Developing Focus Group Research

Interests Current research spans both of the School's programmes and includes work with colleagues in Dundee and Bristol on developing an intervention for weight loss part partum and understanding the reasons for suboptimal uptake of folic acid. A personal programme of work is concerned with the sociology of recovery and involves research into young adult cancer patients' concerns about future fertility (with colleagues from Aberdeen), reintegration after stroke, and the long-term outcomes for women who have experienced post partum psychosis (with colleagues at St.Andrews). Her research career has covered a wide variety of topics located at the intersection of the clinical and the social - e.g. HIV/AIDS; reproductive health and fertility; psychosocial health; and obesity. Rose's theoretical interests centre around the links between identity and agency, and implications for health promotion and clinical practice. Rose has a particular interest in rigour in qualitative research and has published widely on this topic in a range of academic journals. Reflecting her conviction that qualitative research is a craft skill, Rose has developed an innovative series of 'hands-on' qualitative methods workshops. She has been invited to present these workshops throughout the UK, in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, France, the US and Canada. She co-edited Developing Focus Group Research: Politics, Theory and Practice (Sage, 1999). Her most recent books - Introducing Qualitative Research: A Student Guide to the Craft of Doing Qualitative Research (Sage, 2014) and Doing Focus Groups (Sage, 2008) - bring together and share the expertise she has developed through running workshops for a variety of audiences over the past 15 years.