Little Children—Lots of Data. Possibilities to Combine Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods to Analyze Narratives about the Self

Authors

  • Christina Krause Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
  • Volker Müller-Benedict Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
  • Ulrich Wiesmann Universität Greifswald

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-1.2.1085

Keywords:

project evaluation, self-image, self-worth, self-reports, health promotion, primary school children, longitudinal study, qualitative content analysis, intercoder reliability, kappa-coefficient

Abstract

The evaluation of a health promotion program of several years for primary school children resulted in two problems. First, qualitative instruments had to be developed for a population (children at the age between 5 and 10), for which standardized procedures would not be suitable. Second, the program was tested in a total of 20 school classes, and longitudinal verbal and pictorial-based data were collected. Thus, over a period of almost four years, an enormous amount of qualitative data were collected. New procedures were developed in order to analyze these qualitative data comprehensibly in a quantitative way. In addition, it had to be taken into account that the qualitative categories used for data analysis had to be elaborated (had to become more differentiated) in the course of time. In order to ensure the longitudinal comparabililty, the earlier codings had to be brought into line with the respective elaborations of the coding scheme. Overall, a constant standard of excellence of qualitative analysis could be achieved. Moreover, the coding scheme could be improved by considering the quantitative results. In this article, these procedures and their efficiency in evaluating the promotion program are presented. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0002165

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Author Biographies

Christina Krause, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Dr. Christina KRAUSE, Dipl.-Päd., Professor of Pedagogic Psychology at the Pedagogic Seminar of the Georg-August-University Göttingen, Main Focus "Diagnosis and Councelling"; Main focus in research: Development of self in childhood and adolescence, health promotion in the school, life and occupational orientation of adolescents. With respect to the latter topic, a cooperation project with the University of Monterrey (Mexico) lasting four years is going on.

Volker Müller-Benedict, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Dr. disc. pol. Volker MÜLLER-BENEDICT, Dipl.-Math., Privatdozent, assistant at the Sociological Seminar of the University of Göttingen; Research topics: Education research, quantitative methodology, formal modeling

Ulrich Wiesmann, Universität Greifswald

Dr. phil. Ulrich WIESMANN, Dipl.-Psych., scientific assistant at the Institute of Medical Psychology of the University of Greifswald; Main foci in research: Salutogenesis, strengthening of self-worth in primary school age, body perception and health, health awareness and health behavior of young adults, multiple sclerosis and work motivation, multiple sclerosis and cognitive adaptation

Published

2000-06-30

How to Cite

Krause, C., Müller-Benedict, V., & Wiesmann, U. (2000). Little Children—Lots of Data. Possibilities to Combine Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods to Analyze Narratives about the Self. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-1.2.1085