Working With Community Research Partners to Undertake Sensitive Public Health Interviews: A Qualitative Protocol to Enhance Rigour and Safety

Abstract

Qualitative research interviews are invaluable in understanding participants’ experiences within public health systems and driving systemic change. These interviews can be sensitive in nature, particularly when exploring how certain groups are failed by systems. Considering this, it is crucial to conduct interviews in a way that prioritises the psychological safety of both participants and interviewers. While there is extensive literature theoretical approaches and methods to minimise risk, practical guidance to enhance safety for both research interviewers and participants throughout the data collection process remains limited. This article outlines a protocol for undertaking research interviews within the specific context of children and young people who have experienced housing insecurity and homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand. The protocol draws on both the wider literature and the experiences of our multidisciplinary research team, with a focus on supporting less experienced qualitative researchers to conduct psychologically safe interviews. Key features of the protocol include: ensuring appropriate cultural responsiveness, providing researchers with opportunities to practice sensitive and/or challenging interviews, carefully considering interview location, forecasting content to participants, and sharing appropriate support resources once the interview has finished. In particular, we describe closure practices that support researchers to ‘leave’ an interview. We reflect on the processes we put in place with the aim of minimising risk to both interviewers and participants when discussing sensitive topics, while maintaining research rigour. By making this protocol available to fellow researchers and community partners we hope to encourage further discussion of best practice for engaging in sensitive interviews in community-based research.