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Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, March, 2004 by Vikki Krane, Precilla Y.L. Choi, Shannon M. Baird, Christine M. Aimar, Kerrie J. Kauer
One researcher from our team was trained to be the moderator for all of the focus groups (Morgan, 1988). Three pilot focus group interviews were conducted to assess the wording of the questions, provide the moderator practice in the role, and obtain feedback from the pilot participants. Once the research team was confident that the interview guide was adequate and that the moderator was well prepared, five focus group interviews with three to five athletes were conducted. The discussions focused on the athletes' perceptions of their body image, muscularity, and femininity.
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Prior to the focus group interviews, each person completed an informed consent form and a demographic questionnaire. Then the moderator asked an icebreaker question to establish rapport among the focus group participants and the moderator (e.g., describe your sport experiences; Krueger, 1998; Morgan, 1988). The moderator used a semistructured, interview guide to ensure that similar questions were addressed in each focus group (Kvale, 1996; Morgan, 1988). She asked open-ended questions to spark discussion among the group members, and probing questions were used as needed. The moderator remained relatively uninvolved to allow the balance of power to be shifted to the group members (Madriz, 2000). Consistent with the procedures of Krane, Waldron, et al. (2001), the focus group interviews were videotaped and audiotaped for purposes of verbatim transcription.
Reflexivity
An important component of trustworthiness in qualitative research is reflexivity, or consideration of characteristics of the researchers that may influence their interpretation of findings (Ely, 1993; Fonow & Cook, 1991). The research team was composed of three graduate students and two professors in sport psychology, all of whom employ a feminist approach in our research (cf. Krane, 2001b). The researchers also have a variety of sport backgrounds that influenced our interpretation of the data. Three of us are former college athletes, two have collegiate coaching experience, two have competed in bodybuilding, and one had experience in cheerleading and gymnastics. We also varied in sexual orientation, which influenced personal experiences with, and perceptions of, femininity. As previous researchers explained, gender or gender roles cannot be discussed in isolation from sexual orientation (Bartky, 1990; Hargreaves, 1993; Kolnes, 1995; Krane, 2001a). Although it was neither possible nor desirable to explicate our personal experiences from the analysis and interpretation of the data, "self-situating" during this process was essential to our feminist cultural studies analysis (Frow & Morris, 2000). Ultimately, as found by Krane, Waldron, et al. (2001), the collaborative efforts among individuals with varied experiences provided multiple vantage points for negotiating the data and enhanced our collective understanding of the focus group data.
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