Issues in Cross-Cultural Comparative Research

Abstract

It is the purpose of this article to describe the methodological issues when designing qualitative cultural comparative studies, which may be used to address health disparities. Overall, two broad types of comparative studies were found: primary and secondary comparative studies. Methodological issues to consider when designing primary studies were reviewed. The main areas discussed in this paper relate to sampling and study purpose, sample boundaries, theoretical context, concept development, analogous comparisons and systematic comparisons. Nurses are in a prime position to pose the qualitative research questions needed to address health disparities within their clinical settings. It is suggested that awareness of the method types and issues might inspire further qualitative comparative work.

Discordance in HIV-Positive Patient and Health Care Provider Perspectives on Death, Dying, and End-of-Life Care

“…According to Harrison and Parker, 15 this method is useful to compare phenomena from participants of different groups when the same research question is examined in the two groups. The process of coding and data analysis are described below in greater detail; however, using this method, we compared patient and provider perspectives on death, dying, end-of-life care decision-making and the process by which discussions about these issues occurred (for patients) or typically occur (for providers).…”

“…For our study, we used a secondary comparative method to compare data from 2 previously published studies in which participants consisted of HIV-positive patients 12 and infectious disease health care providers 13 who described their experiences with short- and long-term treatment planning and collaborative decision making (eg, family involvement in treatment planning). According to Harrison and Parker, 15 this method is useful to compare phenomena from participants of different groups when the same research question is examined in the 2 groups. The process of coding and data analysis is described subsequently in greater detail; however, using this method, we compared patient and provider perspectives on death, dying, EOLC decision making, and the process by which discussions about these issues occurred (for patients) or typically occur (for providers).…”

“I Don’t Want My Children to Work so Hard”: Perceptions of Parent-Child Relationships and Future Parenting Among Immigrant Young Adults

“…The decision to examine both FSU and Ethiopian young adults was based on the assumption that qualitative comparative data is extremely valuable in psychology and health studies because it describes the context as well as the range of human experiences, identifies diverse interactional patterns that point to specific cultural ways of meaning-making, and benefits researcher’s understanding of lived experiences and processes by highlighting how phenomena vary between groups (Demuth & Fatigante, 2012; Harrison & Parker, 2010; Lindsay, 2019; Ritchie et al, 2014).…”