The impact of vicarious trauma on Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health researchers

Abstract

The trauma experienced by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their families in Australia affects the health and wellbeing of their communities • Little information is available on Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander women researchers' experiences of vicarious trauma when conducting research in this area. There is also little guidance on how to safeguard the social and emotional wellbeing of the researcher or the research participants • We must consider the potential consequences for researchers impacted by vicarious trauma, and their understanding of the underlying reasons and motivations that drive the health behaviours of the individuals, families and communities in which they are conducting their research

A scoping review of recommendations in the English language on conducting research with trauma-exposed populations since publication of the Belmont report; thematic review of existing recommendations on research with trauma-exposed populations

“…Despite the current lack of gold standards for trauma-informed research, this review identified recommendations in the literature for trauma research or research with trauma-exposed populations. These recommendations include using research for change (e.g., advocacy and de-stigmatization) [27, 31, 39-45, 49, 50, 56, 57, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 78, 84, 86-88, 90, 91, 95, 98, 101, 103, 135, 138, 174], centering agency and growth (e.g., assess and adapt to participants' needs for agency and safety in an ongoing manner, and provide appropriate support and resources) [27, 30, 31, 42-44, 51, 55, 61, 63, 67, 71-81, 90, 91, 93-95, 99-101, 136, 175], preparing and supporting researchers to process the impact of trauma connected to research [31,92,97,[102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113]176], and improving professional standards (e.g., study short and long-term effects of research participation, identify factors influencing research experiences, minimize the inclusion of trauma-affected control participants, and acknowledge meaningful predictors and intervention points) [23, 26, 27, 29-31, 65, 69, 74, 75, 77-81, 85, 93, 96, 115-119, 121-123, 125, 127, 128, 131, 133, 139, 146, 151, 154, 177]. We also identified needs for guidance and continued discussion pertaining to the design and conduct of research (e.g., how to use theory and how to define and investigate research populations), systemic issues (e.g., how to use multi-level frameworks and multi-dimensional understandings of trauma, and how to address systemic injustice), and research translation and applicability (e.g., how to translate findings widely and scale up evidence-based interventions, and how to impact policy.…”

“…Researcher well-being. When studying trauma, researchers may experience participants' trauma vicariously, which could cause distress or burn-out [31,104]. Several authors offered recommendations to minimize distress and promote researcher well-being through self-care and addressing secondary traumatization.…”

“…Several authors offered recommendations to minimize distress and promote researcher well-being through self-care and addressing secondary traumatization. These recommendations included pacing one's workload [103,108], cultivating one's support network [31,97,103,105,107], connecting with other trauma researchers [105,113,148,149], and preventing, recognizing, and responding to emotional distress experienced by researchers as a result of conducting research [31,42,72,92,[102][103][104][105][106][107]111] Some authors considered researcher well-being not just the responsibility of the researcher, but the responsibility of universities and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) as well [105,106,111,112,114]. Recommendations to minimize distress and promote researcher well-being through environmental supports included trauma-informed supervision, de-briefing, and access to counseling [72, 102-108, 111, 112].…”

“…Recommendations to minimize distress and promote researcher well-being through environmental supports included trauma-informed supervision, de-briefing, and access to counseling [72, 102-108, 111, 112]. For more detailed discussions of secondary traumatization, self-care, and considerations for researchers with a trauma background themselves, please see Eadesa et al (2020), [104] Fohring (2020 [105], Jeftic (2020) [113], Markowitz (2019) [106], and Wager (2011) [31]. Researchers interviewing perpetrators may want to read Jeftic (2020) [113] and Markowitz (2019) [106].…”

“…Also train them on how the study may affect them (consider both secondary trauma and researcher trauma history), differential risks of secondary traumatization, de-briefing, self-care and methods to recognize their own distress such as journaling. Keep a reflective journal[92,[102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114].Acknowledge the important role that researchers with a trauma background play in trauma research, what benefits conducting trauma research may have for them, and what supports they may need[31,104].Make sure researchers pace their workloads; break up interviews into multiple sessions if necessary; account for the possibility of participants sharing something that challenges how you see the world (or understand your own trauma if you have a trauma history) and plan time for self-care, procrastination and reflection[31,97,102,103,105,107,111].Researchers need to talk about emotion in the research process and support each other[105,106,113].…”