ABSTRACT

The first phase of the study involved 25 focus groups, conducted over a six-month period, during which the survey instrument was being designed. The groups were held in six locations across the United Kingdom (UK), selected to include a variety of national, rural, urban, provincial and metropolitan settings. The make-up of the groups was designed to encompass a variety of ages (with groups initially planned with people under thirty, people from 30-60 and the over-60s) social and occupational classes (initially broadly defined as workingand middle-class, but including the unemployed and benefit claimants), sexual identities (including groups with lesbians and gay men) and ethnicities (including groups with Afro-Caribbean, Indian and Pakistani men and women). To ensure a full representation of women, additional groups were held with working-class and professional women. A group was also organised amongst workers and professionals within the arts and cultural industries. The initial aim was to recruit groups of between six and eight members for a one and a half hour discussion. In practice, the number of recruits in each group ranged from two to eight. In total, the focus-group phase recruited 143 participants, 74 women and 69 men.