How Many Interviews Are Enough to Identify Metathemes in Multisited and Cross-cultural Research? Another Perspective on Guest, Bunce, and Johnson’s (2006) Landmark Study
Abstract
There is much debate over the number of interviews needed to reach data saturation for themes and metathemes in qualitative research. The primary purpose of this study is to determine the number of interviews needed to reach data saturation for metathemes in multisited and cross-cultural research. The analysis is based on a cross-cultural study on water issues conducted with 132 respondents in four different sites. Analysis of the data yielded 240 site-specific themes and nine cross-cultural metathemes. We found that 16 or fewer interviews were enough to identify common themes from sites with relatively homogeneous groups. Yet our research reveals that larger sample sizes—ranging from 20 to 40 interviews—were needed to reach data saturation for metathemes that cut across all sites. Our findings may be helpful in estimating sample sizes for each site in multisited or cross-cultural studies in which metathematic comparisons are part of the research design.
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The 12 IDIs with girls and the 25 KIIs yielded rich information, consistent with studies reporting on expected information saturation.
“However, the 12 IDIs with girls and the 25 KIIs yielded rich information, which is consistent with studies reporting on expected information saturation [42, 43].”
From Menstrual hygiene management in rural schools of Zambia: a descriptive study of knowledge, experiences and challenges faced by schoolgirls (2019) · cites this paper as [43]
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- Authors
- Hagaman, A. K., & Wutich, A.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hagaman, Ashley K.
- Venue
- Field Methods
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-07-24
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 23-41
- ISSN
- 1064-8631 (ISSN-L)
- 1525-822X
- 1552-3969
- OpenAlex
- W2344526152
- Cited by
- 578
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 67 · 2025: 99 · 2024: 103 · 2023: 91 · 2022: 76 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 71.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Field Methods (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- World Bank Group
- Arizona State University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
- Keywords
- data saturation, sample size, cross-cultural research, qualitative data analysis, water problems, theme identification
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