What does it mean to adopt a trauma-informed approach to research?: reflections on a participatory project with young people seeking asylum in the UK
What does it mean to adopt a trauma-informed approach to research?: reflections on a participatory project with young people seeking asylum in the UK
Trauma-informed (T-I) approaches to working with vulnerable people have gained popularity in practice but are rarely used in academic research and little is known about the challenges of conducting a T-I approach to participatory research. This paper reflects on our experiences of a participatory peer research project involving unaccompanied young people seeking asylum (16–25 years) during the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst the project adhered to a robust ethical framework, it became apparent at an early stage in the empirical phase that our methods needed to acknowledge and accommodate the trauma of those involved in the project much more thoughtfully and effectively than our ethical framework suggested. With this in mind, we set about identifying the key elements of a T-I approach to research and how these might add value to research with vulnerable and marginalised populations. Our model of a T-I approach to peer research is framed around five core principles: working reflectively with those with lived experience; contextualising trauma; nurturing trust; showing care; and empowering those involved in and affected by the research.
asylum, peer research, trauma-informed, young asylum seekers
Shankley, William
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Stalford, Helen
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Chase, Elaine
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Iusmen, Ingi
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Kreppner, Jana
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13 July 2023
Shankley, William
fba90881-abc8-4205-a78d-5164c900baf8
Stalford, Helen
f0611be2-99bd-475a-9639-b17fd3c68669
Chase, Elaine
dcafb860-297b-4062-8cfe-d44902dfbee3
Iusmen, Ingi
696395c1-d60e-4fbd-aa2b-98aeecaa64b2
Kreppner, Jana
6a5f447e-1cfe-4654-95b4-e6f89b0275d6
Shankley, William, Stalford, Helen, Chase, Elaine, Iusmen, Ingi and Kreppner, Jana
(2023)
What does it mean to adopt a trauma-informed approach to research?: reflections on a participatory project with young people seeking asylum in the UK.
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22.
(doi:10.1177/16094069231183605).
Abstract
Trauma-informed (T-I) approaches to working with vulnerable people have gained popularity in practice but are rarely used in academic research and little is known about the challenges of conducting a T-I approach to participatory research. This paper reflects on our experiences of a participatory peer research project involving unaccompanied young people seeking asylum (16–25 years) during the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst the project adhered to a robust ethical framework, it became apparent at an early stage in the empirical phase that our methods needed to acknowledge and accommodate the trauma of those involved in the project much more thoughtfully and effectively than our ethical framework suggested. With this in mind, we set about identifying the key elements of a T-I approach to research and how these might add value to research with vulnerable and marginalised populations. Our model of a T-I approach to peer research is framed around five core principles: working reflectively with those with lived experience; contextualising trauma; nurturing trust; showing care; and empowering those involved in and affected by the research.
Text
Trauma-Informed Approach to Research
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 31 May 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 13 July 2023
Published date: 13 July 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We want to acknowledge the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for funding the Lives on Hold Our Stories Told (LOHST) project. [Grant: EP/V047086/1].
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
Keywords:
asylum, peer research, trauma-informed, young asylum seekers
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 477592
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/477592
ISSN: 1609-4069
PURE UUID: 97c4bc55-39e1-45a0-9730-56a58976062d
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Date deposited: 09 Jun 2023 16:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:34
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Contributors
Author:
William Shankley
Author:
Helen Stalford
Author:
Elaine Chase
Author:
Jana Kreppner
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