Table 2. Selected focus group (n = 29) responses from participating children pre- and two weeks post-musical, by key emerging theme and mapped to the theoretical domains framework.

	Pre-musical	Post-musical
Gain in knowledge and understanding of antibiotics and AMR
Antibiotics	‘I know antibiotics is a medicine for viruses that you have.’	‘Don’t use antibiotics when you have a cold.’
	(Domain I: Knowledge)	(Domain I: Knowledge)
	‘I’m thinking that, so my mum…….I think she takes these anti, antibiotics really to calm herself down.’
	(Domain I: Knowledge)
	Child 1: ‘…if you take more antibiotics than you need …’
	Child 2: ‘Might get addicted.’
	(Domain I: Knowledge)
AMR	‘Is it [AMR] like, where bacteria gets too strong or something, and the antibiotics can't help it?’	‘Because bacteria evolved to not, so that, they can’t, the antibiotics can’t stop them.’
	(Domain I: Knowledge)
	‘Then won’t be able to take them [antibiotics] anymore because then you’ll be resistant to them.’	(Domain I: Knowledge)
		‘My takeaway is that we shouldn’t be using the antibiotics when we don’t need it, that’s why these bacteria, they're getting resistant to it.’
	(Domain I: Knowledge)
		(Domain I: Knowledge)
AMR and the future	‘… if we just don't take care or we just leave antibiotics, more people might just start dying.’	‘I’ve never taken antibiotics so it’s not going to affect me.’
	(Domain VI: Beliefs about Consequences)	(Domain VI: Beliefs about Consequences)
	Child 1: ‘They’ll be something newer and better.’	Child 1: ‘Everybody will die, the world, sorry–'
	Child 2: ‘Yeah they might try to think of a new way to try and create a new medicine using the ones that you already have or just make a new one.’
		Child 2: ‘Loads of people will probably die of infection or other stuff.’
	(Domain VI: Beliefs about Consequences)
		(Domain VI: Beliefs about Consequences)
		‘Yeah they might try to think of a new way to try and create a new medicine using the ones that you already have or just make a new one.’
		(Domain VI: Beliefs about Consequences)
		‘In the future they’ll invent, probably they’ll invent something that can cure anything.’
		(Domain III: Social and Professional Role and Identity)
Motivation to change behaviour in relation to antibiotic use
Reduction in antibiotic use and antimicrobial stewardship	‘Maybe we could try and like not take so many antibiotics and our body be able to fight the diseases, because then we wouldn’t need antibiotics.’	‘…if like your mum says you might need to get some antibiotics you might think like maybe I actually probably don’t need that, like you could say to your mum I probably won’t need antibiotics for this.’
	(Domain III: Social and Professional Role and Identity)
	‘I probably wouldn’t have antibiotics anyway because every time I have a swallow pill I always chew it up and it’s really disgusting.’	(Domain III: Social and Professional Role and Identity)
		‘Yeah, to use them [antibiotics] much more carefully, like when you grow up you don’t just pick it because your head’s hurting.’
	(Domain VI: Beliefs about Consequences)
		(Domain VIII: Intentions)
		Interviewer: Do you think there’s anything that you can do or that we can do to prevent antibiotic resistance?
		Child: To not overuse it.
		Child: Be more careful with it and just listen to your doctor’s advice.
		(Domain III: Social and Professional Role and Identity)
		‘You shouldn’t overuse them. If we have to use them then we have to use the full dose.
		(Domain III: Social and Professional Role and Identity)
Motivation to spread the message of prudent antibiotic use
Discussion of AMR with direct community	‘My brothers don’t really know about anything about antibiotics and neither do I.’	‘And so my family really never, we never used to talk about it, never used to think about it, and so I think when people will see this play or hear about it or the message which is coming through, I think it’s important that the people who are watching the play, that they get the message as well, so that it can spread. And I think if that happens maybe it might make a difference.’
	(Domain XII: Social Influences)
	‘I didn’t really know much about it and I knew what it was but I didn’t really know much about it and I’ve not really mentioned, asked my parents about it so I don’t know if they know or not.’
	(Domain XII: Social Influences)
		(Domain VI: Beliefs about Consequences)
Spreading the message wider		‘Because spreading the message, it feels like you’re a good person, like you want to make the world think, yeah.’
		(Domain IX: Goals)
		Interviewer: ‘And what do you think is your role personally to make a difference to antibiotic resistance?’
		Child: ‘To warn people who are, who you might think are using [antibiotics] the wrong way.’
		(Domain VIII: Intentions)
Evaluation of musical as an educational technique
Opinions on experience	‘I think [we’ll] learn quite a bit too because if in the musical you’re telling facts in that kind of way then it might be quite, it would be a bit more interesting than just reading them online or something.’	‘Because it’s a bit boring if an adult just comes and stands in front of the class and goes blah, blah, blah, that’s that. Whereas you, when you do a musical and you dress up and you learn the songs, it puts yourself in the place of whoever you are and so you understand more.’
		‘And because we were so excited at being able to perform in a special space, we tell our families and stuff that we get to perform in the RI theatre [the Science Museum] and then when you tell them that they’ll, you also will tell them the meaning and then they’ll tell other people and spread faster.’
		Interviewer: ‘And how did performing the musical make you feel?’
		Child 1: ‘Really happy.’
		Child 2: ‘And proud.’
		Child 3: ‘Very happy and excited and yeah, proud of ourselves–'
		Child 4: ‘I felt like I have achieved so much at the end–'