View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Southern Denmark Research Output Syddansk Universitet Ethical considerations when conducting joint interviews with close relatives or family an integrative review Voltelen, Barbara; Konradsen, Hanne; Østergaard , Birte Published in: Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences DOI: 10.1111/scs.12535 Publication date: 2018 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Document license CC BY-NC-ND Citation for pulished version (APA): Voltelen, B., Konradsen, H., & Østergaard, B. (2018). Ethical considerations when conducting joint interviews with close relatives or family: an integrative review. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 32(2), 515-526. 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Sep. 2018 REVIEW ARTICLE doi: 10.1111/scs.12535 Ethical considerations when conducting joint interviews with close relatives or family: an integrative review Barbara Voltelen PhD (Senior Lecturer)1,2 , Hanne Konradsen PhD (Associate Professor)3 and Birte Østergaard PhD (Associate Professor)1 1Department of Clinical Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, 2Department of Nursing Education and Health Sciences Research Center, University College Lillebaelt, Vejle, Denmark and 3Karolinska Institutet, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Huddinge, Sweden Scand J Caring Sci; 2018; 32; 515–526 considerations were extracted and organized in three subgroups regarding: Planning joint interviews; Conduc- Ethical considerations when conducting joint tion joint interviews and Reporting on joint interviews interviews with close relatives or family: an Findings: Participants should be offered the best terms for integrative review a constructive, on-going relationship after the joint inter- view has ended. This obligates the researcher to ensure a Background: Researchers are obligated to do no harm to safe environment during the joint interview and create a participants of research. Conflicts in relationships can delicate balance between the needs of the participants, cause negative well-being; therefore, insight is needed using nonconfrontational techniques that foster equal into the particular ethical considerations that arise when and neutral but dedicated attention to all parties, before, conducting joint interviews with close relatives or family during and after the joint interviews. members simultaneously in the healthcare setting. Conclusion: Specific ethical considerations should be taken Aim: To collect and share knowledge related to ethical into account before, during and after joint interviewing. considerations conducting joint interviews. Further research is needed before a final conclusion can Design and methods: A literature review inspired by the be drawn. integrative review method was performed. Data were retrieved through a structured search in PubMed, Keywords: ethics, families, relationships, joint inter- CINAHL and the Philosopher’s Index and Academic views, qualitative research, methodology, integrative Search Premier for articles published in English from review. 1980 to 2016 and included 18 articles, of a possible 2153. Article content was assessed line-by-line, and ethical Submitted 6 September 2017, Accepted 11 September 2017 lived lives and intimate spaces. This makes interviewing Introduction an ethically delicate process (4). According to the Hel- For several decades, family researchers have conducted sinki declaration, health researchers are obligated to pro- interviews with relatives, either with each individual or tect the privacy and dignity of participants and to refrain with more family members simultaneously (1). In this from conducting research involving undue physical and/ present review, family is defined as: ‘A group of individu- or psychological risk (5). als who are bound by strong emotional ties, a sense of belonging, and a passion for being involved in one Background another’s lives’ (2). Hence the term ‘family’ and ‘close relatives’ will be used interchangeably in this study. In this study, a joint interview (JI) is defined as an inter- Interviews aim to illuminate the experiences and percep- view with two or more family members, conducted by tions of the participant(s), mainly through relations and one researcher (6). JIs can be useful to shed light on the communication (3). Participants provide insight into their essential elements of a family relationship, because it provides a unique possibility for participants to describe family relations, dynamics and interactions from their Correspondence to: Barbara Voltelen, Department of Nursing Education and Health perspectives (7). Sciences Research Center, University College Lillebaelt, Vestre Several synonyms are used for JI, including pair inter- Engvej 51C, 7100 Vejle, Denmark. view, dyadic interview, small-group interview, family E-mail: [email protected] interview and relationship-based interview (8). Although © 2017 Nordic College of Caring Science 515 516 B. Voltelen et al. there is no definitive definition of a JI we decided to baby (19). Partners involved in domestic violence cases, define it as described to scope the literature search. The where the two are in conflict with each other would pre- term ‘joint interviewing’ can also refer to a situation sent another example where JI could cause further dis- where two researchers interview one participant; a situa- tress to participants (20). Other issues include discussions tion in which it might be challenging to distinguish about topics considered inappropriate to talk about in between different researchers’ approaches (9). These front of one’s partner, such as sexually related issues (3) kinds of interviews are not included in this review. and severe illnesses, because of issues about caregiver JI produce data that are qualitatively different from burden, where the caregiver wants to protect the patient those produced in individual interviews and focus group and vice versa (21). interviews (8, 10). A JI differs from a focus group inter- In considering whether JIs could provide the specific view, and other types of interview, in the requirement data needed, it could be an advantage to increase knowl- that, in a JI, there must be either a pre-existing rela- edge about the specific ethical considerations for inter- tionship and/or a shared experience between partici- viewing family or close relatives together in JIs. pants (11). Focus groups are mostly conducted with Knowledge about the methodological aspects of JI is groups where the participants do not have a close rela- important but sparsely explained in the literature. tionship with each other (11, 12) which could be the reason why considerations about the participants’ on- Aim going relationships are not often described (13). A JI presents a unique opportunity to reveal and support Our aim was to collect and share knowledge related dynamic communication between participants (8, 10). to the ethical considerations conducting JIs. We out- Although similar to focus group and individual inter- lined the research question: What are the ethical con- views, more ethical considerations should be made in a siderations entailed in simultaneously interviewing JI, because of the complexity of the relationships family? involved (6, 14, 15). Studies have found that relationships comprised by Method negative interaction processes represent the strongest predictor for negative adult health status and have an We performed this study with inspiration from the inte- even greater impact than the positive effect of loving and grative review which is considered to be the broadest caring relationships, suggesting that relational conflicts type of research review (22, 23). In an integrative are more harmful than anything else (16). Relationships review, data material other than research studies can be have special features that need attention and depend on included, such as theoretical articles and articles explain- respect and willingness among people involved (17). ing researchers’ reflections as ‘notes’, for example. In Consequently, researchers conducting JIs with family or addition, integrative reviews summarize past empirical or close relatives simultaneously should be knowledgeable theoretical literature to provide a more comprehensive about how to maintain a balanced ‘give and take’ rela- understanding of a particular phenomenon. A wide range tionship between participants in order not to do harm of purposes can be covered, including the analysis of but to preserve, or at least not to jeopardize, any existing methodological issues surrounding a particular topic (23). relationship. Although the purpose of JI is not family