Semi-structured Expert Interviews

In order to enhance in-depth study, the research relied on semi-structured interviews as the primary method of data collection. The purpose of the interviews was to ask local practition-ers how case study areas are handling the increase in impoverished elderly populations.

Experts of local departments of aging, local nonprofits, and other organizations that work on this issue were invited to participate in the research.

A semi-structured interview typically refers to a context in which the interviewer has a series of questions that are in the general form of an interview schedule, but is able to vary the sequence of questions. The questions are frequently somewhat more general in their frame of reference from that typically found in a structured interview schedule. Also, the interviewer usually has some latitude to ask further questions in response to what are seen as significant replies (Bryman, 2001).

Expert interview can be seen as a specific form of applying semi-structured interviews:

interest is focused on interviewees’ capacities as experts for a certain field of activity. At the same time, Brinkmann et al. (1995) (from Flick, 2009) defines experts as "persons who are particularly competent as authorities on a certain matter of facts". Expert interviews are normally based on an interview schedule with possible confidentiality restrictions. The concentration on the status of the authority in a specific function restricts the scope of the potentially relevant information that the interviewee is expected to provide much more then in other forms of interviews (Flick, 2009).

Nevertheless, personal-interview procedures promote the highest response rate and-allow the researcher to respond to questions from the respondent, probe for adequate answers, follow complex instructions that might otherwise confuse the respondent, and provide longer interviews than those conducted by telephone. Disadvantages of personal interviews are that they require more staff time and travel, leading to more expense. In addition, certain populations are more difficult to reach due to physical factors; therefore it is necessary to schedule interviews several days or weeks in advance.

Data collected through interviews show the development and implementation of adapta-tion strategies as perceived by local practiadapta-tioners. This study focused on responses to and interpretations of those actions and programs that address aging in poverty. Conducting semi-structured interviews with multiple interviewees at each case study municipality also allowed triangulation of findings across sources to test reliability and validity.

Sampling of respondents

In order to identify appropriate interviewees, snowball sampling was applied. This approach is appropriate when members of a special population are difficult to locate, in this case local practitioners working on issues related to aging in poverty. The research begins by collecting data from the few members of the target population that can be located, then

asks those individuals to provide further references to other relevant practitioners (Babbie, 2010). In the first stage, key interviewees of local governments were identified by using open access of web resources, however, only a limited number of local governments provide full staff directories with contact information. In this stage, the focus was on state and county level representatives within official departments that work with aging populations. During interviews with these representatives other key contacts were identified.

The potential interviewees were contacted via phone, if it was available, or e-mail. An example of e-mail text with an official support letter and research flyer used to contact all participants can be found in the Appendix B, C and D. The majority of contacted persons responded via phone or e-mail, were willing to participate, and suggested a date and time for the interview. However, there were some representatives that were never reached by phone, from whom an e-mail response was not received or who rejected to participate in the research. Among these organizations are:

• Adelante Healthcare;

• Arizona Community Action Association;

• ASU College of Nursing and Health In-novation;

• Community Action Program of City of Glendale;

One contacted person refused to participate in the interview due to limited availability of time. In some instances, people who agreed to participate in the research, brought a colleague to the interview. In total, 52 persons participated in 34 interviews (See table in Appendix E).

Data Collection

As described previously, in order to enable the experts to express their views openly and ensure that all areas of interest were covered, semi-structured interviews were conducted using a guide (Appendix G). The questions were sequenced as the discussion progressed to give the interviewees the opportunity to structure the conversation in their own way. The guide created for the interviews allowed the researcher to react to the expert’s statements during the interview, and contained mostly open questions in order to leave the interviewees

room to develop their own interpretations of the questions. The guide was developed taking ethical aspects of social research into consideration. Table 4.1 shows an overview of the topics in the interview guide. After introductions and an explanation of the research interests, the interviewees were asked to agree to audio-recoding of the interview, and assured of confidentiality. All interviewees agreed to recording the conversation, which was a great advantage for the research as it was conducted by a non-native English speaker.

Next, introductory open questions were asked, such as: "Could you describe your role in your organization?" or "What are the main challenges that the aging of the population creates for your local area?" or "What is the situation with poverty among older adults?"

depending on the organization that the interviewee represented. These questions were designed as an opening that would allow the interviewee to set his or her own focal points, which are considered relevant for the whole topic of conversation.

The next questions began very broadly and then narrowed to more specific questions about existing strategies, programs and services focusing on five topics: food security, medical support, affordable housing, transportation, and employment programs. A significant part of the interviews was devoted to discussing the organization’s future vision and adaptive actions. If the organization deals only with a specific topic, then the questions focused on particular programs, their results, existing partnerships, and future visions. The final question was very open, again giving respondents the opportunity to express their personal views on the issue and add aspects which had not been mentioned before: "What is your personal attitude/perception of the problem of poverty among elderly in the US?" and "Is there anything else you would like to mention?"

Two field trips to Phoenix MSA were made, during which 34 interviews were conducted.

One of these was conducted via email as this was the participant’s preference, and one interview was conducted via phone due to lack of transportation. The final interview was also conducted via phone because the interviewee was unavailable during a field trip.

