Open AccessIntegration Through Connecting in Explanatory Sequential Mixed Method Studies
Author(s) -
Claire Burke Draucker,
Susan M. Rawl,
Emilee Vode,
Lisa CarterHarris
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
western journal of nursing research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.552
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1552-8456
pISSN - 0193-9459
DOI - 10.1177/0193945920914647
Subject(s) - sample (material) , computer science , exploit , narrative , multimethodology , conceptual model , sampling (signal processing) , data science , management science , psychology , econometrics , mathematics , mathematics education , engineering , linguistics , chemistry , philosophy , computer security , filter (signal processing) , chromatography , database , computer vision
The purposes of this methods article are to (a) discuss how integration can occur through a connecting approach in explanatory sequential mixed methods studies, (b) describe a connecting strategy developed for a study testing a conceptual model to predict lung cancer screening, and (c) describe three analytic products developed by subsequent integration procedures enabled by the connecting strategy. Connecting occurs when numeric data from a quantitative strand of a study are used to select a sample to be interviewed for a subsequent qualitative strand. Because researchers often do not fully exploit numeric data for this purpose, we developed a multi-step systematic sampling strategy that produced an interview sample of eight subgroups of five persons ( n = 40) whose profiles converged with or diverged from the conceptual model in specified ways. The subgroups facilitated the development of tailored interview guides, in-depth narrative summaries, and exemplar case studies to expand the quantitative findings.