Conceptual Scaffold Analysis Using Mature Lay Concepts when Constructing Qualitative Theory

An important part of a qualitative project is the proposal preparation required for ethics review and funding application, yet proposals are relatively undeveloped at the beginning of a qualitative study. Here we describe a new method, Conceptual Scaffold Analysis, for applying a relevant, mature lay concept (from the literature) as a focus within a research proposal. This method enables analyzing and integrating a concept into your proposed methods, expedites inquiry, provides an organizing framework, and reconstructs understanding. We present a selection of mature concepts pertinent to nursing that may be used for Conceptual Scaffold Analysis. As a complete method, Conceptual Scaffold Analysis may serve as the qualitative (QUAL) component in a mixed method project, enhancing the qual method for the sequential component, thereby enabling advanced theory development. We present an example of Conceptual Scaffold Analysis on a topic critical to nursing and public health: the importance of mothers' trust in vaccinating their infants and children with developmental disabilities. Analysis of trust is used to organize the main QUAL component, contributing to a mixed methods design, as a scaffold for the analysis of the qual supplemental research study to follow. Thus, the concept analytic structure, developed from the scaffold analysis, expedites and enriches the subsequent qualitative component, strengthening an inductive mixed-method qualitative process.