This phone interview was conducted much later than others, because it was important to

Table 4.1 Topic overview of the interview guide. Source: own compilation Part of the interview guide Topics of Discussion

Introduction Purpose of the research, confidentiality, duration, opportunity for questions

Introductory Questions Recognition of the financial insecurity of elderly, the main challenges of the aging of population for your local area Existing programs and services Focus on five topics: food security, medical support, affordable

housing, transportation and employment programs

Support strategies Existing strategies for support of elderly and future visions of issue of financial insecurity among aging population

Closing Questions Personal attitude/perception of the problem and any additional information

collect information from this particular interviewee regardless of the time frame. Overall, the interviewees represented a range of organizations, including:

• Local governments: 8

• Non-profits with multiple programs and services for elderly, including volunteer-based organizations: 14

• Non-profits with specific services (housing, transportation, food supplies, medical assistance, employment): 8

• Research and consulting organizations: 3

• Charitable trust/foundations: 1

The majority of interviews were held in interviewees’ offices or conference rooms, which provided good conditions for recording. Most interviews lasted about one hour, however some of them did not exceed even 30 minutes. Usually, the interviews were one-on-one conversations, but in some instances there were two or even five interviewees. In such group interviews, it is usually apparent which statements are objective information about the organization and its work, and which are the view of an individual. When there was no hierarchy within the group, statements made by one interviewee that other interviewees did not object to or clarify were interpreted as general agreement.

During the interview process, interviewees were generally very open to sharing their experiences and thoughts. The fact that this research is being conducted by an independent foreigner tended to create an especially open atmosphere, as curiosity about the situation of the aging poor seemed natural to the interviewees and they were willing to explain the issues they are dealing with. There were hints that interviewees felt relaxed, secure, and could speak freely, and also critically. In some cases, interviewees were very interested in the German origin of the research, the Russian origin of the research, and/or the other case study municipalities; they seemed to demand information in return for the information they gave.

Conducting the interviews on site also allowed firsthand observations. For example, it was possible to visit several senior centers and see how the elderly are served, which services and program they can use daily, how local supportive transportation is organized, etc.

Additionally, during the fieldwork, open meetings of the GACA were attended. Observations during these meetings helped to form a broader picture of local initiatives, but were not considered formal data collection for analysis.

Data Analysis

Interview data analysis is the process of moving from raw interview feedback to evidence-based interpretations, which are the foundation of further research results. Analysis entails

classifying, comparing, weighing, and combining the original material to extract the meaning and implications, reveal patterns, or stitch together descriptions of events and processes into a coherent text. From this analysis, researchers construct informed and vivid results that reflect what the interviewees have said and that answer the research question (Herbert and Irene, 2005). For simplicity, interview data analysis can be divided into three basic steps:

transcription, coding, and content analysis.

In general, transcription involves close observation of data through repeated careful listening of the recording (Bailey, 2008). This familiarity with the data and attention to the actual words that interviewees used, rather than what may have been expected, can facilitate realizations or ideas that emerge during analysis.

There are different approaches for transcription depending on the purpose of the research.

In this study, the goal of interviews was to collect relevant data in order to answer the main research question; therefore, the transcription process focused on extracting meaning.

Typically, the first stage of the analysis after transcription is to clean-up the text. In this case, each transcript file was revised to a more elemental version, where any material that did not relate directly to the topic at hand or that was repetitious or peripheral was removed.

In some cases in order to make the transcription process more efficient, the two stages of analysis can be combined, so that interviews are transcribed directly into meaning units . Given the fact that one researcher conducted interviews, transcribed them, and completed the analysis, this was considered an appropriate measure for saving time without risking data loss.

A meaning unit is a "discrete phrase, sentence or series of sentences which conveys one idea or one related set of perceptions" (Mostyn, 1985). Each meaning unit should stand on its own, but it is likely to be related, more or less, to the unit that precedes it and the one that follows it. In this stage of work all interviews, except one that was conducted via email, were transcribed and meaning units were distinguished simultaneously. The transcription software F4 was used to make this process faster and more convenient for the next phases of the research.

When all of the transcripts were ready, the next step of the analysis was coding the meaning units. This process involves identifying segments of data as relating to, or being examples of a more general idea, theme, or category. Segments of data from across the whole database are reorganized through coding in order to be retrieved together at a later stage. This process manages and orders the qualitative data, enabling easier searching of data for similarities, differences, patterns, and relations (Lewins and Silver, 2007).

There are a variety of approaches to coding: open and selective coding, descriptive and analytical, objective and heuristic, etc. More generally, all approaches can be categorized as either inductive or deductive, or as data-driven or concept-driven. An inductive approach to coding focuses on preventing existing theoretical concepts from over-defining the analysis and obscuring the possibility of identifying and developing new concepts and theories,

Figure. 4.4 Step model of deductive category application. Source: own compilation based on Mayring (2000)

whereas a deductive approach is the opposite, focusing more explicitly on themes and categories to be considered at the outset of the coding process.

Lewins and Silver (2007) state that a deductive approach may be used where the intention is to test an existing theory on newly collected data, or to investigate its transferability to a different social context, which is the purpose of this research (Figure 4.4). In this case, the coding process used codes that had been developed in advance by the researcher consulting existing literature in the field. Categories that were used for the analysis in this particular research were derived from the concepts explained in the theoretical chapters 2 and 3 (Table 4.2).

However, since the answers provided by interviewees contained a wide range of informa-tion, data-driven coding was applied to develop subcategories. In general, a data-driven or inductive approach implies that the researcher begins without codes, and develops them by reading the material. For this study, categories were identified before reading the transcripts;

then, in order to make further analysis easier, subcategories were developed in some cases during with the reading process (Table 4.2). MAXQDA software was used for analysis during this stage of work, making the process more efficient by automatically combining coded meaning units by categories and subcategories that were developed.

The final step in the analysis process is to identify key concepts that reflect the meaning that this research attaches to the collected data. At this stage of work, content analysis was applied by comparing codes for all interviews by category using MAXQDA. This comparison was used to determine which subcategories and topics appeared repeatedly and which were case-specific. This procedure helps to identify patterns, rules of expression, and the

Table 4.2 Coding categories and subcategories derived from research questions. Source:

relevance of text passages to the analysis, which can be presented as illustrative statements of the interviewees.