Between skepticism and empowerment: the experiences of peer research assistants in HIV/AIDS, housing and homelessness community‐based research

Greene, Saara; Ahluwalia, Amrita; Watson, James R.; Tucker, Ruthann; Rourke, Sean B.; Koornstra, Jay; Sobota, Michael; Monette, LaVerne; Byers, Steve

doi:10.1080/13645570802553780

Cited by 46 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…While RDS is more often used to recruit for survey studies, the approach has also been successfully used to recruit “hard-to-reach” groups, such as female sexual minorities and drug users, into interview studies (e.g., Martin, Johnson, & Hughes, 2015; Witteveen, Van Ameijden, & Schippers, 2006). Alternative approaches commonly used to recruit other “hard-to-reach” populations include time-location (or time-space) sampling, and venue-based sampling, where recruitment is conducted at times and locations within the community where groups of “hard-to-reach” populations are likely to be found (Karon, 2005) (e.g., Mutagoma et al, 2017; Wittenberg et al, 2015), indigenous field worker sampling, where individuals from the local community are trained to recruit and collect data in place of researchers (Shaghaghi et al, 2011) (e.g., Greene et al, 2009) and community-based outreach (e.g., Halcón & Lifson, 2004). Examples of successful recruitment into interview studies using such approaches are provided by Hunt, Moloney, and Fazio (2011) who used venue-based sampling, amongst other approaches, to recruit participants into an in-depth interview study about their drug use and youth culture, and by Elliott, Watson, and Harries (2002), who used peer interviewers to recruit and interview parents who use illegal drugs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

It’s hard to reach the “hard-to-reach”: the challenges of recruiting people who do not access preventative healthcare services into interview studies

Rockliffe

Chorley

Marlow

et al. 2018

International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well

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In this article, we discuss the challenges faced in recruiting “hard-to-reach” groups for interview studies, specifically those who do not access preventative healthcare services. We do this by reflecting on the varying success of different recruitment methods we have used in two recent studies; one investigating ethnic disparities in human papillomavirus vaccination uptake and another exploring difference in cervical screening non-participation. Engaging new community groups to help with recruitment proved particularly difficult, as did recruiting online. Our most successful recruitment methods included recruiting through community groups with whom we had previously established relationships, recruiting through schools and re-contacting participants who previously completed a related survey. We conclude that successful recruitment is dependent on study awareness and engagement. We urge others to be transparent in reporting recruitment methods in order to benefit the qualitative research community and suggest that details are published as supplementary material alongside qualitative articles in future.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

It’s hard to reach the “hard-to-reach”: the challenges of recruiting people who do not access preventative healthcare services into interview studies

Rockliffe

Chorley

Marlow

et al. 2018

International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well

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“…Delman and Lincoln (2009) warn that researchers and peer-interviewers may have different opinions on research questions and outputs. Greene et al (2009; argue that peer-interviewers may experience distress as participants talk about their personal journeys of addictions, mental illness and recovery. Hearing these stories might prove detrimental to the peer-interviewers' own recoveries.…”

Section: Peer-interviewingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The method has been used in research with sex workers (Benoit et al, 2005), people living with HIV/AIDS (Greene et al, 2009), refugees, homeless young people (Couch et al, 2014), lone mothers, children and people with disabilities (Edwards and Alexander, 2011). Proponents of this approach argue that it provides tangible benefits for peer-interviewers -such as skills development and improved self-esteem.…”

Section: Peer-interviewingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Proponents of this approach argue that it provides tangible benefits for peer-interviewers -such as skills development and improved self-esteem. Researchers benefit through increased awareness and acceptance of disenfranchised groups, improved quality of research, greater facilitation of access to hard-to-reach populations, and increased comfort of participants in the research process (Elliott et al, 2002;Greene et al, 2009;Kilpatrick et al, 2007;Remple et al, 2007;Kelaher et al, 2010).…”

Section: Peer-interviewingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enriching qualitative research by engaging peer interviewers: a case study

Devotta

Woodhall-Melnik

Pedersen

et al. 2016

Qualitative Research

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Engaging peer-interviewers in qualitative inquiry is becoming more popular. Yet, there are differing opinions as to whether this practice improves the research process or is prohibitively challenging. Benefits noted in the literature are improved awareness/acceptance of disenfranchised groups, improved quality of research, and increased comfort of participants in the research process. Challenges include larger investment in time and money to hire, train, and support peerinterviewers, and the potential to disrupt peer recovery. We illustrate, through case study, how to engage peer-interviewers, meet potential challenges, and the benefits of such engagement. We draw upon our experience from a qualitative study designed to understand men's experiences of problem gambling and housing instability. We hired three peers to conduct semi-structured qualitative interviews with 30 men from a community-based organization. We contend, that with appropriate and adequate resources (time, financial investment), peer-interviewing produces a positive, capacity building experience for peer-interviewers, participants and researchers.

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“…In particular, several studies focus on the challenging role of community researchers and the potential for their experiences to be productive and empowering, or not (Edwards & Alexander 2011;Greene et al 2009;Kilpatrick et al 2007;Warr, Mann & Tacticos 2010). These studies focus on the role of community/peer researchers in community-based research studies, documenting both scepticism and, at times, empowerment, despite the challenges on the ground.…”

Section: Community-university Partnerships and Transformative Learninmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenging the empowerment expectation: Learning, alienation and design possibilities in community-university research

Curnow

2017

Gateways

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As community-university partnerships have become mainstream, researchers have argued that these approaches have the potential to be transformative, supporting community learning and creating capacity for community development. While this remains the dominant narrative of community research, some researchers have questioned the impacts of community research on frontline community, or peer, researchers who represent partnerships in their communities. These studies complicate the narrative, suggesting that learning and capacity building are not straightforward processes. While on the whole community-university partnerships tend to be empowering for community researchers, research is needed to understand the experiences of community researchers for whom this is not the case. My research examines a Toronto-based community-university participatory action research partnership, asking what community researchers learnt through their participation. I argue that, while community researchers learnt a great deal from their participation, the overall impact was not empowerment, but alienation. They did have their knowledge of community validated, and they built research skills, developed grievances through their conversations with neighbours and interrogated the links between grievances, all of which were important aspects of their participation. However, through the process they developed, or entrenched, a sense of powerlessness and dependence on the university researchers to take up their cause politically. This contradicts the aspirations of community-university partnership models, especially participatory action research, and raises questions about the inevitability of empowering social action stemming from these research projects. I argue that the disempowerment that the community researchers reported points to the need for community research to be embedded within existing social action organisations and infrastructure to provide clearer pathways to action because, without this, peer researchers may become overwhelmed by the scope of the grievances in their neighbourhoods and withdraw from, rather than embrace, the need for collective social action.

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Between skepticism and empowerment: the experiences of peer research assistants in HIV/AIDS, housing and homelessness community‐based research

Cited by 46 publications

References 10 publications

It’s hard to reach the “hard-to-reach”: the challenges of recruiting people who do not access preventative healthcare services into interview studies

It’s hard to reach the “hard-to-reach”: the challenges of recruiting people who do not access preventative healthcare services into interview studies

Enriching qualitative research by engaging peer interviewers: a case study

Challenging the empowerment expectation: Learning, alienation and design possibilities in community-university research

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