ABSTRACT
This chapter presents both the advantages and disadvantages of secondary qualitative analysis. The potential exists for secondary qualitative analysis to extend the larger context of research results. Secondary analysis can provide a means for continuance of older qualitative findings. Additional benefits of secondary qualitative analysis target the development of qualitative theory. Using raw data in secondary analysis, instead of relying on themes or coding from published qualitative studies, increases the scope, abstraction, and generalizability of theory development. Secondary analysis of qualitative data allows continued research on topics related to a specific population without needing recruitment of any additional participants. Greater distance between the primary study and the secondary analysis can make the secondary analysis more problematic. Secondary qualitative analysis holds tremendous promise to the scholar seeking to do justice to the investments of the original inquiries and to follow the logical threads of an investigative promise”.
