The application of trauma informed practice to social research isn’t new but has become increasingly prevalent in discussions around what makes research ethical, in industry training and in research commissioning. Research funders are increasingly requesting a trauma informed approach when scoping and commissioning research on sensitive topics or with communities perceived to be vulnerable.
In recent years, work has been done among the social research community to adapt and apply the core principles of trauma informed approaches to the social research context. However, there is variation in conceptions of what a trauma informed approach to social research is in practice, and what it should be.
As a world leading, purpose led independent research organisation delivering research to government, Verian design and deliver evidence gathering experiences and insight on the lives of a variety of groups in the population. We want to start an open discussion on what a trauma informed approach means for social research in practice. We would welcome thoughts and perspectives as we develop our thinking on how the approach sits within our wider research ethics framework, and how best to address some of the challenges for implementation.
Trauma informed practice has its origins in health and social care. The development of a trauma informed approach marked a paradigm shift in how care was conceptualised and delivered, from ‘what’s wrong with you?’ to ‘what happened to you?’.1 One of the key organisations in the development of trauma informed practice in health and social care, the American Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) developed a model with six key principles:
These core principles have come to be used across the health and social care sector, including by the NHS, though there are numerous formulations and iterations of trauma informed practice, ranging from the general to more context specific.
As applied to social research, trauma informed research practice recognises that through the research process, researchers are likely to encounter people who have experienced trauma, or to directly address traumatic events. Trauma informed researchers understand that failure to recognise this in our research practice risks re-traumatisation of participants, or vicarious trauma of researchers. A trauma informed approach is one that recognises that trauma manifests in behaviour and embeds this understanding into the research process. This contextualises people’s behaviour more holistically within their experience, as well as informing the design and delivery of research. A trauma informed research project is designed in such a way that ensures the emotional safety of both participant and researcher.
Individuals and organisations including MEL Research and Trauma Informed Research, among others, have developed resources and guidance on applying a trauma informed approach to social research. There is some variation in application and implementation, but generally these draw on the work in the health and social care context and centre on the same core principles. This provides a valuable framework for developing work in a trauma informed way, including: designing studies sensitively, actively avoiding re-traumatisation, respecting participants’ and researchers’ boundaries, providing support resources, cocreation, and acknowledging researcher well-being.3
There are established ethical guidelines in the social research context, which apply to all social research regardless of topic area, intended audience and methodology. We apply this framework through robust panel appraisal of the design and delivery of every project, alongside a clear, well-established and proportionate safeguarding procedure. This framework is based on the key pillars of ethical social research, namely:
As an organisation, we have reflected on the role and scope of a trauma informed approach in context of this wider ethical framework. Trauma informed practice is not a comprehensive research ethics approach in its own right. Rather, it forms a part of avoidance of personal and social harm, which applies equally to participants, researchers and researched groups. The trauma informed approach is based on robust evidence-based practice in the health and social care context. It offers useful vocabulary and structure for considering and mitigating against one of the ways in which harm might be done in social research and indeed goes beyond this to promote a positive research experience. But this is just one facet of avoiding personal and social harm, which is itself just one element of our social research ethics commitment.
As an organisation we have been discussing the implementation of a trauma informed approach. We have explored what this means in practice across the range of methodologies and audiences we engage, including challenges in understanding implementation, how a trauma informed approach sits alongside our wider ethics commitments and processes, and what the gaps are in terms of understanding, training and delivery. Some of these challenges and discussion points are:
As we work through these questions as an organisation; we are committed to designing and delivering ethically sound and robust social research. We believe there is a useful debate to be had around the application of trauma informed practice and would welcome thoughts and ideas.
[1] van der Kolk, Bessel (2014).
[3] See for example https://melresearch.co.uk/trauma-informed-research/