Ethical dilemmas of a clinician/ researcher interviewing women who have grown up in a family where there was domestic violence

Abstract

The ideas in this paper developed as a result of the discussions that we, the authors, had about the ethical dilemmas that arise when interviewing participants on sensitive topics, during the research supervision process of a grounded theory study (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The participants were eight adult women who grew up in a family in which they witnessed domestic violence. They were interviewed around their understanding of how these experiences have impacted their adult relationships, particularly their significant relationships with partners and their children, if any. This paper also focuses on research “ethics in practice” (Guillemin & Gillam, 2004, p. 262) – on how ethical decisions have to be made at different steps in the research process (Hallowell, Lawton, & Gregory, 2005), illustrating how ethics in research goes beyond gaining approval of the institutional research ethics committee boards.

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