Laughter and forgetting: using focus groups to discuss smoking and motherhood in low‐income areas in the UK

Abstract

This article considers previously ignored aspects of verbal communication, humor and laughter, as critical components of social interaction within group discussions. Drawing on data from focus groups, Robinson uses a feminist perspective to explore how mothers living in areas of poverty in Liverpool, UK, use humor and laughter to discuss their experiences of smoking and caring for children. While laughter enabled some women to talk about sensitive and private issues, humor was also used by some women as a form of control, that is, to depress pretension in other women, to direct the flow of the discussion and to prevent the raising of ‘uncomfortable’ issues around their failure to prevent their children’s exposure to the health risks associated with breathing tobacco smoke. Robinson concludes with a discussion of how humor and laughter affected the dynamics of the groups and transformed the ‘neutral’ role of the moderator.

Keywords:

• poverty
• feminist research methods
• focus groups
• smoking
• motherhood
• laughter and humor

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the role of Andrew Kirkcaldy who acted as an observer in the empirical study, and also Tina Williams and Gina Perigo from Smoke Free Merseyside for their sustained support. I’d like to thank all the community workers for their help in recruiting people to take part in the study, and to the women themselves who came forward to talk and laugh in the group discussions.