Table 2.

Methodological approaches to constructing composite narratives

Methodological approach	Examples	Data collection method (Participant numbers)	Features of composite narrative(s)
Ethnography	Piper and Sikes [24]	Narrative interviews Written narratives (n = 25+)	‘Composite fictions’ First-person account with characters, settings, context, and plots created to protect identities of participants
Phenomenology	Biglino et al. [37]	Creative writing, drawing, audio recordings of workshop (n = 5)	First-person narrative Three research group members each produced a composite narrative, these were combined to produce a single final narrative
	Wertz et al. [18]	Interviews Nosek (n = 19) Wertz (n = 15) Marlow (n = 17) McNeish (n = 15)	First-person narratives Aim to convey both structure (narratives illustrate the main themes) and texture (richness of participants’ experiences)
Narrative research	McElhinney and Kennedy [8]	Interviews, Biographical written narrative, Autoethnography (n = 9)	First-person narratives Combined narrative data from participants with autoethnography, narrative arcs, phraseology and style of individual narratives incorporated
	Willis [39]	Interviews (n = 14)	Third-person narratives Descriptions of interviews with composite characters. Direct quotations from transcripts incorporated into narratives
	Taber [38]	Interviews (life history research) (n = 3)	First-person narrative Combined text from all interview transcripts to create a composite
Qualitative framework analysis	Creese et al. [11]	Interviews (n = 48)	Third-person narratives Scaffolded by theoretical framework
Grounded theory	Johnston, Wildy & Shand [33]	Interviews (n = 25)	First-person narratives 24 narratives produced, one to illustrate each of the findings