Motives for having or not having children: a comparison between questionnaire and interview methods.
This study addresses validity issues in a questionnaire constructed with the aim of exploring a private and emotionally loaded topic, namely motives for having or not having children. Themes extracted by factor analysis of data from a reference population of men and women in the fertile ages were used to structure conversational interviews with a smaller sample of women and men of the same age. Of 30 persons invited, 24 agreed to participate in the interview and they completed the questionnaire before the interview. Factor scores were estimated from data obtained by means of the written questionnaire with closed questions, and the scores were compared with results from the structured interview with open questions. Thus, the questionnaire and the factor analysis were validated and a conclusion could be drawn that this method was able to provide important informatory facts even in an area where emotional factors are predominant. The findings also supported the idea that it is important to supplement questionnaire results with validity studies. The combination of the two methods in this study was fruitful and highlighted important new areas that need further research.
Wikman
M
M
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden.
Lalos
A
A
D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires