Studying Loss: A Reflexive Account of Interactions with Participants
摘要
Individuals encounter various types of losses throughout their lives, including death, relationship breakdowns, and unemployment. This chapter presents the researcher’s experiences while exploring the impact of such losses on participants. The 5-year mixed-methods study on positive adaptation to loss comprised a quantitative phase (N = 410) followed by a qualitative phase (N = 27). The open-ended interviews provided participants with the opportunity for catharsis while sharing their stories and created an in-depth experience for the researcher–practitioner. Identifying willing participants, ensuring their comfort in sharing personal stories, addressing issues stemming from the sensitivity of the research topic, and documenting participants’ experiences proved to be a challenging part of the fieldwork. To mitigate these challenges, the researcher adopted several strategies, including engaging with public forums for participant recruitment, ensuring confidentiality and ethical safeguards, employing empathetic and supportive interviewing techniques, and maintaining reflexive awareness of their own emotions during the work. Once participants recognized that sharing their stories might benefit others, they proved more willing to discuss their adaptation to losses. This work enhances awareness of fieldwork challenges in sensitive topics and presents practical strategies for managing them, along with the researcher’s insightful reflexive account.