Persuasion Through Focus Groups: Helping Teachers Maintain Healthy Voices

This study was designed to determine whether participation in a single, 1-hour focus group would spur a change in health-related behavior. All the respondents were teachers who had participated in a focus group designed to learn about teachers’ understanding that voice is a working tool. In the discussions, health-related behaviors were discussed as ways to deal with possible vocal strain or injury. Two months later, a follow-up survey was distributed to these participants asking them if they recalled the discussion and if they had sought out more information and/or had changed their vocal behavior due to their participation in the focus group. The qualitative data shows that the majority of these respondents both recalled the messages and had engaged in some type of health-related behavior change due to their participation in the focus group. Behavior change included such modifications as drinking more water and use of voice-amplification equipment in the classroom. Implications of this finding are discussed.