.

Overcoming: a concept analysis.

BACKGROUND: Nurses often work with individuals and populations striving to improve or maintain the quality of their lives. Many, struggling from complex health and social problems, are challenged to surmount barriers to achieve this goal. The growing number of homeless families in the United States represent one such cohort. AIMS: To develop an operational definition of overcoming and explicate its meaning, attributes, and characteristics as it relates to homeless families. METHODS: Using the concept analysis method described by Walker and Avant, along with an extensive literature review, and sample cases pertaining to family homelessness, we delineated the defining attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents of the concept, overcoming. CONCLUSION: The results of this concept analysis, particularly the relationship of overcoming to family homelessness, provide guidance for further conceptualization and empirical testing, as well as for clinical practice.

Moving toward synergy: lessons learned in developing and sustaining community-academic partnerships.

BACKGROUND: Community-academic partnerships are an increasingly popular approach to addressing community health problems and engaging vulnerable populations in research. Despite these altruistic foci, however, partnerships often struggle with fundamental issues that thwart sustainability, effectiveness, and efficiency. OBJECTIVES: We adapted a synergy-promoting model to guide the development and evaluation of a community-academic partnership and share lessons learned along the way. METHODS: We analyzed the partnership process over time to determine the interaction of trust, collaboration, and engagement in creating partnership synergy and promoting sustainability. LESSONS LEARNED: Few community-academic partnerships use a conscious and systematic approach to guide and evaluate their progress. We argue that this is an important first step in creating a partnership, sustaining a milieu of open dialogue, and developing strategies that promote trust and equalize power dynamics. Still, as we learned, the best laid plans can go awry, challenging partnership synergy throughout its lifespan.

Common issues, different approaches: strategies for community-academic partnership development.

Communities around the United States face many challenging health problems whose complexity makes them increasingly unresponsive to traditional single-solution approaches. Multiple approaches have considered ways to understand these health issues and devise interventions that work. One such approach is community-based participatory research. This article describes the development of a new collaborative partnership between a school of nursing and an urban social service agency using community-based participatory research as a framework. We describe the partnership's evolution and process of data collection and analysis and evaluate the outcomes of both. We argue that community-based participatory research involves partnerships at its core whose members, both as individuals and part of the collaboration, must be committed and nimble in the face of shifting and challenging health and social problems, recognize common issues and concerns across the boundaries of community and academia, and respect each other's different approaches and expertise.